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If you’ve been keeping eyes on Bruins land over the last few weeks, you knew this was coming, but now it’s official: the Boston Bruins have fired head coach Jim Montgomery.

The team made the announcement late Tuesday afternoon, the day after a bad 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The loss dropped the B’s record to 8-9-3 on the year, and it was the final straw for Montgomery, who was let go and will be replaced by associate coach Joe Saccon on an interim basis.

“Today, I made a very difficult decision with regards to a coaching change. Jim Montgomery is a very good NHL coach and an even better person,” GM Don Sweeney said in a statement. He has made a positive impact throughout the Bruins organization, and I am both grateful and appreciative of the opportunity to work with him and learn from him.”

This is about as interesting as a coaching decision as you’ll see.

While the Bruins didn’t see a ton of postseason success under Mongomery, their first two regular seasons after he took over were spectacular, with his debut season — 2022-23 — being one of the best regular seasons in NHL history.

The team had a solid 2023-24 season as well, even without franchise great Patrice Bergeron in the fold. 

So, while you could get the sense from the rumors and an argument or two on the bench between Montgomery and captain Brad Marchand (though Marchand defended him after one of them) that this was coming… is this the right idea for the Bruins?

Sure, something has to be done, but you’d think that Montgomery might have a bit longer of a leash given his first two seasons. Plus, while swapping out the coach is usually step numero uno in flipping a team around mid-season — and we’ve seen it work quite a few times — it won’t necessarily fix the issues facing the Bruins pretty much everywhere on the ice; on offense, on the blue line, and in net.

Maybe this is exactly what the Bruins needed to turn their season around, but I think this is just the start of the retooling the Bruins will need to do to get back to the top of the Atlantic Division.