Jim Montgomery Receiving Heavy Support Amid Bruins’ Fast Start
Public bettors like Montgomery's chances of winning an end-of-season NHL award
The start to Jim Montgomery’s tenure as head coach of the Boston Bruins has been great. Through four games, the Bruins lead hockey in goals scored (21), wins (3) and points (6). All of that seems to be good news for Montgomery’s chances at taking home one of the NHL’s end-of-season awards.
BetMGM released its betting insights on Thursday, and Bruins fans will likely be happy to see where Montgomery stands among those who have received support for the Jack Adams Award — which is the NHL’s version of Coach of the Year.
Montgomery (+2000) is tied for fourth in terms of total bets, sitting at just 4.3% behind leaders Derek Lalonde (25.5%), D.J. Smith (11.7%) and Rod Brind’Amour (6.4%). Fourth place is solid, but the handle is where the Bruins head coach’s bread seems to be buttered. The 53-year-old has received an astronomical 21.7% of the money placed on the Jack Adams Award, second to only Lalonde at 27.1%.
The Bruins weren’t well represented on the initial BetMGM insights, understandably, considering they’ll be without stars Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy for a while.
There was a notable Bruin who made his way onto one of those lists, though, with David Pastrnak receiving 4% of the total bets to win the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Award.
While the start has been admirable, with Bruins fans enjoying what they’ve seen so far, Boston will have to continue it’s momentum for a long period of time if they want to keep Montgomery in contention for the award. The first step comes in attempting to rebound from their first loss on Thursday night against the Anaheim Ducks. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and you can catch the action live with NESN 360.
