98.5 The Sports Hub’s Mike Felger, facing heat for his “rehab” and “panic juice” comments about Bruins coach Jim Montgomery, says his remarks were not about Monty’s alcoholism history.

The leading sports radio voice in New England was getting dragged on social media following his Tuesday comment about the Bruins coach, who has been open about his addiction struggles.

The hosts on “Felger and Mazz” in the last week have been grilling the Bruins for panicking as they choked away the 3-1 series lead to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and were almost eliminated in Game 7. The Bruins were drinking “panic juice” and blowing it, the hosts have said.

After that thrilling Game 7 OT win, the narrative has completely flipped.

“All of a sudden, guess who’s got all the answers,” Felger said of Montgomery during Tuesday’s show. “All of a sudden, guess who’s like this master manipulator.

“The dude who had to go back into rehab from drinking the panic juice, (Jim) Murray,” Felger added as he addressed “Big Jim” Murray. “Like chugging the panic juice. All of a sudden, I’m getting like emails on this, like, ‘How do you like Monty?’ ‘Look at Monty now.’ And like all of a sudden, this guy was that close. He was that close to getting dumped. To getting fired and getting out of here.”

“It’s a little much for me,” Felger added about the sudden praise for Monty.

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Later in the show, Felger got an email from a listener about the “panic juice” comment.

“Our allusion to panic juice is not alcohol,” Felger said. “It’s not Montgomery or anything. It’s just the Bruins pass around a jug of panic juice when they get up in these series and start squeezing the stick. Montgomery takes a giant swig and starts changing his lineup for no reason, and they’re all swigging the panic juice.”

“It had nothing to do with his past,” Felger added.

In 2019, Montgomery was abruptly fired as the Dallas Stars coach for “unprofessional conduct.” Facing the problem head-on, he soon revealed that he was battling alcoholism and he subsequently entered a rehab program. In a statement at the time, Montgomery said that losing his job “was a wakeup call. It was also the appropriate call.”

Following Felger’s comments about Montgomery, he was getting slammed on social media.

“Typically I don’t rip on Felger because yes he can be annoying, but he’s a radio personality trying to attract attention, that’s how he does his job,” a social media user wrote. “This, however, is just insensitive and uncalled for.”

“This is vile,” another person wrote. “What an awful, unfunny, disgusting ‘joke’ to make.”