Joe Sacco Reflects On Opportunity After Disappointing Bruins Season

BOSTON — The Bruins have plenty of work to do in the offseason.

After missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 season, Boston will not only be looking to retool its roster with free agents, trades and draft selections, but it will also need to decide on who will be the 30th head coach in franchise history.

General manager Don Sweeney named Joe Sacco as the interim head coach on Nov. 19 after firing Jim Montgomery 20 games into the 2024-25 NHL season. Sacco told reporters on Thursday at Warrior Ice Arena that he hasn’t received any clarity on his future with the Original Six franchise.

“No, I haven’t, and I think that that’ll be something that’ll be addressed as we move forward here,” Sacco said. “We’re doing our exit meetings today, and players are taking care of their physicals. So, that will be addressed hopefully in the near future.”

Sacco has been a part of the Bruins coaching staff for the past 11 seasons — he entered this season tied with Carolina’s Jeff Daniels as the longest active assistant coach in the NHL — and was promoted to associate head coach this summer. He took over behind the bench following the 8-9-3 start.

“I think that it’s something that I really enjoyed this year,” he said. “I was given an opportunity after 20 games, and I really enjoyed it.

“Obviously, it didn’t turn out the way that we all wanted it to. There was a lot of moving parts. Definitely, I look forward to see what happens here in the near future, and we’ll see where it goes.”

The ending may not have been how the Bruins envisioned the season would go, but the coaching change ignited Boston’s best stretch of play, as it won seven of its first nine games.

“I thought that we did a pretty good job after the first 20, 25 games or so when the change was made,” Sacco said. “I think that we got the team moving in the right direction. Obviously, around the New Year, it got away from us a little bit. We probably had some games where we should have grabbed some points, where we didn’t. Then the deadline came, and the organization decided to make some moves in a different direction.”

David Pastrnak has been with the Bruins for the same length of time as Sacco, and he took the opportunity to vouch for the Medford native during his media availability on breakup day.

“Honestly, super proud of Joe, and the way he handled it and the way he coached us till the end,” Pastrnak said. “… To see him come in, in a tough situation like that, he did a heck of a job coaching this group until the last game of the season. And like I said, I’m proud of him. It was a hard situation for him, and he did a heck of a job.”

The Bruins will hold their end-of-season press conference at TD Garden on Wednesday morning. The topic of who will be the head coach next season will likely be addressed, even if the front office has not yet made its decision.