BOSTON — Coaches and managers come and go. Sometimes they come back again with a new team, and it’s a major news story if it’s, say, Bill Parcells, Terry Francona or Doc Rivers.

And then there’s Jim Montgomery, the former coach of the Boston Bruins. The man they call Monty returned to TD Garden on Thursday night, this time as coach of the St. Louis Blues, and it was his first business trip to Boston since the Bruins fired him a little over a year ago. The Bruins showed video of Montgomery on the center ice flat screens during the first TV timeout, and there was polite applause, and then it was back to the game. From a wins-and-losses perspective, it was decidedly not many happy returns for Montgomery and the Blues, who were handed a 5-2 beating by the Bruins.

From a purely hockey perspective, Montgomery’s return to the Garden wasn’t particularly noteworthy. He coached the Bruins for two full seasons plus the first 20 games of last season. And then he was let go — “I got fired,” Montgomery said with a chuckle during a media session during Thursday’s morning skate — with Joe Sacco stepping in as interim coach for the remainder of the season.

“Lot of great memories… the great players, the management that I got the opportunity to work with, everybody here made me better in my opinion.”

Hear from Jim Montgomery ahead of his return to Boston Thursday night. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/WyZIDSy8Gp

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) December 4, 2025

But if you’re able to follow the twisted logic here, the fact that his return was not news was, in a way, news in itself. As all Bruins fans know, Jim Montgomery is, as he put it, “a reformed alcoholic.” This was made clear when the Bruins introduced him as their new head coach on July 11, 2022. Montgomery, too, placed his alcoholism front and center that day when he said, “For me, in my life, sobriety, family and hockey are the three most important things now.”

The 2022-23 Bruins amassed a 65-12-5 record and 135 points under Montgomery. The 65 victories set an NHL record. Same with the 135 points. The ’22-23 Bruins set a bunch of other records, but you get the idea: They were really, really good. And then they were shown the door in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Florida Panthers. The Bruins racked up 109 points the next season; this time, they made it to the second round before being sent home by the Panthers.

And then came the 2024-25 season, and Montgomery was gone before Thanksgiving. We can debate the whys and wherefores, but alcoholism wasn’t one of the problems. Just five days after being fired by the Bruins, Montgomery was hired by the Blues to be their head coach.

Montgomery’s session with the media at Thursday morning’s skate was boilerplate stuff. His alcoholism was mentioned just once, and by accident. Montgomery mentioned having had dinner the night before at Bricco in Boston’s North End, and then somebody said something about ordering up the restaurant’s espresso martini, explaining it was the best in the city.

“No,” Montgomery said. “You know what? I asked if they have a virgin one because I’m a reformed alcoholic. So, no, I didn’t get the full-powered one.”

No fuss, no muss. Just a nonchalant answer to a well-intended question gone bad.

And then came Montgomery’s postgame media availability Thursday night, which lasted about a minute-and-a-half. “The Bruins are good,” he said by way of introduction, and it was all downhill from there. Just a bunch of short retorts and sentence fragments.

What areas do you want to be better in?

“Every one,” Montgomery said.

Defensively, where do you think the breakdowns happened for you guys?

“Poor reloads, poor gaps.”

What did you think of goaltender Jordan Binnington tonight?

“I think Jordan Binnington was one of our better players tonight. If it wasn’t for him, it could have been a lot worse.”

And on it went like that for another minute, with Montgomery talking about “effort,” and doing so with emphasis. There was a pause in the questioning, and Montgomery used it as an escape hatch.

“Thank you,” he said, with a little flair, and off he went.

It’s generally not good form when coaches and managers can’t manage to hang around a postgame media availability for more than 90 seconds. Yes, there’s a fan element that loves it when the coach/managers are miserable with the media, but it all gets tired after a while. Bill Belichick’s act was hilarious when the New England Patriots were going to the Super Bowl every year, but then came all the bad post-Tom Brady football and the Hoodie wasn’t funny anymore. In Montgomery’s case, nobody’s giving him an attaboy for his 90-second news conference after his team’s bow-wow performance against the Bruins.

It’s just that in this case, Montgomery felt no need to be performative simply because he was back in Boston. He had already played Captain Nice at the morning skate, and now, speaking with the media barely 15 minutes after his team had submitted a stinker against the Bruins, he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, reach for any cologne to pretty it up.

The message here? The Bruins made a gutsy decision to hire Montgomery in the first place, and then a somewhat controversial decision when they fired him. Did Monty lose the room? Was he a scapegoat? Call now. Lines are open.

However it played out, Montgomery went on with his life, and part of that life includes coaching hockey. Boston is where his career was reborn. Now Boston is merely a stop on the schedule, with a little free time to step out to the North End for fine pasta. But no time, and no interest, in the best espresso martini in town.