Back on June 10, the Boston Bruins announced that they had hired Marco Sturm as the 30th head coach in the team’s history after implying through a video posted online they would not be keeping Joe Sacco around following the 2024-25 season, not to mention the fact that they would not be removing the interim tag to keep him on as the permanent head coach going into 2025-26.
Related: Bruins Name Marco Sturm Head Coach
According to Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub, the Bruins interviewed 14 candidates for the open coaching position before finally landing on Sturm. Initially, the move was met with backlash from fans as it was seen as Boston “settling” for a coach who was “good enough,” especially considering that the German coach had minimal experience with any sort of coaching at the NHL level.
While Sturm’s experience at the NHL level as a player is well-documented, especially the exclamation point that came with winning the Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 2011, but his coaching career, on the other hand, does not speak as loudly as perhaps some other coaches who could have been at Boston’s disposal. Perhaps, however, they were, and they simply declined the position.
Fans Should be More Optimistic About the Sturm Hiring
Now, while Sturm may not be what Bruins’ fans expected in their next coach, especially after hearing that the Dallas Stars fired their head coach, Pete DeBoer; however, fans should actually be much happier that they hired Sturm of all people. The first reason is age.
The past four coaches for Boston (Claude Julien, Bruce Cassidy, Jim Montgomery, and Joe Sacco) were an average age of 56 years old, but Sturm breaks up the average, coming in at 46 years old. In addition to that, Sturm is the one out of the four who has played in the NHL most recently, finishing his career following the 2012-13 season, while Sacco finished his career in the 2002-03 season.
The reason his age plays into this and could benefit his tenure as the Bruins’ head coach is his ability to reach the players. In every other major sport (baseball, football, and now basketball), the league is littered with former players – whether that is for the team they are coaching or in the league as a whole. This has helped coaches to be able to reach the players on levels they weren’t able to before because of their ability to relate to what they are going through, at least in some facets of the game.
Another reason to be…
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