Boston Bruins: Take ‘Interim’ Off Bruce Cassidy’s Title
Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney should wrap up his search for a head coach and take the ‘interim’ off the title of B’s current head coach, Bruce Cassidy.
Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney has been on a bit of a roll these last few weeks.
Sweeney has made several smart moves in the last month. He fired long time coach Claude Julien and went in a new direction by promoting assistant coach Bruce Cassidy to the ‘interim’ head coaching position. He then picked up forward Drew Stafford for pittance (a provisional sixth-round draft pick), and Stafford has been solid (borderline outstanding) for the Black and Gold.
Cassidy has gone 10-3 since he took over as the B’s bench boss. His leadership has brought the Bruins back into a playoff position. The odds of the B’s (once a depressing 1-in-4 under Julien) are now 76.3%.
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Cassidy was exactly what the Bruins needed at just the right time. Under Julien, the Bruins were falling out of a playoff position. They had several multiple game losing streaks, and the talk around Boston was that Claude had finally lost the ear of the players in the locker room.
Did Julien lose the ear of the Bruins? In all honesty, probably not. Claude Julien also had no problem with developing young players.
Claude’s biggest gripe was his issue with players whose glaring defensive problems gave up goals. Those players happened to be Ryan Spooner, Colin Miller, and Frank Vatrano. Now, these young players are talking up how they didn’t feel that Claude liked them. Claude didn’t hate the players, he hated the way they played the game.
Cassidy did something Claude Julien never did. He got the younger kids to go all-in with the team. Spooner’s playing better. Vatrano’s playing better. The young players are learning from their mistakes and putting up more points for it.
Now look at how he’s changed the Bruins overall. He’s taken a team that was designed to play two-way, defensive hockey and turned them into a frightfully aggressive scoring machine. They’re putting up 3.5 goals a game under Cassidy, nearly a goal a game more than under Julien.
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Also, the Bruins shouldn’t have an ‘interim’ head coach going into the playoffs. It doesn’t look right. The organization should recognize the effort Cassidy’s put in here and reward him for it.