With the season winding down, the Boston Bruins have eight games left to play and are currently in line for the eighth-overall pick in the NHL Draft. To say the season has been a disaster for the Bruins would be putting it mildly. After winning just eight of their first 20 games, they decided to make a coaching change when they fired Jim Montgomery and hired Joe Sacco as the interim head coach.
While it was nice for a while, eventually the season started taking a turn for the worse and the hiring of Sacco began to look like putting lipstick on a pig. By the trade deadline, the Bruins had fallen close to being out, if not already being completely out, of playoff contention. They traded core pieces like Trent Frederic, key defensive pieces like Brandon Carlo, and even captain Brad Marchand.
Suddenly, just as soon as he had gained the locker room back, Sacco and effectively general manager Don Sweeney had now lost it again and perhaps the fanbase’s faith in them along with it. With change seeming imminent at the head coaching spot at the end of the season, and Sacco not being given the courtesy of the interim tag being removed, there is one coach who could satisfy Boston fans’ thirst for excellence: John Tortorella.
John Tortorella Could Be the Answer Bruins Fans Are Looking For
Earlier in the day on Thursday, Tortorella was told by the Philadelphia Flyers that he was being relieved of his duties as head coach. For once in a great while for the Bruins, a great coach could be falling right into their lap, not the other way of a great job falling right into a coach’s lap.
Think about it, for Bruins fans they have not had a coach of Tortorella’s caliber or tenure as a head coach at the NHL level since Claude Julien was fired in 2017. That’s eight years that they have had to put up with either a coach who has never had continued success in the NHL (Sacco), or one who had the job fall in their lap (Bruce Cassidy via a promotion from the American Hockey League or Montgomery).
Tortorella, a Massachusetts native, began his coaching career with the Rochester Americans in 1988. In 1996, he won the Calder Cup with the Amerks. After getting hired by the New York Rangers at the tail end of the 1999-00 season, he has coached in the NHL since and never looked back. In total, he has coached in 1,620 games at the NHL level where he has compiled a record of 770-648-37 while coaching for the Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Rangers, Vancouver Canucks and Tampa Bay Lightning. Tortorella has made it to the playoffs 12 times and won one Stanley Cup in the 2003-04 season with the Lightning.
In addition to coaching over 1,600 games in the NHL, Tortorella has also coached the United States National Team at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Throughout his career, he has had a history of developing young players and turning teams around. He has also had only six losing seasons, and his recent firing by Philadelphia is the first of his career.
Tortorella would bring veteran leadership and longstanding success to the Bruins, who have longed for a true leader in the locker room. It’s beginning to look like Sacco does not appear to be the answer in Boston, and moving Ryan Mougenel in from AHL Providence would likely be a bit of a lateral move by the Bruins.
Perhaps it’s time to look to the outside for a coach who’s had a history of success, one who knows how to take the heat AND stay in the kitchen. Tortorella would be the type of coach who would not only command respect in the locker room, but also has the wherewithal to get Boston back to being not only a championship-level team, but also one of the most disciplined teams in the sport, both on and off the ice.
Tortorella has coached for many teams in his time in the NHL. Perhaps it’s time for him to come home and lead his hometown team to glory in the 2025-26 season.
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