Bruins Act Quickly, Name Brian Sutter as Coach

BOSTON —  Brian Sutter, fired by the St. Louis Blues last month one season after being named the NHL’s coach of the year, was hired Tuesday by the Boston Bruins.

Sutter, 35, signed a four-year contract to succeed Rick Bowness, who was fired Monday after one season, one that saw him take the Bruins to the Stanley Cup semifinals.

Sutter, with St. Louis for 12 seasons as a player and the last four as a coach, was the winningest coach in the club’s history with a 153-124-43 record. But the Blues were eliminated by Chicago in the first round of the playoffs, the fourth consecutive year they failed to move past the second round.

That failure convinced the Blues to fire Sutter three days after the Chicago series, on May 1, St. Louis general manager Ron Caron said.

Asked about his disappointment at being fired by the Blues, Sutter said, “No question, but you’ve got to learn from everything you go through and every day is a learning experience in life. You can’t just learn, you have got to get better from it.

“That is the situation here, and we are looking to go up and beyond and be involved in better things and more successful things.”

The Bruins made it past the second round for the fourth time in five years, but that wasn’t enough to save Bowness’ job.

Sutter is the seventh Bruin coach since 1980 and the first brought in from outside the organization. The others were Harry Sinden (now the general manager), Gerry Cheevers, Butch Goring, Terry O’Reilly, Mike Milbury and Bowness, who spent two years as coach of Boston’s minor league team in Maine.

Sutter led St. Louis to its winningest season, 47-22-11, in 1990-91. But the Blues fell to 36-33-11 and finished third in the Norris Division last season.

Sutter had five younger brothers who played in the NHL. Two, Rich and Ron, finished last season with the Blues. In 1988, Brian succeeded Jacques Martin as coach of St. Louis.

As a player, Sutter was captain of the Blues for nine seasons. In 779 games, he had 303 goals and 333 assists. His No. 11 was retired by the Blues on Dec. 30, 1988.

He takes over a Bruins team coming off a rocky season that ended with promise, despite being swept in the Cup semifinals by Pittsburgh, which won its second consecutive title.

Despite constant personnel changes that resulted in 55 players appearing in Boston uniforms, Bowness led the Bruins to their 25th straight winning season, 36-32-12. But it was their second worst record in that span.