In Feb. 2017, the Bruins fired Claude Julien and were widely ripped for the decision. Julien was the winningest coach in franchise history. He had coached the team to its first Stanley Cup in 39 years. It was not his fault that Boston had missed the playoffs the previous two years and was in danger of doing so again. There was only so much he could’ve done with a roster that had been depleted by former general manager Peter Chiarelli’s missteps in his final couple years.
As it turned out, though, a coaching change did help. The new voice of Bruce Cassidy was a welcome one. It wasn’t that Julien had forgotten how to coach or that Cassidy was “better.” He just happened to be better for those Bruins, at that time.
Five years later, it is entirely possible that history repeats itself. The Bruins fired Cassidy Monday night. No one would be foolish enough to argue that he wasn’t a very good head coach.
Reacting to Bruins' decision to fire Bruce Cassidy
Cassidy led the 2016-17 Bruins to the playoffs after taking over for Julien, and he took them back every year since. He won at least one round in four of those six trips and helped take the team to the Stanley Cup Final in 2019. His 245 wins are tied for third in franchise history; his .672 winning percentage ranks fourth.
No coach lasts forever, though. More specifically, no coach’s voice gets through to his team forever. In fact, “voice” is the only reason general manager Don Sweeney gave in his statement announcing Cassidy’s firing.
“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,” Sweeney said.
Team president Cam Neely said after the season that he wanted to see a change in playing style to produce more 5-on-5 offense and a change in how young players were handled. He called Cassidy a “fantastic coach” -- and did again on Monday -- but said his fate would ultimately be decided by Sweeney.
Cassidy’s replacement might get more offense out of this team. He might be better for younger players. Heck, he might even be better for older players. ESPN’s John Buccigross, for one, fired off a couple cryptic tweets that seemingly suggested the likes of Patrice Bergeron and/or David Krejci might be likelier to return now that Cassidy is gone.
Sweeney and Neely better hope any or all of that comes to pass. They better hope they find someone who’s better for this current group than Cassidy was.
Otherwise, it looks like they fired Cassidy to distract from their own mistakes and buy themselves time. Because the truth is that Cassidy was not the Bruins’ biggest problem. Far from it.
It is not Cassidy’s fault that Sweeney has not been able to put together a succession plan for Krejci and Bergeron at the center position. It is not Cassidy’s fault that Sweeney has whiffed on so many of his draft picks, leaving the team with a dearth of impact young players in recent years. It is not Cassidy’s fault that Sweeney’s attempts to address offensive depth -- Nick Ritchie, Ondrej Kase, Nick Foligno, Tomas Nosek -- have flopped.
If anything, Cassidy deserves credit for his midseason lineup juggling that got this year’s forward corps to at least reach some level of respectability.
A new coach isn’t bringing a future No. 1 center with him. He’s not bringing other blue-chip prospects or better depth players either. Those are problems Sweeney needs to fix, and doing so is going to require more work than making Cassidy the sacrificial lamb.
A coaching change may ultimately be part of the solution for the Bruins. But if Sweeney or anyone else thinks it solves their biggest problems, they’re delusional.
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