Breaking down the Boston Bruins head coach opening

Who will be the next Boston Bruins head coach? After the unexpected dismissal of Bruce Cassidy, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney and team president Cam Neely are searching for the next bench boss. To many, the wrong person was fired.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Cassidy and some of his methods. His willingness to shuffle the lines was annoying. Cassidy’s frequency of moving players up and down the lines was frustrating to watch. The standard had been keeping groups together to develop chemistry. How would that chemistry develop under these circumstances? And how many young players developed under Cassidy’s watch?

At the same time, Cassidy got results. Moving David Pastrnak down to the second line created some much needed scoring depth on offense. And Jake DeBrusk thrived playing alongside Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand.

A .672 win percentage is a .672 win percentage. Cassidy achieved that despite the dwindling talent he was provided with year after year. Maybe he deserved another year with better players to coach. And maybe Cassidy will get that in 2022-23; It just won’t be in Boston.

As much as Sweeney and Neely are vetting candidates, so are the coaches examining whether what the Bruins have to offer is worth accepting. There are a lot of questions Sweeney and Neely must answer to give the next coach peace of mind that they will have control of managing the team and long-term job security, and the answers to those questions will ultimately help determine who the next coach of the Bruins will be.