Jim Montgomery Expects Bruins Stars To Be Hit Less With Milan Lucic Return

When the Bruins inked former Boston fan-favorite Milan Lucic to a one-year deal in July, he made it clear that he wasn’t returning for a farewell tour.

The 35-year-old forward believes he has plenty of hockey left in his tank and Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery appears to whole-heartedly agree.

According to The Boston Globe’s Connor Ryan, Montgomery talked about what it means for the Bruins to have Lucic in the lineup ahead of the Boston Bruins Foundation’s annual golf tournament at Pinehills Golf Club on Thursday.

“I think (David Pastrnak) won’t get hit as much, (Brad Marchand) won’t get hit as much because Looch is in the lineup,” Montgomery said. “But I’m still gonna want Looch to be a person that decides momentum in games. … Carrying the momentum of the team, recognizing when we’re losing momentum going out there, making a big hit or getting to the net front, crashing the net — very similar things that (Nick) Foligno did for us. But probably because of his history here, carry more weight within that role.”

Lucic became a fan favorite when the 6-foot-3, 240-pound power forward delivered the hard-crushing hits in key moments of games and had the willingness to drop the gloves against any opponent, bigger or smaller.

He logged 55 fights in the eight years he played in Boston to go along with his 139 goals and 203 assists in 566 games for the Bruins.

Montgomery will have the task of filling out the Bruins lineup when camp starts next week. The top six is going to consist of at least Marchand, Pastrnak, Jake DeBrusk, Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha, but the bottom six is pretty much a work in progress.

“There’s no doubt there’s way more jobs that are open, right? And competition is great,” Montgomery said. “And I do think that we are all hoping that there’s going to be pleasant surprises that are going to make the team — kind of like (Jakub) Lauko did and A.J. Greer did out of camp last year.”

The additions of Lucic, James van Riemsdyk, Morgan Geekie, Patrick Brown and Jesper Boqvist in free agency coupled with returning Bruins forwards Greer, Lauko, Trent Frederic are just a few of the players jockeying for spots left by the retirement of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci as well as the departures of Foligno, Tyler Bertuzzi and Taylor Hall.

“Players that are gonna have an impact on games that are gonna make us better and relish their roles,” Montgomery said. “You lose guys … We lost (Tomas) Nosek. I stuck him out there on defensive-zone draws, he got a bad hand dealt by me.

“But he loved it. He relished it. And he moves the puck from the D zone to the offensive zone. You need players like that, that aren’t going to worry about how they’re being used, but care about how they’re helping the team win.”

Montgomery is also expected to name a new assistant coach in the upcoming week. The vacancy is the result of John Gruden’s decision to leave the franchise and accept the beach coach position for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies over the summer. Montgomery still has longtime goalie coach Bob Essensa and assistants Joe Sacco and Chris Kelly on his staff.