BOSTON (AP) — Jim Montgomery was at his lowest point after he was fired by the Dallas Stars for what he has since admitted was a drinking problem.
Three years later, he is at the top of the NHL, coaching the Boston Bruins to the best record in the league so far this season. It wouldn’t have been possible if not for the lessons learned during his exile, his rehab and his climb back through the coaching ranks.
“You’re filled with guilt and shame. You’re not even thinking about when’s your next job,” Montgomery said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I was at the nadir of my life. Then you start building yourself back up and you start to get your life in order first and work on yourself. And then you start getting back. And you become better at everything.”
A native of Canada who led Maine to the 1993 NCAA title — scoring a third-period hat trick in the final — Montgomery played in 122 NHL games over six years before he turned to coaching. He won two U.S. junior titles and led Denver to an NCAA championship before he was hired by Dallas.
In his first season, the Stars made the playoffs for the first time in three years. In his second, he had a team that reached the Stanley Cup Final.
But he wouldn’t get there with them.
Montgomery was fired 32 games into the year for what the team called unprofessional conduct. He has since admitted to binge drinking to the point of blackouts, and conceded that he deserved to be fired. After going through rehab, he began working his way back.
Montgomery spent two seasons as an assistant in St. Louis, the team that signed him as a player out of college. He made himself a better coach, he said, absorbing what he could from every system he worked in along the way.
When the Bruins gave him his second chance as a head coach, he brought those lessons with him, creating his own “system” from the bits and pieces he picked up.
“I don’t know if there’s one original thought that I have there,” he said. “And that’s OK.”
He also came out of it stronger as a leader, and more empathic.
“You become a lot more aware and mindful of how other people are doing,” Montgomery said. “I’m talking about someone, maybe they’re off, and they’re off because, well, maybe their dog passed away, their grandmother’s ill. And that’s where I think I’m a much more aware and much more in touch with how other people are doing.”
Montgomery’s predecessor, Bruce Cassidy, led the Bruins…