Why are the Bruins Struggling?
The Boston Bruins have just met a crude awakening.
Following a rough offseason and a 8-9-3 start to the year, the Bruins jumped out to a record so poor, that they fired head coach Jim Montgomery (he/him).
Joe Sacco (he/him), the assistant head coach for the Bruins for the past 11 years, has taken over in Montgomery’s place.
While Montgomery would be blamed for many issues with the team, many in the fanbase looked to blame the front office for setting Montgomery up for failure.
While General Manager Don Sweeney (he/him) and VP of hockey operations Cam Neely (he/him) have had positive moments during their respective tenures, the moves of the offseason are largely their fault.
Trading Linus Ullmark (he/him) was nearly inevitable, given the glut of talent in net for the Bruins. However, the holdout with Jeremy Swayman (he/him) was almost entirely preventable. Though Swayman’s agent, Lewis Gross, didn’t make negotiations easy. Though the signing of Swaymanwas the right move, letting negotiations fall into October robbed Swayman of crucial conditioning for the season.
Instead of going out and getting legitimate talen, Sweeney and Neely decided to make smaller signings, including Riley Tufte (he/him) and Max Jones (he/him), neither of whom are in Boston anymore, and slam the team up against the salary cap.
However, the two major signings Boston made has made most fans frustrated. While the ideas of Elias Lindholm (he/him) and Nikita Zadorov (he/him) fill major holes, neither of them are playing up to snuff this season. Lindholm has been invisible for large swaths of the season, and Zadorov is visible almost exclusively for his blown coverages and frequent penalties (leads the NHL in penalties).
The continual method of pushing square pegs in round holes has outraged the fanbase, who are eager to see what their young prospects can do. With one of the worst offenses in the league, the services of top prospect Fabian Lysell (he/him) seem right for the job, but he has yet to get the call to the NHL.
The Bruins are currently 12-11-3, maintaining third place in the Atlantic division.
