The Boston Bruins made a tough coaching change yesterday when they announced they had fired Bruce Cassidy after six years as their head coach. After talking yesterday about Patrice Bergeron and his Selke Trophy win and also his potential contract extension, now it seems less likely he re-signs with Cassidy being let go.
The Boston Bruins are in a tough spot for their team. They have basically no cap space and have a few names they still need to get re-signed for next season. Their franchise center who just won a Selke Trophy for the fifth time is without a contract and going beyond this season they have a lot of players on expiring deals they are going to have to worry about.
Now, what out of that was Bruce Cassidy’s fault? The Boston Bruins have made the playoffs the past six years including a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2019 that took seven games to get decided. Cassidy also pushed the Carolina Hurricanes to seven games this past season, despite going down 2-0 at the start of the series, the Bruins rallied and pushed it to seven games.
Behind the Bruins benched he coached the team to a 245-108-46 record, and he won a Presidents’ Trophy as well as a Jack Adams trophy in 2020. Despite watching core members of this team like Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask leave the team in previous seasons, Cassidy has kept this team competitive and going on a chase for a Stanley Cup.
He has really helped bring the team together with the older core and newer core. With guys like David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy becoming star players within this organization. The Bruins have definitely been an exciting team under Cassidy and letting him go seems not like an issue with coaching and more like an issue with the management.
Here is what General Manager Don Sweeney had to say after the change was announced:
"“A really tough day overall, but I had to make a decision that I felt was in the best interest of where our team is right now and moving forward.”"
It is hard to imagine the Bruins do not rebuild after a change like this behind the bench. While there are a lot of great coaches available right now, few would argue against the fact that Cassidy did a great job with this team. While a change might make sense if this team is not the best they can be, this is arguably the best any coach could make the Bruins.
Looks like this team could be heading towards a rebuild under a new coach but time will tell.