Bruins hire Marco Sturm as next head coach

The return of Sturmface to the fanbase!

Get your best Sturm-Faces ready, because the Boston Bruins have found their next head coach.

The Boston Bruins announced that former assistant for the Los Angeles Kings, Head Coach of the Kings’ AHL affiliate Ontario Reign, and Ex-Bruin Marco Sturm has taken the job as Boston Bruins Head Coach; The 31st man to hold the position in any capacity.

You may likely remember Sturm for his time as one of the many forgotten stars of the 2000’s; a player who’s intensity and goalscoring prowess made him a dim light in a dark time for the B’s as they slowly built themselves back up.

His most notable highlight is likely either his gamewinner goal of Game 6 against Montreal in 2008 where he spent the better part of 30 straight seconds of game time putting Roman Hamrlik in hell:

or his overtime tip-in to win the 2010 Winter Classic.

Since his retirement in 2014, Sturm has found coaching to be agreeable to him; he’s spent the last few years as the head coach of the Ontario Reign, and under his stewardship the Reign have had a pretty consistent improvement over the years; going from nearly the basement of the AHL Pacific in his first year to a near-guaranteed lock for the playoffs, and a record of 119-80-17 through three years.

Of course, that pales in comparison to the lofty heights that Sturm has taken his home country’s national team as head coach, as they started as a perpetual 10th in the world under his watch, and has gone on to see Olympic Silver under his tutelage, and some of their best results at the World Championships over the last decade.

“We’re proud to name Marco as the 30th Head Coach of the Boston Bruins and welcome him, Astrid, Mason, and Kaydie to Boston,” said GM Don Sweeney in a Bruins press release. “Throughout this process, our goal was to identify a coach who could uphold our strong defensive foundation while helping us evolve offensively. We were also looking for a communicator and leader – someone who connects with players, develops young talent, and earns the respect of the room. Marco impressed us at every step with his preparation, clarity, and passion.”

“I’m incredibly honored to be named head coach of the Boston Bruins,” said Sturm in that same press release. “I want to thank Charlie Jacobs and the Jacobs family, Cam Neely, and Don Sweeney for trusting me with this opportunity. Boston has always held a special place in my heart, and I know how much this team means to the city and to our fans. I’ve felt that passion as a player, and I can’t wait to be behind the bench and feel it again. I’m excited to get to work and do everything I can to help this team succeed.”

While his pedigree largely speaks for itself, the big question of course with Sturm at the helm, is what kind of team will he be at the head of come the draft and free agency.

Recent AHL hires have either gone fine or poorly depending on the team’s roster coming in, and it’s clear that Boston still has a lot of work to do if they want to get back to being competitive.

Sturm’s teams definitely seem to have that competitiveness that he showed as a player, but a lot of that comes from talent; the Reign still have plenty of solid players and Sturm was credited for getting NHLers to come back home to Deutschland to play for Die Eismannschaft.

He will still need plenty of that to make his gameplan pop properly on the biggest professional stage. That’s up to Don to decide.

So, until we get a better picture of what they look like coming into next season? Let’s all welcome Marco Sturm back to the Boston Bruins!