After an 8-9-3 start to the 2024-25 season, the Bruins fired head coach Jim Montgomery on November 19. He was let go due to the poor start, despite having a 120-41-23 record since being hired and having made the playoffs each year as coach. Montgomery’s 184 game stretch behind the bench is less than the average head coaching stint in Bruins franchise history (221 games), but it is still not among the shortest.
Not every head coach can have a long stint with their team like Claude Julien (759 games). A lot of the time, head coaches will be the scapegoat for a bad season, or even a stretch of down games. There are a variety of reasons a head coach can get the axe, as seen in this list of the five shortest head coaching stints in Bruins history.
(note: the coaching stints of Harry Sinden in 1980 (7 games), Mike O’Connell in 2003 (9 games), and Sinden in 1985 (24 games), are not included as they were general manager at the time filling in as interim head coach.)
5. Phil Watson
Boston had started a rebuilding phase at the beginning of the 1960’s. They had lost multiple stars, including Leo Labine and Vic Stasiuk in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings, Bronco Horvath to the Chicago Blackhawks via the 1961 intra-league draft, and team captain Fern Flaman due to retirement from the NHL before the 1961-62 season. The Bruins also fired head coach Milt Schmidt the day after the final game of the 1960-61 season, and moved him to the assistant GM position.
In June 1961, the Bruins hired Phil Watson to replace Schmidt as head coach. Watson was coach of the Bruins minor league affiliate, the Providence Reds, before being hired and also a long-time friend of GM Lynn Patrick from their playing days as former linemates on the New York Rangers. However, good friends don’t always turn out to be the best hires.
Watson and the Bruins went 15-47-8 in the 1961-62 season, finishing in last place, and making history along the way. The ’61-62 Bruins hold the franchise record for the longest winless streak in Bruins history, when they went 20 games without a win, from January 28 to March 11. Johnny Bucyk shined in his first season without his ‘Uke Line’-mates, finishing the season as the Bruins top scorer with 60 points. Young forward Murray Oliver, part of the return from the Labine/Stasiuk trade, set a career-high with 46 points, a successful start to the Bruins' new youth movement.
Even though Watson had a horrific season, the Bruins decided to keep him as head coach heading into the 1962-63 campaign. Boston won the season opener against the Montreal Canadiens, 5-0, which would be Watson’s last win as Bruins head coach. After the shutout victory, the team began what would become the second-longest winless streak in Bruins history, going without a win from October 13 to November 24. Watson was fired 14 games into the season, finishing with a 1-8-5 record. In his 84 games coaching Boston, Watson had a total record of 16-55-13.