4 takeaways from Bruce Cassidy’s end-of-season address

Two days after the Bruins’ season came to a disappointing end up in Toronto, Bruce Cassidy held his annual end-of-the-season press conference via Zoom on Wednesday afternoon — touching on a number of topics, such as the flaws of this current roster, what lies ahead and a note on the injuries impacting his lineup. Here are a few takeaways from Cassidy’s chat: 

1. Missing Phase 3 did have a major impact on Pastrnak, Kase 

On paper, it would appear as though David Pastrnak picked up right where he left off in March in terms of his production up in the bubble, with the B’s top scorer recording 10 points (three goals, seven assists) over 10 games against both Carolina and Tampa Bay during the postseason. 

And yet, it was pretty evident that the winger was far from fully healthy throughout that slate, as Pastrnak missed three games during that opening round against the Hurricanes due to injury.

Even when he was given the green light to return, Pastrnak still wasn’t himself. Sure, he buried a few one-timers (and missed on a few as well), but he was often laboring on the ice, especially when it came to beating Lightning skaters in races to the puck and during transition play.

Speaking on Wednesday, Cassidy confirmed that Pastrnak was banged up for a majority of Boston’s postseason play at Scotiabank Arena, adding that that the winger’s lack of reps during Phase 3 camp at Warrior Ice Arena was pretty noticeable once game action really ramped up.

“I know that Pasta had a lower body injury he played through the whole playoffs,” Cassidy said. "You could see he wasn’t at top speed. Obviously missing time, him and (Ondrej) Kase, their conditioning level wasn’t where it needed to be to stand the rigors of that. And that was a bit of circumstance. Typically you have the whole year to build that up if you miss a bit at the start. We didn’t have that luxury this year.”

Not a lot went right for the Bruins during their five-game exit against Tampa — whether it be lax defensive coverage, 5v5 scoring droughts and of course, the loss of Tuukka Rask in net. 

But when it comes to holding personnel accountable for this latest exit, both Pastrnak and Kase shouldn’t escape unscathed when it came to their decision to break quarantine in the days leading up to the club’s two-way training camp back in July.

One has to wonder how a fully prepped and fresh Pastrnak would have fared had he not had to play catch-up during Phase 4 action, while Kase — already a step behind other personnel due to his arrival during the trade deadline — didn’t even get back on the ice in a game setting until the final round-robin matchup against the Capitals back on Aug. 9.

Despite the number of quality chances Kase generated, especially in the early going of this postseason, Boston wanted much more finish from the shot-first winger — who did not tally a goal in his first 17 games in a Bruins sweater. Kase in particular seemed to run out of gas as the second round continued, putting together a pretty listless showing in Game 5 against Tampa that ended with him bumped down to the fourth line.

"The players came back at a certain date for training camp," Cassidy said. "Some of them came back earlier, some later. There was a little bit of uncertainty I'm sure with what was going on with the players as they sort out their deal. And we missed some players in training camp and there's no doubt in hindsight that set them back. I mean if you take a month off when everyone else is skating and then get right into it, we play the exhibition games, three games, there’s some catching up to do."

As far as other injuries on this Bruins team? 

“We know Tuukka (Rask) dealt with an injury at the start with his finger,” Cassidy said. “I think he announced that. (Nick) Ritchie had an injury late that – there was a couple guys, (Sean) Kuraly, lower body that weren’t able to play. (Chris) Wagner, that’s a different animal. I don’t want to speculate on his. ... I know that (Patrice Bergeron) and (Brad Marchand) were getting treatments, some wear and tear that they had over the years.

“Certainly, able to play, not making an excuse there. I don’t know if there are going to be any surgeries. I know (Zdeno Chara)’s foot, the last game, he took a blocked shot that I know there was an X-ray situation, so whether there is anything further on that, I have not heard yet. Charlie (McAvoy) is good, he got hit into the boards there but he came back, so he’s fine.”

2. Boston will need to go through Tampa if it wants another shot at the Cup

As we noted on Tuesday, the Bruins' window as a legitimate Cup contender is not completely shut — not yet at least — but this franchise is going to have to come to grips with some hard truths if it wants to put together one more run with this veteran core.

One of those is the need for Don Sweeney and his staff to go all in this offseason in an effort to put a talented, but flawed, team over the top. But another is the fact that if Boston wants to punch a ticket back to the Stanley Cup Final — it's likely going to have to go through the Lightning.

Even if Tampa could lose a key cog or two this offseason due to a flat salary cap, the Bolts should still field a strong team in 2020-21 and beyond, especially with a number of key pieces now in or just entering their prime — such as Brayden Point (24 years old), Nikita Kucherov (27), Andrei Vasilevskiy (26), Anthony Cirelli (23) and many others.

Sure, Boston could cross its fingers that they could somehow duck Tampa next postseason, but such shouldn't be the mentality for Bruins team looking at another crack at the Cup next year. As such, Boston has a few interesting decisions to make when it comes to filling out its roster next season — especially when it comes to closing the gap and matching up better against a team like the Lightning that can beat you in a number of ways.



"That’s a bit of tough luck being right beside them in the division, but that’s the hand we’re dealt," Cassidy said of Tampa Bay. "I’m sure Toronto doesn’t feel that good being in our division, Florida, these teams that have to go through two (teams). We feel we have to go through one. Do we have to do things better? Yes. Obviously, they’ve had our number, that’s a fact. We can’t hide that. Do you build your team to beat that team or do you build your team to beat every team in the league and balance your team? Those are discussions we’ll have.

"We have to have that in mind that to get to where we want to go, we have to go through Tampa. I think this year’s five-game loss, we’re farther ahead than we were two years ago. I truly believe that. We were more competitive except for the 7-1 game, I think we had some personnel that weren’t functioning at 100 percent, we had some personnel out of the lineup that could have helped us. Would it have been enough to win the series? That’s anybody’s guess. Right now, I feel like we’re very competitive with Tampa. They’ve had the better hand, so the facts don’t dictate that, but that’s how I feel."

3. Bruins are going to have to take a long look at their lineup

Boston has a core still in place that should once again make them a lock for the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but just how far the B's go will ultimately depend on what moves this club makes over the next couple of months — as well as the continued development of younger players further down on the depth chart.

When it comes to putting this season in perspective and assessing the performances of a roster that came up short up in the bubble, Cassidy did note that this unprecedented "Return to Play" plan does make it a bit tougher when it comes to evaluating the overall play of certain players that could be entering a pivotal offseason. Still, even looking beyond individual contributions, Cassidy didn't hide from the fact that the warts that have plagued this team for years now were once again noticeable against Tampa.

"We don't want to overanalyze what happened in this short period of time, but we do have to acknowledge that it is Tampa who did it to us two years ago and they are an elite team in the League and if we expect to win the Stanley Cup you're probably going through them," Cassidy said. "So we do have to analyze what happened against Tampa. I mean I thought last year we handled the playoffs well, we played the schedule in front of us, we lost in game seven against a team that was a different makeup than us. I still feel when you go that far if you overanalyze one game you could get yourself in trouble. We tried to build on what we need to do better."

While the matchups perhaps weren't favorable to Boston from just a basic roster construction angle when it comes to why the Bruins failed to put the Lightning on the ropes, Cassidy also took responsibility for his team's fate, noting that certain adjustments could have been made earlier in the series before Boston found itself on the brink of elimination entering Monday's Game 5 showdown.

While the decision not to roll with a younger, more skilled third line of Charlie Coyle, Anders Bjork and Jack Studnicka (an impressive 70.0% shot share in Game 5 during 5v5 play) over a heavier grouping featuring Ritchie stands at the forefront of second guesses, Cassidy delved a bit deeper than just simple game-by-game adjustments, noting that Boston might have to augment certain aspects of their defensive structure and offensive strategy in order to get the most out of this roster going forward.

"(Tampa's) a bigger team, harder D, do you get through, do you make the changes early maybe with the depth you have or do you wait to see where it goes and then make the changes or is too late? A lot of decisions a coach has to make," Cassidy said. "Clearly, you know ,we lost in five so we’re all going to get evaluated in that regard. So I needed to do better with our lineup, attack a different way against that team. We certainly didn't want to change our game a lot, because we are a good team, but we didn't do enough to win, to finish plays, to score. And at the end, defensively, the last two goals, Game 5 is a good example, scored two deflection goals. The heart and soul of our team is our team defense, net front coverage, they exposed us on that, so not only is it the scoring part, it's a part of our bread and butter game that broke down as well.

"So is that them just being better or do we have to look at a different player, change systems, and trust me I thought about that the last few days. I think we do have to be quicker in the d-zone coverage to eliminate some of these teams that use their points a lot. It’s something we discussed, but it's a quick adjustment, so we have to build it into a full 82-game schedule next year."

4. Bruins could be waiting awhile before the 2020-21 season gets underway: 

On paper, it would seem as though the Bruins don't have a whole lot of time to retool before the 2020-21 season gets back underway — considering that the league has set a tentative date of Dec. 1 for regular-season games to resume. That means compressing an entire offseason with the NHL Draft, free agency, trades and more into October before re-opening training camps in mid-November.

But Cassidy was candid when noting that that tentative date for a restart was just that: tentative. Given the ongoing climate due to COVID-19, plus the multiple contingency plans that needed to be put in place to facilitate regular-season play across North America, there stands a chance that we could be waiting a lot longer for hockey to resume, especially if a gate-driven league like the NHL isn't able to have fans back in the stands for some time.

"I don’t even know when we’re going to play. ...  It’s like we’re going to be sitting around doing nothing when we all probably want to get back to work. When you lose, you want to fix things," Cassidy said. "At least I do, quickly. Let’s get back at it. Let's go back to work. I mean, the days are getting shorter and the evenings are getting cooler, that’s usually hockey time, right? It’s September. So, it’s an odd feeling right now that we’re not going to work. ... If you go far enough in the playoffs, the draft comes up quickly. July comes up quickly. If you’re losing out in late May, early June, middle of May, there is a timeline too.

"I don’t think that’ll be too different to be honest with you. We’ll get back at it and we’ll sort of sort out where we need to be better. I think the Bruins have always done that. Donny is always on top of that. He’s got to make the right calls and change what you need to change. I think every year you try to do that, adjust a little bit. And I’ve seen some things already where we’re going to need to get better. I’ve talked about it. D-zone, we have one of the best defensive teams in the league this year, yet it wasn’t good enough against Tampa. So we have to fix some of it without overthinking it. Offensively, we’ve said, five-on-five, how do we generate more offense. We need to get our D involved more. Does that sacrifice defense? We have to have an honest conversation about that. And that’s where I think we are with our team. I think our special teams are solid. I think we have good pieces in place. Young and old. We just have to tweak a few things."