NHL insider reveals the real reason Jim Montgomery was fired.

The Boston Bruins stunned onlookers and fans alike this week when they made the controversial decision to fire head coach Jim Montgomery. Montgomery had, by all accounts, achieved tremendous success behind the bench of the Bruins since replacing Bruce Cassidy as head coach, including guiding the Bruins through one of the most tumultuous periods of roster turnover in the franchise's recent history.

In spite of the fact that the Bruins would lose arguably their best player, and their captain at that time, in star forward Patrice Bergeron, Montgomery managed to keep the team on track towards continued success posting an impressive record of 112-32-20 through his first two seasons as Bruins head coach.

Unfortunately for Montgomery that success would not continue in his third season behind the bench with the Bruins struggling out of the gate this year, and we all saw the end result of that this week when Montgomery was fired. But were the Bruins sudden struggles the only reason behind the decision? At least one National Hockey League insider appears to believe there was more than meets the eye at play here.

On Friday, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman made comments that alluded to the fact that a behind the scenes conflict within the Bruins front office may have played a significant role in Montgomery's fate this season.

"The one thing that I look at from everything that happened this week is, I hope there is a day where we get a chance to hear what kinda happened in those negotiations between the Bruins and Montgomery," said Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast. "Because I don't think it is as simple as they made him an offer and they couldn't come to a deal.... I think it was deeper than that."

Friedman isn't buying the idea that the inability of the two sides come to an agreement on the financial details of a deal resulted in Montgomery being fired, and instead believes that a difference in their respective visions regarding the team's future played a bigger part in all of this.

"I think it was more than just they couldn't reach financial terms, I think there was some talk over direction of the team," revealed Friedman. "I don't know if Sweeney and Montgomery saw the future the same way."

The insider also believes that general manager and head coach clashed over the assistant coaches that were a part of Montgomery's staff with the Bruins.

"Picking assistant coaches, that was a bit of a bone of contention between the two of them too," revealed Friedman.

Friedman would again reiterate his belief that a conflict between Bruins management and their coach may have been the root cause of this week's decision to fire Montgomery.

"I think it's not as simple as the obvious, I think there were some deeper philosophical disagreements there and I think at the end they kind of realized that maybe they just weren't compatible with each other."