Don Sweeney didn’t delve too deep into his conversation with Bruce Cassidy on Monday when he fired the longtime B’s bench boss — other than offering a blunt summation of Cassidy’s reaction.
“Not well,” Sweeney said when asked Tuesday how Cassidy received the news.
Far from a revelation, of course.
After all, Cassidy’s resume (245-108-46 record, 2019-20 Jack Adams Award, six playoff berths and one trip to the Stanley Cup Final) speaks for itself.
Add in the circumstances that led to his dismissal — with a flawed and banged-up B’s roster coming up just short to a superior Hurricanes team in a seven-game slugfest— and Cassidy had every reason to be incensed with his removal.
But beyond just the shaky logic that served as the basis of Cassidy’s canning, the former Bruins coach also offered another wallop on Thursday morning.
Speaking to the media for over 50 minutes via Zoom, Cassidy confirmed that he was told during his end-of-season exit interview with B's management that the expectation was that he would be coaching through the final year of his current contract in 2022-23.
“The end-of-the-year meeting was that I would be coaching on this year of my deal,” Cassidy said. “That's how it would be proceeding forward. And that was it. Sometimes there are talks after every year of — right away, there are coaches let go, there are extensions, there's status quo. So that was the message — it would be status quo.”
That would fall in line with some of Sweeney’s comments on Tuesday, such as the fact that Cassidy was allowed to make a decision to not renew assistant coach Kevin Dean’s contract … only to then get handed a pink slip just a few weeks later.
So … what changed between the end of the season and those few weeks in which Bruins’ management determined that Cassidy wasn’t the right option between the bench?
Does Cassidy view himself as a scapegoat?
"I don't know," Cassidy said. "You guys will have to determine that. … The Bruin is basically tattooed to me. That's the difficult part. I feel I did my job. We can always get better, we can always be better.”
As for any potential strife between Cassidy and Sweeney as it pertained to personnel decisions or communication, Cassidy downplayed the notion that the coach and GM were on divergent paths in terms of the plan in place for this franchise moving forward.
“I think we had player personnel decisions all the time — where they fit, style of play, in terms of holding players accountable,” Cassidy said of his relationship with Sweeney. “And I think over the years those discussions just always were continually evolving. I had my thoughts and beliefs on how some of the guys that drive the team deserve to be treated and how much rope they would get versus maybe other players. So I would say that would get discussed from time to time. I don't think there was a huge breakdown in communication, to be honest with you.”
And even though it seemed like some of the criticism from the B’s top brass fell on Cassidy’s messaging and his willingness to take players to task through the media, Cassidy added that any musing he delivered in front of a microphone was always communicated to a player.
“As for the media, Cam (Neely) came to me once and said, 'Listen, just be careful because it can be construed the wrong way with players.' I said, 'Absolutely, Cam, everything that's said is said to the player as well.' But I understand what you're saying.'' Sometimes I think a narrative gets created in the media that maybe wasn't meant,” Cassidy said. “I've been often asked, for example, 'What do you think of Swayman's play tonight? I thought he was okay, but their guy made a save or two at a key time.'
“And then it's like, 'He throws Swayman under (the bus) — you know what I mean?' And it creates a bit of maybe not the message that I was was trying to say. It was, 'Hey, he's been better. He was okay.' But I should have said, 'Hey, that's not the reason we lost,' and expanded on it. And sometimes when you're honest, it can get you in trouble here and there. But as I said, I think I've always tried to make sure the player understands what exactly is expected and where we're going and what we're going to do moving forward.”
For as abrupt and confounding as the end of Cassidy’s time in Boston was, the 57-year-old did feel as though he made significant strides as a coach and made good on his second opportunity to steer the ship for an NHL franchise.
"I learned that I could be a good coach in the National Hockey League,” Cassidy said of his time in Boston. “I had a chance a long time ago. It didn't work out as well as I'd like. I was very young and took a lot from that. I worked my way back, to say the least, to try to get another opportunity and as I said — I'm always grateful to the Jacobs and Cam and Donnie and Pete Chiarelli at the time to to give me that chance and I think I took advantage of it.
“I was much more prepared for it. So that's what I've learned about myself, that I can coach in this league and I can coach players hard, to be accountable to the team and still allow them to play to their strengths. ... Get your message across, communicate well, and I think we did that right out of the gate. So that's what I've learned.”
And it doesn’t seem as though Cassidy is going to be unemployed for long, noting that he’s already had discussions with a number of teams for the 2022-23 season.
"Yeah. In respect to the teams — I'm not going to go through them,” Cassidy said of potential suitors. “But yes, I have talked to a number of teams. … They probably know that better than I do. They're the ones doing the hiring. So, again, as I said, I want to get back to work. Hopefully, it's a really good fit — best fit possible. That's not always the case, but that's what I'm hoping, for both sides. And we'll see where it gets to.”