Ability to Adapt Helped Cassidy Break Through

BostonBruins.com - Bruce Cassidy knew that he would have to adapt.
It was December 2003, and after just 107 games behind the Washington Capitals bench, the 38-year-old was relieved of his duties, forcing him to start from scratch after reinventing a once promising hockey career that began as a first-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 1983.
As a first-time head coach in the National Hockey League, Cassidy admitted there were plenty of mishaps, all of which he would have to shore up if he wanted another chance.

"The biggest thing back then was trying to do too much sometimes instead of just letting the job organically flow and stick to your principles and ideas and what you believe in," Cassidy explained. "Back then when things didn't work out there were some insecurity issues…the message [was] be comfortable in what you believe in and just find the appropriate way to communicate it and teach it on the days it's not going so well."
Seventeen years later, it would appear that Cassidy learned those lessons quite well.
On Wednesday evening, just over a week removed from the end of his third full season behind the Bruins bench, the 55-year-old was named the winner of the Jack Adams Award, presented annually to the coach who has contributed most to his team's success.
"First of all, I'm 17 years older," Cassidy said when asked what has changed the most since his first NHL gig with the Capitals. "You should learn in that time, no matter what you're doing - any career, any walk of life - you should be better at what you do if you use your eyes and ears."
Cassidy becomes the fourth coach in team history to capture the Jack Adams, joining Don Cherry (1976), Pat Burns (1998), and his predecessor, Claude Julien (2009), on a list that the Ottawa native and lifelong Bruins fan feels privileged to now be a part of.
"My mom was a Habs fan, my Dad, Toronto…I happened to pick Boston. So, to follow those guys and be able to do it here is an unbelievable honor," said Cassidy, who joined the Bruins organization as an assistant with Providence in 2008. "I even look back further. I still have a relationship with Harry Sinden who is good to talk to periodically. You look back to Milt Schmidt. You go way back, there's so many good Bruins coaches over the years.
"And obviously I was fortunate to work with Claude…I'm thankful for what he was able to teach me while I was here. Obviously, I knew Pat but not as a colleague. Don Cherry is a guy I've talked to over the years, watched this '70s teams, loved watching them play, played hard.
"Again, it's an honor to be included with those three names and thankful again for the opportunity to be able to do that."

Cassidy has put his own stamp on Bruins history since taking over for Julien in February 2017. After guiding the Bruins back to the postseason following a two-year absence in the months after taking the reins, he has since helped lead Boston to three more playoff appearances - including the club's 2019 trip to the Stanley Cup Final - by blending the team's championship core with its up-and-coming young talent.
In his three-plus seasons behind the Boston bench, Cassidy - also a finalist for the Jack Adams in 2018 - has steered the Bruins to 161 victories and 356 points in 261 games, both second to the Tampa Bay Lightning in that span.
"It's for the whole organization," Cassidy said, noting he found out about the honor with a call from Bruins general manager Don Sweeney and president Cam Neely. "To me, this is the ultimate team award. It's everyone contributing. I get my name on the trophy, which is great, I'm honored to have it. But up and down the organization, I think everyone should be acknowledged when the coach wins."
It was certainly a season to remember for the Black & Gold, who rebounded from their Game 7 loss to the St. Louis Blues by capturing the Presidents' Trophy with a 44-14-12 record and a league-leading 100 points during the pandemic-shortened, 70-game campaign. While the Bruins were unable to return to the Final, instead ousted by the Lightning in the second round, it was nonetheless an impressive response to such a devastating end.
"We came up with the line of unfinished business," said Cassidy. "I think it worked for us early on and made sure we were focused on what we wanted to achieve later on. Obviously, we didn't finish that business, but I think it was a good mantra for us for the early part of the year to sort of get us excited to play those October-November games after playing the high intensity ones in May and June."
Cassidy acknowledged that despite the team's success in the early going - they went 19-3-5 over the first 27 games - there was plenty of room for growth. Boston's younger players needed to realize that a trip back to the Cup Final was not guaranteed, while the veteran core worked to pull them along and grind out victories even on nights when they might not have had their best.
"I think early on it was getting the players motivated after they come off a disappointing loss and not to have them think that we're automatically gonna get back there," said Cassidy. "As you see, we're not. It's not automatic. I think the veteran guys knew that, they knew how hard it is. But sometimes the younger guys that haven't been in the league that long, I think that was the challenge to get them to focus on a 60-minute game.
"At the start, I didn't feel we were there. We won a lot of games with our talent, we won some games with special teams, and we won some games that we were behind and wouldn't typically do later in the year.
"What we did was find ways to win. That's a big reason that teams have success in the NHL. No team is gonna be on their game every night. And that's what we did well at the start of the year."

The Bruins were playing some of their best hockey of the year when the season was halted on March 10, posting a 14-4-0 record in the 18 games leading into the pause. There is no telling how things would have turned out if the playoffs proceeded as scheduled, but when things did resume in early August the Bruins struggled to regain the momentum they had built up during one of the best regular seasons in team history.
After dispatching the Carolina Hurricanes in five games in the first round, the Bruins were eliminated by Tampa for the second time in three seasons. And just over a week removed from that second-round loss, Cassidy has been tuned into the Lightning's Eastern Conference Final series with the New York Islanders as he attempts to learn more about ways the B's might be able to adapt against the divisional rivals moving forward.
"In this particular series, it's about what the Islanders are doing different. Are they getting to their game faster than Tampa is getting to theirs? That's what they did to beat us," said Cassidy. "We were never truly at our game for long stretches of time. I think when you get two really good teams and there's not a lot to pick from, that's usually the difference.
"Obviously there's a break here or there, a big save, whatnot. But at the end of the day, what team gets to their game? That's why I watched that, to see what that team does and how do they do that."
Learning and adapting. Words to live by for Bruce Cassidy.