It's a little more than an hour before Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final, and Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy isn't in his office.
Just a little more than an hour before his first-ever third-round playoff game as a coach in the NHL, Cassidy is mingling just outside the area where the media is eating its pregame meal before the Bruins take on the Carolina Hurricanes.
A chat with a coach over here, a chat with a broadcaster and former teammate over there. They're not going over X's or O's, they're not trying to figure out how the Bruins can prevent opposing penalty kills from piling up shorthanded scoring chances.
At a time when many coaches would be stressing out over the upcoming game in their office, Cassidy is as cool a customer as there is – a Fonzie in attitude even more than the last coach he beat in a best-of-7 series, John Tortorella, is a Fonzie lookalike.
"To be honest, I'm not really too sure what more he can do 60 minutes before the game," said one Bruins player not quoted in this story.
The Bruins are seven wins from their second Stanley Cup championship in nine years, but regardless of how this postseason run ends Cassidy has clearly proven his style of coaching – both in terms of demeanor and strategy – works. Even as the Bruins have injected young, inexperienced players en masse into their lineup every season he's been at the helm, and even as his veteran core has aged, the Bruins have dominated the regular season the past two years and gone one round deeper in the playoffs each of his three years behind the bench.
There's no reason to be bouncing off the walls of an office or staring at a lineup card for an hour when you've put in all the pregame prep work, communicated everything your players need to know and 100 percent believe in yourself and your team. So why not take some time to catch up with old friends?
"With all of us before these playoffs games, you get the butterflies going before the next 60 minutes of hockey, you don't know what's coming," Bruins forward David Backes said. "Some channel it by being quiet and envisioning what's coming next. He gets a little chatter box at times, and if that's how he does it that's fine by me. It seems to work."
Cassidy's the most transparent coach in the NHL. Sometimes before game day, and never later than the morning skate, he'll let you know who's starting in goal and who's in the rest of his lineup. Want to know how the Bruins have adjusted their penalty kill or why their defensemen are taking fewer shots? He'll tell you.
He's not into gamesmanship because he knows every team has scouts and video and can learn things on their own, and also he has faith in his team being better than yours, in his coaching being up to the task.
Imagine how his transparency translates to the dressing room, bench and ice during practice with his players. There's no beating around the bush, he's going to tell you exactly what he wants from you, and exactly how he feels about you – positive or negative.
"Well he's great," defenseman Torey Krug said. "That's one of the things that he does well. With anyone, there's times where he gets a little excited and emotional, and sometimes you just look over your shoulder and you're like 'OK, let's take a deep breath here and relax.'
"But he knows when he needs to get us going, he knows when some guys need a kick in the rear end to get going and get moving. I think having a pulse on a team in a situation like that is crucial. I think what he understands most is taking a step back and realizing there's going to be ups and downs, there's going to be things that go wrong. It's just how we respond to those things."
With Cassidy behind the bench, the Bruins haven't just won a lot more than they've lost, they've seemingly never been out of a game. Down a goal heading into Game 7 against Toronto last season, they pulled it out. They came back from 3-2 down in this year's series against the Maple Leafs to win in seven. Down a goal in the third against Carolina in Game 1 on Thursday, the Bruins scored four times.
The players believe in their talent, and their coach believes in them and keeps them from panicking. They have the game plan and it's up to them to execute it without a coach trying to micromanage their every action.
"I think whatever you team, it kind of takes on your coach's personality," forward Sean Kuraly said. "His vibes or whatever he gives kind of bleeds through the team. So you know in all ways that's usually kind of what you see through the team is kind of a lot of times the leadership and the coaches. So yeah, that's probably a lot to do with it."
The NHL is as much a copy-cat league as any other. Perhaps Cassidy's success while staying cool will resonate with some of the crotchety members of the coaching fraternity.
Others coaches probably won't follow Cassidy's lead, but his players certainly do. And he's unlikely to change the more success he enjoys while being himself.
That's cool.
The Big Bad Blog is presented by:
