The core issue remains that when Papa Jacobs wants hockey advice he calls Harry.
It’s still not clear what Bruce Cassidy did wrong enough to get fired by the Bruins - The Boston Globe
There is something that general manager Don Sweeney either doesn’t want to say or can’t quite figure out.
When the GM comes to such a decision, it’s time to change either the players or the coach — and Sweeney went with the latter. Let that serve as a caveat emptor for Cassidy’s successor. Expect too much out of the working help, make them feel uncomfortable, perhaps insecure … and, boy, don’t let the penalty box door hit you on the way out of the arena.
Cassidy, 57, will be quick to find work. Again, look at the math.
In the three seasons he coached a full 82-game schedule, his messaging was good enough for the Bruins to average 50 wins and deliver 109 points. In his 5½ seasons overall, the Bruins played in 12 playoff series, and came within a stick-length or two of beating the Blues for the title here in Game 7 of the 2019 Cup Final.
The only other coach on the market right now with better creds is Barry Trotz, who won a Cup with the Capitals in 2018. Trotz was canned on Long Island six weeks ago by GM Lou Lamoriello.
“I believe,” Lamoriello said as he turfed Trotz, “this group of players needs a new voice.”
Man, that sounds familiar.
In both cases, Sweeney and Lamoriello came up with an easy, tried-and-true excuse. Their teams disappointed — the Islanders more than the Bruins — and the coach took the fall.
Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, still watching from his corporate office in Buffalo, has gone along with the decision, said Sweeney. His absentee boss, whose own messaging often has been the dickens to decipher, obviously feels OK with what’s gone on here.
For now.
Though the day could come, noted a candid Sweeney, when his own messaging and decision making won’t play well anymore in Buffalo.
“One of the best parts about working for this organization is to be held to that standard — knowing that you have the full latitude to make the recommendation on decisions that you think are right,” he said. “And then when they’re not, they get somebody else. That’s as categorically honest as I can possibly be. That’s as black and white as it is.”
