Better luck next year: Don Sweeney is out of scapegoats for the Boston Bruins

It might be time to look at the general manager for why the team is declining.

Welcome back to Better Luck Next Year, a series that will focus on each team as they get eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What went wrong, why it went wrong, what (if anything) went right, and what is next. We continue today with the next team to be eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention: The Boston Bruins.

My long-standing belief is that when your hockey team is thinking of firing its head coach, or has already fired its head coach, it is probably a good idea to start also taking a serious look at the job your general manager (and front office) is doing. After all, they built the team, and they put the players in place.

Do not get me wrong with that comment: Coaching can, and does, make a big difference. Just like players, there are good coaches and bad coaches, and they can have a significant impact on the success or failure of a team. There are also instances where a team truly does just need a new voice and a new vision to get things going in the right direction or to get it over the top of the mountain.

But it still mostly comes down to the roster.

Especially when your head coaching position is a revolving door of people that find success elsewhere, while your team keeps trending in the wrong direction.

That is the situation the Boston Bruins find themselves in with general manager Don Sweeney, who has now seen his team have three head coaches over a four-year stretch while progressively getting worse on the ice.

Meanwhile, the coaches he has fired keep going elsewhere and getting better.

Just 20 games into 2024-25 the season, Sweeney fired head coach Jim Montgomery following an 8-9-3 start and replaced him with Joe Sacco.

That came just two years after hiring Montgomery to replace Bruce Cassidy.

Given what has happened to the Bruins, and what has happened with both fired head coaches, it is awfully difficult to put the blame on the people behind the bench.

The year after Cassidy was fired by the Bruins, he caught on with the Vegas Golden Knights and won the Stanley Cup.

Less than two weeks after Montgomery was fired this season, the St. Louis Blues fired their own head coach (Drew Bannister) simply because Montgomery was available and hired him. They have been one of the hottest teams in the league, are going into the playoffs as “the team nobody wants to play,” and have dramatically improved across the board.

The Bruins?

The exact opposite progression, and it has reached the point this season where they literally have the worst record in the Eastern Conference and are completely going in the tank down the stretch.

You can not put the blame on another head coach.

That card has been played.

At some point the general manager’s flawed roster has to take center stage, and that roster is badly flawed in some very big areas with little done to meaningfully correct it or address it.

The center position has become a black hole following the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, the defense is not what it used to be and is no longer being bailed out by elite goaltending, while some of Sweeney’s recent roster moves have put the team in a terrible bind.

Let’s talk about all of that.

What went right this season