By : Mike Rifkin
On Monday night the Boston Bruins announced they had fired head coach Bruce Cassidy. Cassidy had a record of 245-108-46 and led the Bruins to the playoffs every year in his six seasons, including going to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2019. This year the Bruins fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in seven game in the first round. The Bruins have made the playoffs every year since 2016
Now there are a lot of interesting candidates out on the market right now. Barry Trotz, Peter Deboer, John Tortorella and Paul Maurice are good coaches but so is Cassidy. Under Cassidy the Bruins averaged 3.14 goals per game and allowed 2.53 goals per game. This season the Bruins averaged 3.09 goals per game and allowed 2.66. Under Cassidy the Bruins power play connected at near 24 percent, this year it was down to 21.2 percent. The Bruins penalty kill was 82.8 percent under Cassidy and 81.3 percent this year.
After last season second line Center David Krejci left the team to go play in his home country of the Czech Republic. Replacing Krejci was hard because he was so important to the Bruins at even strength, power play and penalty kill. In 962 games for the Bruins Krejci had 730 points. Second line center was a hole in the Bruins lineup the bulk of the season. They needed to spread out their scoring that Cassidy had to break up the “Perfection Line” of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak. Those three guys combined for 97 goals and 222 points. Goalie Tuukka Rask attempted to comeback from hip surgery and appeared in four games before getting injured again and eventually announced his retirement. Rookie Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark who they signed from the Buffalo Sabres both first time starters had a goals against average under 3 and save percentage of .914 and .917 respectively. Swayman went 3-2 with a 2.63 goals against average and .911 save percentage against the Hurricanes.
Bergeron broke the record by winning his fifth Selke Trophy. At 36 years old Bergeron is an unrestricted free agent has not decided what his future holds. I don’t know if Cassidys firing sways him one way or the other. Marchand is signed through 2025-26 season but will miss the start of next season due to surgery on both hips. Pastrnak has one more year on his contract at 6.6 Million dollars. With Marchand, and defensemen Charlie Mcavoy and Matt Grzelyck who both underwent shoulder surgery missing the start of next season it will be interesting what the Bruins do with Pastrnak.
They have three options when it comes to Pastrnak. Option one is extending one of the premier goal scorers in the NHL. Option two would be explore a trade for him right now and they could get a haul. Option three and is they hold onto him until the trade deadline next year and see where they are before making a determination. If I was Don Sweeny I would extend Pastrnak. But I also wouldn’t have fired Cassidy with what he dealt with injury wise this year. Even if rebuilding you center the rebuild around Pastrnak and Mcavoy. Either way there might be some changes Bruin in Boston.
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