Jim Montgomery joined his fellow Bruins with a trip to the podium at the NHL Awards on Monday night in Nashville. Montgomery was announced as the winner of the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s best coach, after leading Boston to a record-breaking 65 wins and 135 points.
Montgomery previously coached the Dallas Stars for two seasons, posting a 60-43-10 record, which added up to 130 points in 113 games. It took just 82 games with Boston for Montgomery to eclipse his win and point totals in Dallas.
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For Bruins fans, Montgomery’s win is bittersweet, and perhaps a little awkward. The Bruins fizzled out in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs after their record-shattering regular season, blowing a 3-1 lead against the Florida Panthers, and many of Montgomery’s own decisions seemed to backfire on him in the process.
Montgomery will have something to prove in his second season with the Bruins, certainly in the playoffs. But the Jack Adams Award is a regular season honor, and the Bruins just had the greatest regular season in league history. They were inevitably going to be well-represented among the winners on awards night.
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In addition to Montgomery, Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender after posting a historic season of his own. Ullmark led the NHL in wins (40), goals against average (1.89), and save percentage (.938) as the first “Triple Crown” winner since Carey Price in 2015, making him an easy choice for the Vezina.
Perhaps least surprising, Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron extended his all-time lead in Frank J. Selke Trophies with his sixth win of the award given annually to the league’s best defensive forward. If Bergeron ends up retiring, another Selke would make for an appropriate send-off.
