In a move that seemingly came out of nowhere, the Boston Bruins have fired head coach Bruce Cassidy. Boston is a few weeks removed from being bounced out of the playoffs in seven games by the Carolina Hurricanes. The team announced it officially on Twitter:

They haven't announced a replacement and the coaching search is getting underway.

In my opinion, this seems like a very weird move. Boston had some very good games in that series against Carolina but got the worst goaltending (by 5-on-5 save percentage) of any team in the postseason. Beyond that, we got news after their season was ended that Brad Marchand had surgery on both hips, while Charlie McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk, and Mike Reilly all needed surgeries that will require anywhere from 3-6 months for recovery. On top of that, over the weekend, Patrice Bergeron was seen at an MMA event wearing a brace on his left arm. It seems like several key players were far less than 100% and their goaltending failed them. Beyond that, the team failed to replace David Krejci, with all due respect to Erik Haula. Those don’t seem like things that should be laid at the coach's feet. If the roster is anywhere close to healthy, they might still be playing hockey.

Boston made the postseason all five full seasons under Cassidy, advancing past the first round four times, and to the Cup Final once. Boston was second in wins and second in points across the league in those five campaigns, trailing only Tampa Bay. They had the second-best goal differential in that span, again behind the Lightning. This was one of the best teams in the league for several years, but the East has been very tough of late, and the lack of Cups must be weighing on management.

One reason could be wanting to change how the Bruins play, particularly on offence. This isn't really a high-paced team and perhaps they want to go more in the direction of teams like Florida, Carolina, and Colorado. They need the personnel to do that and, again, they'll have a few key players out with injury to start the season. Boston also doesn't have a deep prospect pool. But if they're going to make a change, doing it early in the offseason is the time to do it.

We can't really assess what the future will look like until they hire a new coach, but this now puts a good coach on the open market. It will similarly be hard to judge the roster even when the injured guys return as jumping into the middle of a season coming off shoulder or hip surgery is never easy. It is a new era in Boston, though, and there are clearly Cup aspirations in mind.