Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco reflects on opportunity

A good soldier from the moment he walked in the door in 2014, and in any and every role the Bruins asked him to fill on their coaching staff, Joe Sacco did what he could to bring what was a deeply flawed Bruins roster to life following the firing of Jim Montgomery last November.

Promoted from associate coach last offseason and then to interim head coach in November, Sacco's run as Boston's bench boss featured a 25-30-7 record. And Sacco's tenure for his hometown club may have very well met its end with Tuesday's season-ending loss to the Devils. And if that is indeed the case as the Black and Gold begin an aggressive retool, it's nothing but gratitude from the Medford, Mass. native for the chance he was given after 11 years between NHL head coaching opportunities.

"I think I'll reflect on that more, probably [Wednesday], but it's been pretty busy since the change," Sacco said following Tuesday's overtime loss. "I said this the other day: I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had here.

"Being from this area, it's special to be able to coach in your hometown. That's obviously an added bonus. I'll think more about it, I think, as the days go on, but I'm proud of the guys. I know there's been a lot of moving parts this year. And they never quit right to the end."

The Bruins have been mindful about this situation and have on multiple occasions acknowledged the downright difficult spot that Sacco was put in as someone who was coaching multiple versions of the Bruins.

When Sacco first took over, the Bruins made that move hoping that Sacco would help get the 'spark' out of the team that 20 games of Montgomery, who was frustrated with his lack of progress on a contract extension with Boston, could not. But by the end, and following a heavy deadline selloff, Sacco was coaching a Bruins team essentially playing for some on-the-fly development of prospects and future draft position.

“I mean, Joe’s done a really good job [and] it’s almost like he’s coached two completely different teams within one year," Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said during a recent appearance on a NESN broadcast. "So we’re gonna go through the process and he’s part of that process. 

“We’re gonna find the next guy to lead this group next year and moving forward, and we’re gonna check off a lot of the criteria. We’ve had very good coaches in the last [many] years. We haven’t gotten it done at the absolute best times, but we’ve had a lot of success, and this is the first year we’ve had to step back and had to be honest with what was been underachievement on all of our parts.”

Sweeney's recent kudos to Sacco is in line with what Bruins president Cam Neely told the Boston Globe last month, noting that Sacco 'would be in the mix' for the full-time head coaching gig.

And with the apparent backing of B's ownership following Wednesday's statement, it sounds like it will be Neely and Sweeney leading the search. Of course, it's worth noting that coaching was not mentioned in the Jacobs letter to the fans, which could mean something or could mean nothing.

“We’re gonna check off the boxes of getting back to being really hard to play against, defensively sound, and we have to find a way generate more and fix our power play," Sweeney, who has had four different head coaches in his decade on the job, said in that aforementioned NESN appearance. "We have areas we have to address and it starts with the coach.”