Why Bruins firing Cassidy is a mistake and fails to address the real issue originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Bruce Cassidy era in Boston is over, and the Bruins are worse off because of it.
The Bruins announced Monday they fired their longtime head coach. Cassidy was the fourth-longest tenured head coach in the NHL entering Monday, having been hired in February of 2017 when he replaced Claude Julien.
“After taking some time to fully digest everything, I felt that the direction of our team for both this season and beyond would benefit from a new voice,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said in a press release.
Even though anyone who listened to the end-of-season press conferences with team president Cam Neely and Sweeney last month shouldn’t be completely surprised by this decision, it’s still very much a bad one.
Put simply, Cassidy did the best he could each year he was on the job and consistently got the most out of rosters that were too often flawed, either with a lack of talent, depth or both.
The Bruins reached the playoffs in all six seasons that Cassidy was the head coach. In that time, the Bruins had the second-most wins of any team during the regular season and the fourth-most playoff victories. The Bruins won at least one playoff round in four of his six seasons behind the bench, and in 2019 they were one win away from a Stanley Cup title.
The Bruins reached the playoffs in all six seasons that Cassidy was the head coach. In that time, the Bruins had the second-most wins of any team during the regular season and the fourth-most playoff victories. The B’s won at least one playoff round in four of his six years behind the bench.
Nick Goss on Cassidy’s impressive tenure in Boston
You could make a strong argument the Bruins actually overachieved with Cassidy. The fact that they won 51 games this past season with one legit top-six center, plenty of injuries, 10-plus players getting COVID-19, blue line concerns and a lack of scoring depth, was actually a…