Bruins Release Head Coach Cassidy
On Monday, June 6, 2022, the Boston Bruins announced that they had released head coach Bruce Cassidy from his position as bench boss. The furor on Twitter from fans was not surprising as they saw a winning coach—Cassidy’s record was 245-108-46 in 399 games over six seasons as head coach in Boston—dismissed. There appeared to be no apparent reason and it happened just 23 days after the Bruins first round postseason exit.
Within the organization, Cassidy had been involved with the Bruins for 14 years. He was promoted from his position as head coach of the Providence Bruins—where he had been head coach of Boston’s AHL affiliate since the 2011-12 season—in February, 2017 when GM Don Sweeney relieved Claude Julien as head coach.
During Cassidy’s time behind the bench, he took the Boston Bruins to the playoffs in all six seasons. The problem? They had two first round losses, three second round losses and there was the Game 7 Stanley Cup Final loss on home ice in 2019 to the St. Louis Blues.
There is no denying that when Cassidy was brought to Boston that the team responded. New voices in a locker room are always head. This past season saw some troubling trends with the team though.
There was the loss of David Krejci who elected to return to Czechia to play this year. It was overheard that in part Krejci’s choice was motivated by the revolving wingmen and not having David Pastrnak on his line. The two played in the IIHF World Championship on the same line this past May and earned the bronze medal for Czechia–eliminating Team USA.
Sweeney brought in Taylor Hall to put on the Krejci line and perhaps had Pastrnak been on that line things would have been different. For whatever reason, Cassidy seemed determine to keep Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Pastrnak together on the top line.
Slow starts were becoming more apparent especially at the beginning of the 2021-22 season. The team certainly hit a hot zone in January and February. Hall was paired with Erik Haula and ultimately Pastrnak was added to the second line. They began to make things happen. No one expected Haula to take up the second line center position, but the linemates found some good chemistry and contributed to the team.
The Bruins managed to get themselves in a solid wild card position for the playoffs, but opposing goals scored within the final minute or two of periods was an ugly trend as the season wore on, one that there seemed to be no answer for.
Jake DeBrusk let the Bruins organization know he was hoping for a trade. The news, and his lack of willingness to truly spell out his reasons, unfortunately made it look like he was the unreasonable one in the situation. Given how things have shaken out, one has to wonder if his request was in response to things in the locker room that the fans never saw.
During Sweeney’s press conference on Tuesday morning, he also alluded to some difficulties that Cassidy had with assistant coach Kevin Dean.
“I had met with the coaching staff like I normally do to go over not only the year and their feeling of where our team was and what we were capable of achieving. And then I met with Bruce afterwards as well talking about his staff. At that point in time, he had made a decision that Kevin Dean wasn’t going to be extended. We had talks during the course of the year about he and Kevin and their relationship. Everybody was aware that there was a little friction there at some point in time,” Sweeney said.
Apparently, the players were also voicing some concerns in their exit interviews.
“We have gone through exit meetings. I have done it at every level. They’re not driving the bus in terms of making my decisions. I honestly believe that they impact our hockey club more than any of us. They’re invested and I think they want to know how invested the organization is. I think taking anything away from what they’re trying to accomplish as a group, you know, I honestly believe it doesn’t matter what they’re necessarily saying individually. It’s collectively as a group and how much they think they can accomplish, and they agreed with me because I had used a statement that we left something on the table, and they felt the same way. Young or old, I think there is a message delivery that I think a new voice will resonate with them,” Sweeney said.
“We left something on the table.” — Don Sweeney
No one can deny that Cassidy has passion for the game and for winning. He’s always shot from the hip when dealing with the media and the players. He has never called out a player publicly that he hadn’t already taken aside and shared his criticism. Cassidy could be considered an “old school” coach who wants things done a specific way. That approach can work in some locker rooms, though like other methods there could be a shelf life to such a coaching strategy.
The Bruins as an organization are waiting to hear Bergeron’s decision in regard to the future of his career. There have been multiple surgery announcements that will keep Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, and Matt Grzelcyk, and others out for five or more months. The team will be relying on some of their younger players, and perhaps Sweeney decided now was a good time to make a coaching change.
Only time will tell if this was the right decision or if the organization ultimately needs to look higher up on the org chart to get the team back to what Boston is known to be—a hardworking, physical, winning team.
