Scotty Bowman has kept a close eye on Bruce Cassidy and likes what he sees

Bruce Cassidy has already received a ringing endorsement for the job he’s doing behind the Bruins’ bench from Bobby Orr. Only a few days before the Bruins face the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, another hockey legend is impressed, too.

Enter Scotty Bowman.

The nine-time, Stanley Cup-winning coach has paid close attention since Cassidy replaced Claude Julien on Feb. 7, 2017. Since the coaching change, the Bruins are 68-28-13 in 109 games under Cassidy and the team is back in the playoffs for a second consecutive season. Once again, Boston has become a perennial Stanley Cup contender.

“Great job,” Bowman told BostonSportsJournal.com. “It started last year. It’s not easy to take a team over without having a training camp. He’s a lot like Mike Sullivan in Pittsburgh. (Cassidy) coached in Providence for a long time, longer than Mike Sullivan did in Wilkes-Barre, but (Cassidy) knows the players that have since come up and that’s been a good advantage.”

The comparison between the two-time reigning Cup champion and this version of the Bruins has been made in these pages. There are numerous similarities and it starts with the coach’s ability to mesh a younger core with the veteran players. Sullivan has accomplished that in Pittsburgh and Cassidy’s doing it in Boston.

“He’s put a lot of new players in the lineup and gave them a lot of confidence,” Bowman said. "He’s a calm guy. He’s got a lot more experience than people realize. He’s coached quite a long time.”

Cassidy’s career path is well-documented. He was fired from his first NHL coaching job with the Washington Capitals (2002-2004) after a season and a half, which he described as a “punch in the stomach.”

He knew he wanted to keep coaching. Cassidy eventually signed with the Blackhawks in 2004 as an assistant coach, working with the AHL’s Norfolk Admirals during the NHL lockout in 2004-05. He then worked as an assistant in Chicago in 2005-06. He became head coach of the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs in 2006-07 before landing a job with the Bruins as an assistant coach in Providence under then-head coach Rob Murray at the start of the 2008-09 season.

Don Sweeney’s earliest impressions of Cassidy as a coach were all positive.

“Smart hockey guy,” Sweeney said.

He was quick to point out the coach’s ability to make quick in-game adjustments, whether based on his team’s performance or the opposition’s. Cassidy is a strong communicator and doesn’t hold grudges against players and gets the most out of them. When the GM decided to make the coaching change, he knew it would be the right thing to do for the organization.

“Don’s a solid hockey guy and he’s paid his dues, so he would know,” Bowman said. “People maybe wondered, ‘Well, who’s this guy coming in? He had his chance before (in Washington).’ There’s nobody that knows more about it than the people involved. If you’re on the outside, you don’t know it. They’ve done a good job in Boston. They had some players in the closet and nobody knew about.”

Those players making an impact in Boston this season began their development in Providence. Every prospect wonders if they’re ever going to get an opportunity, and when they see the coach of the Bruins giving younger players an opportunity to play, it creates internal competition and players want to play for him.

When players, rookies and veterans buy into a coach’s philosophy both on and off the ice, it bodes well for team success and that’s what the Bruins are getting right now.

“You never know when you’re going to get another opportunity,” Bowman said. “When he was in the American Hockey League there were only 30 head coaching jobs in the NHL, so you don’t know if you’re going to get that opportunity again.

“When you stand behind any bench there are certain things you have to do and when he took over in Boston, he decided, ‘I can’t change a lot but I’ve got to play an up-tempo game,’ and that helped him. He seems to be the kind of guy that likes to use young players. He’s very similar to Mike Sullivan.”

Bowman is also impressed with Cassidy’s ability to help rejuvenate Zdeno Chara’s career. The captain has put all the work in to become faster and more agile for today’s faster game, but Cassidy’s decision to pair the veteran with rookie defenseman Charlie McAvoy has paid dividends for both players.

"(Cassidy) played in the NHL and he knows the ropes, but still, it’s not that easy sometimes to go in with a player like Chara and get him to play like he did,” Bowman said. “He’s integrated some of the past and he’s brought in some fresh guys. He wasn’t afraid to give guys an opportunity. It’s also tough when you take over a team and you’ve got experienced players.”

Everything has fallen into place for the Bruins. Cassidy has pushed all the right buttons to this point. His ability to integrate prospects into the lineup and have them mesh well with the veteran core is the main reason the Bruins have reached this point of the season.

If this success continues, so will the accolades for Cassidy.