Montgomery Headed Home To Montreal To Mourn Mother

Turns out Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery was dealing with much more than figuring out his roster in a 4-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the Boston Bruins announced that Montgomery’s mother, Dorothy, had passed away. According to a source close to the Montgomerys, Dorothy passed away this past Monday from natural causes. The Bruins head coach chose to remain in Boston and then coach his team against the Buffalo Sabres in Buffalo on Tuesday night. Montgomery headed north on Wednesday and will return to Boston and his team on Sunday. Montgomery will miss one game while paying respects to his mother when the Bruins host the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night in a 7 p.m. preseason game at TD Garden.

“The Boston Bruins extend our sincerest condolences to Jim Montgomery and the entire Montgomery family on the recent passing of his mother, Dorothy,” the team said in a statement on their social media feeds on Wednesday. “Coach Montgomery will travel to Montreal for funeral services this week and will return to team activities on Sunday, October 1.”

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— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) September 27, 2023

The Boston Bruins will play the Flyers again on Monday night in Philadelphia, and Montgomery is scheduled to coach that game.

Jim Montgomery is entering his second season as head coach of the Boston Bruins. In his first season behind the bench for the Bruins, Montgomery led his team to a record-breaking regular season that saw the Bruins become the winningest NHL regular season team ever. The Bruins set NHL records in wins (65) and points (135), amongst numerous Bruins franchise records.

As a result, the Boston Bruins won the Presidents’ Trophy for the second time in four seasons after finishing first overall in the 2019-20 regular season under former Bruins and current Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy. The 2022-23 Boston Bruins were also the fourth team in the modern era to lead their division wire-to-wire and the first since 1943-44, when the Montreal Canadiens went 38-5 for 83 points.

Montgomery and the 2022-23 Bruins also recorded an NHL-record 14-game home winning streak from the start of a season (Oct. 15 to Dec. 3) and were the first team to post five win streaks of seven games or more in a season. The Bruins also had the second-highest club goal differential (+128) since the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings (+144).