Bruins coach Jim Montgomery admits to brutal mistake

The Boston Bruins were eliminated by the Florida Panthers in seven games in Round 1 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, bringing a startling end to what was a 65-win regular season that carried understandable expectations of achieving hockey's ultimate glory after the calendar had turned to June.

Head coach Jim Montgomery drew considerable criticism from fans and media members for his decision to not replace goaltender Linus Ullmark, who was battling an undisclosed injury, earlier than he did. And now, he's admitting that he misread the body language of his team.

“I’ve watched the games back. We didn’t play as fast as we did in the regular season,” he said during an appearance on the ‘Raw Knuckles Podcast’. “Those are things that are going to eat at me until we start playing again next year. We simply didn’t do what we did. And there’s no hiding from that. We’re not going to hide from that."

"You look at that those things and look at body language, looking at guy’s eyes, wanting the moment versus not wanting the moment. I’ve done some reading on some body language stuff that might help me as a coach, you know, moving forward, but in the end, we know we didn’t get the job done. And that stays with us. It’s gonna stay with me forever. I think we had the team to win at all. And, for me, I’ve always felt I’ve been able to talk about that last third of the year. Get my team to play its best at the most important time. And I failed the process.”

The Bruins were anything but healthy during their short-lived postseason series, as Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Hampus Lindholm and Ullmark were all battling various aliments. 

“I also don’t second-guess myself putting Bergeron in Game 5,” the Bruins bench boss said. “People were like, ‘Why don’t you just save him for the second round?’ Could you imagine what people would be saying if they knew I didn’t play Bergeron and he was healthy Game 5 and we lost? I mean, he scored."

"Unfortunately, it lingers with us what happened. We own it. We know we lost to a good team in Florida – they’re in the finals – but we still were up 3-1. You find a way to close that out. That’s the competitor in us, it’s hard to let go. But we have to move forward. Like what do we learn from this? Especially with our young core players that are gonna be here a long time. How do we all grow from this and make sure that, whatever happens in the regular season, that the next time we get to the playoffs, that we own the moment?”