TSN Hockey Insiders Pierre LeBrun and Gino Reda discuss fight speculation Boston Bruins.

‘Firing coach Jim Montgomery is the Bruins’ only logical move.’

That’s the headline of last night’s story, where the Bruins beat reporter Fluto Shinzawa after an embarrassing home loss to the Blue Jackets. Things were ugly in Boston. On this day last year, they had the best record in the league. They are now under .500 and in 18th place. What are you hearing from Boston?

Jim MontgomeryBoston BruinsPierre LeBrun: Yes. By the way, you can clearly see why Fluto, one of the best beat writers in the NHL, went this route after an embarrassing loss at home to Columbus. It’s been a brutal start to the year for a team with higher expectations. But at the same time, the obvious part of all this is that Jim Montgomery’s contract expires at the end of the season. The fact that a team is in this situation makes it even more obvious. It’s not that there weren’t conversations about an extension in the summer, there were, but it wasn’t done.

So where does it go from here? When I talked to other people around the league Monday night after that loss, there were people wondering if this had happened to Montgomery. Nothing from the Bruins so far today. They have a full day off, no training. They don’t play again until Thursday night.

You can’t blame everything on Jim Montgomery, even if he eventually pays the price. I met with (general manager) Don Sweeney two weeks ago for an article I wrote for The Athletic, and there’s a quote that still sticks with me: ‘If you look at our overall roster, you’ve got a lot of players,’ he said. these are off to a slow start. ‘It’s not just one player or two players, it’s a lot of players.’

Man, this got me. And you can read this comment in various ways. Was he protecting his coach at the time and placing the blame mostly on his players? Or was it about shifting blame around, meaning the players need to be better, but the coach has to find a way to get more out of these players and say, ‘I’m the GM who put this roster together.’ In a way, I think Sweeney puts himself out there, too.

There’s a lot of blame to go around here. Listen, this isn’t about a player, but Elias Lindholm He hasn’t been able to gain much traction since signing the massive seven-year deal with the Bruins. He wasn’t good at all, but again, he’s not the only one. David Pastrnak He was hit and miss, being benched one game a few weeks ago. Jeremy Swayman The loss of the camp clearly affected him. He’s not at his best.

So where does it go from here? A comment I received this morning from a rival team manager that I think is absolutely true; Despite all of this, and regardless of where the Bruins go from now on, the one thing that needs to be true is that they’ve been good forever, and this cap system doesn’t let you cheat from your father’s day. Eventually this lack of expectation and always going for it will catch up. We saw this in Pittsburgh, but the question is, did this happen in the United States as well? Boston Bruins?

Carolina Hurricanes They are flying. They have the highest scoring percentage in the East despite their No. 1 goaltender being out. Canes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said Friday: Frederik Andersen will be out ‘much longer’ than first thought. What are you hearing from Carolina?

Martin Necas Carolina Hurricanes-LeBrun: First, I would argue that Pyotyr Kochetkov is probably their #1 goaltender so far, but I guess we can discuss that another day.

I had a chance to chat with GM Eric Tulsky and listen, could he predict with certainty that the team would win 13 of its first 17 games? No. He understands why the outside world was a little skeptical (heading into this year) because they suffered such huge losses in the offseason. They lost (Brett) Pesci and (Brady) Skjei from the blueline. they lost Jake Guentzel after trying to re-sign acquisitions at the trade deadline. He understands, but he had a pretty solid response under the radar. All the new guys are adjusting but most importantly he didn’t trade Martin Necas.

We know that Necas requested a trade at the end of last season. He was unhappy with his role in the team, finishing third throughout the play-offs. There were serious trade discussions, as Tulsky confirmed. He met with many teams. According to my sources, 28 teams held talks with the Hurricanes regarding Necas. So why not? He is 25 years old. There were established teams, there were competing teams, everyone was in it. Winnipeg Jets He tried so hard to get it, Columbus Blue Jackets When former Carolina GM Don Waddell tried to nab him, Montreal made a series of inquiries. But at the end of the day, Tulsky said nothing on the table makes sense.

So they convinced him to re-sign the two-year deal. It ties Necas to UFA, but they’ll deal with that later. Meanwhile, he has 30 points from 17 matches and is in third place in the league standings. Yes, the Hurricanes are relieved and excited that the best trade they ever made was one they didn’t make of their own accord. Martin Necas.