In his postgame press conference following a 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 6 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs that eliminated the Boston Bruins, second-year head coach Jim Montgomery touched on several topics. in one of his responses, he sent a message up to his boss, GM Don Sweeney.
Gustav Forsling broke a 1-1 tie late in the third period when he scored the series-winning goal with less than two minutes left for a 2-1 victory. It was another game in the postseason where the Black and Gold failed to score multiple goals and it was a rather fitting ending for the Bruins who struggled in the playoffs scoring at times and it ended up costing them. Montgomery had a message to Sweeney about winning close games.
"I didn't sense frustration. But the lack of our ability to score in the playoffs in general, you can't win every game 2-1."
- Jim Montgomery
Fast forward a month and a half later and Sweeney responded to that comment with a subtle comment of his own.
Don Sweeney sends subtle response to coach Jim Montgomery
Sweeney met with the media late Monday afternoon after signing center Elias Lindholm and defenseman Nikita Zadorov to long-term deals along with depth pieces and he took advantage to send a subtle response to Montgomery about winning 2-1 games.
"Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final went to 2-1, so that might be the one single pushback I have on Monty and his comment that yeah, you can win 2-1 in those situations and you probably have to more often than not. The margins are small. You look at the last three games of our series against Florida, it wasn't runaway hockey."
- Don Sweeney
In the playoffs, more often than not, yes, you have to win low-scoring games. It's the nature of the beast. I get it, Montgomery is coming in hot after a season-ending elimination loss to Florida and maybe he has a different take if he had more time to react to the game, but Sweeney is not wrong in his response to his head coach, which I'm sure he discussed behind closed doors since that May night at the TD Garden.
