After years of rumours that it would happen, the Boston Bruins did officially fire head coach Claude Julien Tuesday morning, promoting assistant Bruce Cassidy into the interim head coaching position.
While Julien departs as the all-time winningest coach in Bruins history and a Stanley Cup winner from 2011, Cassidy is a far less-known person for fans an onlookers.
Cassidy, 51, is a former NHLer who played 36 games in the league spread across six different seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks. He spent most of his playing days in the IHL and retired as a member of the Indianapolis Ice during the 1996-97 season.
That same year he got his first head coaching gig with the terrifically named Jacksonville Lizard Kings of the ECHL. He coached the next five seasons in the ECHL and IHL and was the head man for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins for one season until the Washington Capitals came calling. In 2002-03, Cassidy guided the Jaromir Jagr-led Capitals to a 39-win season and a first-round playoff exit. He was fired eight wins and 25 games into the next season, when Glen Hanlon took over.
Cassidy hasn’t been a head coach on an NHL bench since, but was with the AHL’s Providence Bruins (five seasons as head coach) from 2008 until this season, when the Bruins promoted him to an NHL assistant.
So it’s been a while since Cassidy has had the lead job on an NHL team, not holding that position since the game radically changed coming out of the 2004-05 lost season lock out.[snippet]
In his press conference Tuesday, he joked about what has changed in the game since the last time he was in the NHL by saying there were far fewer mullets today, but he also touched on the cap implications in roster construction and the fact the NHL is more of a development league than ever before. Whereas prior to 2004-05 veterans ruled the league, now as core players get younger and younger he said they can sometimes be put into the league earlier than they’re ready so there’s more real developing going on.
The Bruins fired Julien as the team had the second-lowest PDO in the league and one of the worst overall team save percentages despite boasting the league’s best possession numbers, which all suggests they’re primed for a second-half rebound to some degree. So it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that Cassidy doesn’t plan on any radical changes, saying it’s time to figure out certain things like if Ryan Spooner a full-time centre, where David Backes fits in most effectively and who are the best linemates for David Krejci.[sidebar]
“I’m going to try not to approach this as an interim coach — I’m going to try to be a head coach in every manner,” Cassidy said.
“We’re not going to re-invent the wheel system-wise. I thought there was a lot of good things in place. We’re just going to try and tighten up a few areas in our own end in terms of getting pucks back a little quicker and hopefully at the offensive end being a little more opportunistic with our chances. Tinker with our offensive zone play a little bit in terms of encouraging our forwards to attack the net more from the half wall, using the back of the net forcing teams to defend the front of the net as opposed to maybe playing on the perimeter going from low to high.”
The biggest question around the Bruins may have to do with the workload of starter Tuukka Rask, who has been as brilliant as his backups have been miserable this season. Cassidy said Rask will play the “lion’s share” of games, which is something the 29-year-old goalie is certainly used to, but could also limit how far the Bruins’ resurgence goes if fatigue becomes a factor.
NHL.com Bruins writer Amalie Benjamin was on Sportsnet 590 the Fan’s Jeff Blair Show Tuesday morning and touched on what she knew about the new interim boss.
“He spent five years coaching the Providence Bruins,” she said. “He’s well-respected and was elevated to assistant coach this year. I don’t know if this is something that could stick in the long term, we’ll see. In Providence Bruce Cassidy was candid with the media so we’ll see if that continues. Sometimes you see a bump after a coach gets fired, like with the Islanders after (Jack) Capuano.”
That bump is, perhaps, a big part of why the Bruins finally axed Julien after these rumours followed him off and on for six years. They’re just one point out of a playoff spot, although they have played more games than any other Eastern Conference team to this point.
All indications from underlying numbers, however, suggest the Bruins are on the precipice of maybe not returning to true contender status, but certainly getting some better luck which should help with their playoff push.
And if they do surge and reach the post-season that could give Cassidy the inside track for the full-time job, which the team said it would start to look to fill in the off-season.
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