Bruins heard ‘eye-opening’ critiques from head coaching candidates in interview process

The Bruins' three-headed, front office braintrust of CEO Charlie Jacobs, team president Cam Neely, and general manager Don Sweeney had themselves a downright ugly press conference almost two months ago.

It was combative, awkward, and downright uncomfortable at times.

For almost an hour, the Bruins did everything they could to tell you that everyone else was wrong, and that everything was fine and going to be fine. And in the 50-something minute press conference that would make any Tim Robinson sketch seem normal, Sweeney even went as far as to tell the Boston Globe's Tara Sullivan that he'll let her know when somebody doesn't want to interview with them to potentially be the head coach of the Boston Bruins.

And while the Bruins got their share of interviews — Sweeney says the total number of candidates was around 14 — those interviewees did not hold back when it came to the uncomfortable nature of analyzing the needs-loaded Boston team that finished with the fifth-worst record in hockey in 2024-25.

“The process in that sense, It can be uncomfortable in terms of the critical eye that other people are watching your team and breaking down your team and the changes they want to make," Sweeney admitted Tuesday. "You have to be open to all of it. You have to understand, the position we’re in, we didn’t execute both at the management level, coaching level, and player level. So we have to be open to that, and tweaks that coaches want to make."

It's one thing to hear it from talking heads outside of hockey ops and the game as a whole. Some of the facial expressions the Bruins made during that press conference told you as much without me even needing to write it. But it's clearly another thing when it comes from your peers, as the B's can confirm.

"Thankfully coaches came in and gave their honest opinion and how they wanted to see things [with] the things you had done well, the things you hadn’t done well, and the outside perspective that teams have had for the Bruins organization over the years and the changes that have gone well and haven’t gone well during those years," Sweeney said. "And success or not having success, and those are eye-opening at times, and it’s constructive."

Sweeney did not get into the the specifics of what coaching candidates highlighted as the organizational weak points for the Black and Gold, but made it clear that the Bruins had to listen given where they are right now after the team's worst season in almost two decades.

"You have to take it to heart and make adjustments," Sweeney said. "We’re not currently playing [in the Stanley Cup Final] right now, so you have to accept the failures that we have and coaches were honest in pointing that out."

And what's important to note here is that this was not a case of the Bruins simply hiring a guy who bought in on their plan with no questions asked. In fact, the club's new head coach, Marco Sturm, brought his own set of tweaks to the interview and highlighted a particular weak spot for the club of late.

"Marco went through some of the things that he felt that we had done well but things that we had gotten away from and where the league is at and where the league is heading to," Sweeney revealed. "It’s all important parts of it, and the player development part of it was certainly a big part of those conversations and how you do integrate the players and when they’re going to be ready and having connectivity with your minor-league program."

For the Bruins, that development and furthering along will almost certainly come up front with a focus on the B's doing whatever they need to get the best out of top prospects such as 2021 first-round pick Fabian Lysell and 2022 second-round pick Matt Poitras, as well as recently acquired young pieces like Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov.