Journey

By measures of time and distance, Jim Montgomery is well beyond his Alfond Arena glory days. His final hockey game for the Black Bears, during which his ...

"That growth there I can compare to the growth I got when I was a head coach in Dubuque for the first time,'' said Montgomery. But in the unlikely case that someday he needs a reminder that he's fortunate to have them, well, that long-running text thread with his old buddies from Orono is just a glance at his phone away. "Sitting back, learning the league better, watching a really good head coach, and then after last year, my second year there, I was like, 'I'm ready to be a head coach again.' I can't tell you how grateful I am that the Bruins gave me that opportunity." "He is such a genuine person, and doesn't change who he is, and that goes a long way in the hockey world,'' said Barr, who was hired at UMaine by a search committee that included Montgomery, and remains a good friend. I was a 23-year-old kid trying to get into coaching, and he was a guy that played at the highest level, and he treated me the same way he would probably treat someone like Bergeron now." I think Jimmy did so much behind the scenes to know, 'hey, maybe this guy needs a little bit of a pick-me-up, and this guy needs a little bit of a kick in the pants.' I just think he was great that way. Montgomery is on the opposite side of that coach/player dynamic now, but in a neat bit of symmetry, he's benefiting from having outstanding leadership in the Bruins' locker room much in the way Walsh did when Montgomery was his captain all those years ago. Beers says Montgomery has an almost innate ability to identify the ideal way to communicate with each individual player in a way that maximizes that player's contributions. But Bourque recalls that Walsh's faith in Montgomery as a motivator was made clear before the Black Bears' first game of that Frozen Four, against the University of Michigan in the semifinals. "Shawn obviously was a great coach and a great motivator,'' said Bourque, "but I don't think he was the easiest guy to play for. How amazing is that?' It's flattering, because it's a reminder of how much the Bruins mean to people, especially here in Massachusetts. The Bruins, like a grander-scale version of the Black Bears in their heyday, are not so much a hockey team as a civic institution.