Three Areas Bruins Need To Improve Under Interim Head Coach Joe Sacco

The Boston Bruins dropped the hammer and relieved Jim Montgomery of his head coaching duties Tuesday afternoon after the club started 8-9-3 in the first 20 games of the season.

Bruins associate coach Joe Sacco will take over in the interim as the Black and Gold aim to right the ship and get the club back on track.

Here are three areas the Bruins must improve in with the coaching change.

FINDING ANSWERS/SCORING
It’s the coach’s responsibility to find answers and get players to respond when the team struggles. Montgomery failed on both.

The Bruins have had only a handful of players who have been performing to expectation this season — Mark Kastelic, Cole Koepke, Joonas Korpisalo and Hampus Lindholm, while star players David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Jeremy Swayman and Pavel Zacha have struggled to find their rhythm.

Boston has been outscored 20-9 in their last five games and has a minus-21 goal differential; second-worse in the league behind only the Pittsburgh Penguins’ minus-25 mark.

Montgomery simply could not find the reasons why players were underperforming or how to get the most out of them. It now falls on Sacco’s shoulders to find the answers and get the most out of the players before the Bruins take the ice against the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday night.

FIX SLUGGISH STARTS/POOR EXECUTION
The Bruins have found themselves chasing the score in 13 games this season. Many of Boston’s woes this season can be linked to the coaching staff and the inability to have the players ready to go at puck drop.

Much like last year’s playoff run where sluggish starts and lapses in execution plagued the Bruins, Boston has spent far too many periods this fall disinterested and lacking urgency. 

The Bruins have become lackadaisical at times across 60 minutes of play — none more evident than the failure to get a single shot on goal in the final 24 minutes of Boston’s overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 9.

If the current system is the root of the slow start, Sacco will need to implement a new structure while motivating the players to get on board and execute during games.

SPECIAL TEAMS
This might be a little bit ironic since Sacco was the special teams coach in the past, but it goes without saying the Bruins are not where they need to be on the power play or the penalty kill.

The Bruins are dead last out of 32 NHL teams on the man advantage with an 11.7 conversion rate. Boston has scored just nine power-play goals on 77 opportunities, which incidentally is the most in the league. The Bruins have also allowed four shorthanded goals, which again is the most in the league.

On the penalty kill, the Bruins historically have been at the top of the league, but this season Boston is 25th in the league at 75.6%. The Bruins have been shorthanded 78 times, you guessed it — most in the league, and have allowed 19 power-play goals, while only netting one shorthanded goal.