As usual, Drew points out the semi-obvious, and some folks yelp about how crazy-town his take is. Listen, I'm not a Bruins' fan, but if you've paid any attention to the B's over the last 50 years of Jacobs/Delaware North ownership, you know that coaches don't tend to stick around for very long with the B's. General managers and presidents, however, tend to be untouchable - at least until they screw up multiple times. Guys like Sweeney and (especially) Neely are so firmly entrenched, there is never a question who is gonna take the hit if/when someone has to walk the plank. That's eventually (sadly) gonna be Monty. Whether it will be this offseason, or next, I'll be surprised if it doesn't happen.
Would he deserve to be the one to take the fall? Heck no. The B's are overperforming under Monty (at least in the RS), and in a year or two, they could still be overperforming ... but this is a franchise that's slowly moving further and further away from a Cup contender. Most of that is down to Sweeney doing a lousy job in the draft the better part of the last 10 years. Monty has proven to be an exceptional hire by the B's, especially for Sweeney, as it has diverted attention from their crumbling NHL roster, and the barren farm system below it. Monty might be able to get them another 100 point season next year, and 90 points the season after (if extended) and it won't change the fact that the B's are headed for a spell of mediocrity for what will likely be the rest of this decade. That won't be Monty's fault, but the guys who hired Monty can buy another few years in their jobs if they scapegoat Monty for his teams' "underperforming" in the playoffs. When the truth is, they're not that good to begin with, and it is Monty and his staff who've gotten them to overperform.
Sweeney had a job to do this past offseason to keep the B's competitive in the postseason. What did he do? He gave away Taylor Hall for cap reasons, botched the Bertuzzi re-signing, and instead brought in over-the-hill guys like Milan "The Defendant" Lucic and JvR, who was never a B's style player to begin with even in his prime a half decade or so ago. Sweeney's chair should be the hottest one. But the way things work in Bruins Land, they will let Cup-winning coaches like Claude Julien and Butch Cassidy go, before their Harvard GM is called on the carpet for how he's let the franchise down. The B's could (and arguably should) have had a dynasty last decade, with at least 3 Cups, but instead they ended up with one (1), which makes them the fluky equivalent of the St. Louis Blues, who ironically beat them in 7 games for the 2019 Cup.
So if history is a guide, Monty's seat is hot as soon as the B's crash out of the playoffs. He'd be gone already if they'd choked it up to the TML last series. It's not necessarily a Monty thing, though. It IS a B's thing, for sure.
For the record ... if Monty gets fired, and the Red Wings get off to a slow start next season, I'd love to see Yzerman giving Monty a call to show his stuff in the regular season. The playoffs can be learned, if you are given the ammo. Yzerman has assembled lots of future ammo, and his teams have been advancing 10 points per season lately. Monty might end up "doing a Cassidy" and passing the B's on their way down ...
