Boston Bruins: Takeaways from Bruce Cassidy’s interview with ESPN

Boston Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy tends to be one of the most open figures on the team. In fact, he might be one of the most open in the league!

So, it’s no surprise that Cassidy revealed some good information in an interview with ESPN’s One Ice podcast.

Cassidy won’t drop Pastrnak from the top line…yet

As you can imagine, the first topic Cassidy discussed was the presence of David Pastrnak on his top line.

Pastrnak is definitely the team’s MVP so far this year with 10 goals. He leads the league in that category, and he emerged as one of the top players in the Atlantic Division.

Cassidy appeared to be a bit uneasy about moving Pastrnak off the top line. There’s no guarantee that line would put up similar production without Pastrnak on the right.

Typically I’m not gonna break it up until I’m comfortable with the line that Pasta’s going to go to. Right now David Krejci’s out with an injury. Pasta has good chemistry with him. I’m not gonna drop him now, simply because I don’t think it makes us better.

Cassidy didn’t, however, totally rule out putting Pastrnak with David Krejci one he’s back from an injury. But, for now, Pastrnak will remain on the first line.

Rask and Halak will continue to split duties

Here’s an obvious one: Cassidy said that Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak will continue to split duties in net for Boston.

If your team doesn’t have confidence in the guy going in 35 times a year, then that’s a problem. So we’re lucky that way. That’s how we go about it, and we’re not going to change.

Cassidy cited last year as the perfect example of the goaltending plan in action. Halak’s play meant that the Bruins could manage Rask’s minutes all season. Rask only appeared in 46 games last year. Here are his previous games played: 54, 65, 64, 70.

Because of the reduced workload, Rask was fresh for long playoff run. He was Boston’s best and most consistent player throughout the playoffs.

Cassidy hopes history repeats itself this year with Rask and Halak. This has certainly been the case so far.

Rask started the season in great form with four wins in his first five starts. Halak, too, played well in net for Boston.

With Rask and Halak splitting duties, the Bruins look poised for another run.

Defensive system focuses on layers

The Bruins certainly have been one of the strongest teams defensively over the past few years. They consistently finish near the top of the league for fewest goals allowed.

Cassidy attributed this success to the team’s defensive philosophy that Claude Julien instituted.

Boston doesn’t play a man to man system. Rather, the team utilizes layers to defend the opposition.

We opened up things a bit more in the last few years offensively, but we tried not to lose our identity on the defensive side. For us, it’s all about layers.

What this means is that the forwards and defensemen don’t shadow individual opponents. Instead, they occupy their own areas in the defensive zone.

Ultimately, if opposing forwards break down Boston’s defense, they need to go through differ layers. They don’t simply have to beat their man.

The Bruins defense obviously benefits from the presence of Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron. Cassidy made that very clear. That said, the system more than anything else sets Boston apart from other teams.