Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery has had enough of his team’s inconsistent efforts and lackadaisical play that has become too frequent over the last two games.
The Bruins’ second-year bench boss ripped into his team on the ice at practice Monday before the Bruins took off for the second leg of their six-game road trip that resumes in Sunrise, Florida, on Tuesday night against the Florida Panthers. Clearly, the 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday left a bad taste in the mouth of the 2023 Jack Adams Award winner because from the second Jim Montgomery stepped on the ice at Warrior Arena on Monday morning until the team’s end-of-practice stretch at center ice, and the head coach was reaming into his players.
“Wake the fu!ck up!” Montgomery exclaimed as he took his usual spot along the boards and then immediately bag-skated the team for a good ten minutes, constantly barking expletives and directions.
After some drills, the team broke into two groups and had a spirited scrimmage, with Montgomery still being extremely vocal until he left the ice.
“Well, sometimes I just like to stretch my vocal cords and grab you guys’ (the media) attention and see if it can reach you guys up there, so I guess I did,” Montgomery quipped when asked what had gotten into him. “No, but in all seriousness, I hated the way we finished the game in Philly. It was a good hockey game; it was playoff intensity and had a good physicality to it. I don’t think I’ve done a good enough job of teaching the details and game management that we need, and then we weren’t prepared to practice today.
So that’s why. those things coupled together, not ready to start practice on time, guys not knowing what we’re supposed to be doing. Again, I take responsibility for it, but there has to be some responsibility from the players, too.”
Jim Montgomery didn’t hold back when asked to elaborate on his current assessment of the 2023-24 Boston Bruins as they get set to play the final ten games of the season and prepare for the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“I don’t think our team’s ready yet for the playoffs,” Montgomery said bluntly. “We gotta continue to get tested, and we’re going to get tested. It’s been inconsistent throughout the year. We have good stretches where we manage the game, and then we get away from it. You can’t get away from it. You just can’t give a game away in the playoffs because you don’t get to play the following week if you do that.”
Montgomery finished off the well-deserved and long-overdue rant by calling out his team’s lack of accountability.
“What needs to change,” Montgomery said, “is more accountability in our team, valuing playing the right way always.”
Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand seemed to have an inkling that a rough practice and tongue-lashing were coming from his head coach and agreed with everything Montgomery said.
“Every day, it’s our job to be sharp, to be on the ball, and we weren’t today,” Marchand acknowledged. “It was a great reminder from Monty that expectations are high here, completely warranted, and especially with the games we have coming up and where we’re at in the season. We need to be dialed in every day. We weren’t to start the practice, so great job by him to notice that, keep us accountable, and keep us dialed in.”
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