During the Bruins' end-of-season press conference, there was plenty of media inquisition over the way Boston’s management group has handled their head coaches over the last decade running the Black and Gold.
There were three Jack Adams winners in Boston during that time frame, and all three of them were unceremoniously fired without a single Stanley Cup, with teams that made it past the second round of the postseason just once over that span. So naturally, there were questions about how attractive the job might still be with the Bruins coming off a season where the group sank near the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
Understandably given Boston’s Original Six stature and the fact that they still have some very good pieces in place at the NHL level, Don Sweeney bristled hard at that line of questioning. There’s also the simple fact that Boston has had a grand total of three head hockey coaches over the last 18 years, and that’s a pretty good track record of longevity in an NHL where coaches are absolutely hired to someday be fired.
“I'll call you up and let you know if somebody turns [a job interview] down, the invitation to interview for one of the most historic jobs in the National Hockey League,” said Sweeney. “I've gone through one coaching search in my tenure during my time here, as I said, I had the privilege to work with Claude [Julien]. I turned Bruce [Cassidy] from an interim into a head coach. Didn't go through a search. So, previous time we went through a search, and it was extensive, and we came down with several coaches that, we chose a really good coach [in Jim Montgomery], we went on to have a really good year.
“In part of the exercising going forward, every coach that comes through the door will be looking forward to working for the Boston Bruins. We have a 100-year history. We have an incredible amount of success that's going to drive the bus. Don Sweeney interviewing the person is not driving the bus. I'm entrusted to make every decision possible in the best interest of the organization, and I'm never going to stop doing that. The deadline was a perfect example of what was painful, personally and professionally, but almost every general manager goes through it at some point in time. I don't want to go through it again. I want to build exactly the way we had been doing, and I want the coach to be part of that. They will be entrusted to understand organizationally, they have the full support when we make a decision and that they'll be in place with the expectations we are going to be a highly competitive team again, with the expectations to win, whether that's next year, the following year or the year after, it's going to remain in place. We took a step back with a deadline, and now we're going to take our steps forward, and a coach is going to understand that. He's going to love being part of the Boston Bruins organization.”
Who better to love being part of the Bruins organization than somebody who’s already been a part of the Bruins organization?
That is very likely the question that the B’s are asking themselves after news broke on Tuesday morning that the 57-year-old Mike Sullivan won’t be returning as head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins after a 10-year run that included back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2015-2017. Word has been circulating around the Bruins for weeks that Sullivan would be a strong lead candidate for the Boston job should he become available, and that is now the case after his dismissal from a Pittsburgh team stuck in a similar spot to the Bruins.
It won’t be a slam-dunk hire, of course. Sullivan will be in demand and is expected to draw interest from the New York Rangers team where he was a longtime assistant coach during John Tortorella’s time with the Blueshirts, and he won’t come cheap either after the B’s balked at a big money contract for Montgomery over the last year.
There’s also an interesting dynamic with Sullivan potentially coaching his son-in-law, Charlie McAvoy, but that didn’t seem to be any kind of issue during the 4 Nations tournament, where the Bruins defenseman played some of the best hockey of his career before injuring his shoulder.
But it also feels like this could be a full circle moment for Sullivan and the Bruins after he was a young 35-year-old coach when he was originally hired by Boston back in 2003-04 and has grown exponentially since then just as Bruce Cassidy had in his head coaching journey after flaming out in his first gig with the Washington Capitals.
There would certainly be an organizational familiarity with Sullivan after his prior time working with the Bruins, and a collaborative trust level that the B’s front office is seeking out for any head coaching candidate.
One thing that was at the top of Boston’s wish list for the next head coach was a return to the defensive structure of the past, and again making it a priority, along with shepherding offensive creativity out of their best game-breaking players.
“[Defensive structure] is part of winning hockey, it just has to be, and it's going to be part of our fabric. We're going to get back to that. Now, we have to continue to evolve offensively [and address] the scoring deficiencies that we had this year, our power play in particular put a lot of pressure on our team that you have to be perfect,” said Sweeney. “Our goaltenders previously have been really, really good. This year, they weren't as good as what they had been. That is fact, and our team in front of them didn't defend with the same level of conviction.
“So the structure has to be there. It has to be part of the fabric of what a coach believes in. But I do understand that the players coming into the League are offensively driven, and they need to understand that it's okay to play with that offensive creativity. But it has to be within the confines of what your team and the structure is going to dictate in order to be successful.”
Sweeney indicated that, similar to their coaching search three years ago, the Bruins will likely interview candidates and whittle it down to three finalists before landing on their new head coach. Current interim head coach Joe Sacco is expected to be one of those finalists in consideration, though it’s doubtful he’s going to end up with the job after a decade-plus working on the Boston staff prior to his interim stint this season.
Bruins assistant coach Jay Leach is another name in consideration after he interviewed for the open B’s head coaching job three years ago, and current Providence Bruins head coach Ryan Mougenel will also be under strong consideration as well. There could be a push for a college head coach or two like Providence College’s Nate Leaman or another freshly available NHL head coach like Greg Cronin (who also interviewed for the Bruins head job three years ago).
But this feels like Sullivan’s job if he wants it, and it’s honestly felt like that for some time given his unique ability to know the terrain and hit the ground running with this current B’s group immediately.