Joe McDonald: Cassidy on his first full season.

Fenway

HF Bookie and Bruins Historian
Sponsor
Sep 26, 2007
68,594
98,305
Cambridge, MA
Boston Sports Journal has officially named Joe McDonald as their fulltime hockey writer. It is a paywall site but I know a few of you have signed up.


https://www.bostonsportsjournal.com...ason-workloads-rask-chara-talk-young-d-sucks/

Cassidy is hoping Khudobin can start 22-27 times.

On Chara

McDonald: Many thought Zdeno Chara, at this point of his career, would become a third-pairing guy. He even hinted at that a few seasons ago. What type of conversation will you have with him?

Cassidy: Well, I will have a longer conversation with him, but we had our meeting at the end of last season and I’m surprised he ever said that because that doesn’t sound like him – at all. He wants as much responsibility as you’re willing to give him. He trains for it. He takes pride in that part of it and he’s been very vocal about that. He works his ass off all summer and all winter so he can play all those minutes in all situations.

We’ll do what’s best for the team and if Zee’s capable of keeping his minutes up there then he’ll get them, if that’s best for the team. If some of these other guys push him and can play and can eat up a few of his minutes in certain situations then we’ll do that, because that’s probably better in the long run. I say probably because I see some guys play a lot of minutes all season and they’re able to sustain it and if anybody can do it, it’s Zee. I’m not going to be one of those guys who says, ‘Well, he’s not going to be any good if he plays more than 20 minutes.’ I’ll never be the guy saying that. But, if is play on the ice deteriorates because of that. to the point where I believe it. then we will have a conversation. He was one of our steadiest, best defensemen again last year. He contributed 10 goals, only one on the power play. He was a big reason why we were the top team on the penalty kill and he played his shutdown minutes. We were one of the best puck-possession teams in terms of defending, and he deserves his fair share of credit for that. He also brought a young kid along in Carlo and taught him the value of shutting down the other teams’ top lines. There are so many positives there and he’ll get the minutes that he’ll get and we’ll see where those end up.

McDonald: Health-wise, will everyone be ready for camp?

Cassidy: As far as I know, yes. Everyone’s on schedule from what I’ve been told, so there won’t be any surprises there on my end.

Joe makes this promise

Personally, after three seasons as a national hockey writer, I’m back to my roots as a Bruins beat writer. You can plan on enjoying breaking news, analysis and feature stories on both the Bruins and P-Bruins.

It’s tough to compare the entire hockey community with any other sport. There’s nothing like hockey fans and I will feed off your passion and bring you the best possible Bruins coverage. I want to hear your feedback – good and bad – during the season. In fact, in true hockey fashion, let’s do it over a libation either in Boston, or when the Bruins are on the road.

Can’t wait to get going for you.
 
Last edited:

Kate08

HFBoards Sponsor
Sponsor
Apr 30, 2010
25,315
15,376
I like Cassidy. He seems like a no ******** kind of guy and his interviews have been a breath of fresh air. Excited for BSJ to get off the ground with some Bruins coverage.

This has felt like the longest offseason.
 

smithformeragent

Moderator
Sep 22, 2005
32,597
24,600
Milford, NH
I'll admit, I'm still salty over Clode.

Definitely not Cassidy's fault, and I don't dislike the guy or anything.

I feel super torn.
I rooted for the Bills when Bledsoe was their QB against the Patriots.

Yeah, this will get awkward.
 

PatriceBergeronFan

Registered User
Jul 15, 2011
59,139
36,522
USA
Becoming a fan of Cassidy.

I still think Claude wasn't the problem.

But I really like how Cassidy pushes back in the Chara piece. He comes across as an intelligent, analytical coach.
 

ODAAT

Registered User
Oct 17, 2006
52,177
20,208
Victoria BC
Becoming a fan of Cassidy.

I still think Claude wasn't the problem.

But I really like how Cassidy pushes back in the Chara piece. He comes across as an intelligent, analytical coach.

massive CJ fan, he had me frustrated at times and I didn`t like all his stubbornness when it came to personnel decisions. I think CJ struggled to adapt to the belief or have faith that if he were to implement a more upbeat/assertive style that the team he had could play that way and truthfully, as Cassidy was named coach, I didn`t believe the team could play that way, didn`t think they had the horses to do it but they surprised me.

One area that I disagree with some fans here (not you) is when they mention how refreshing Cassidy is when talking in front of the camera, if he feels a player needs to improve in a certain area, he`s not afraid to let the media know yet when CJ did this, he was throwing his player (s) under a bus, or killing their confidence. I read an article where Cassidy was speaking specifically on Spooner (sorry I`ll look for it), said almost word for word the exact areas he wanted to see him improve upon or be more committed to which were almost the same as CJ`s and fans here loved it, ate it up, when CJ said it...............broken interwebz
 

DrJustice

Registered User
Dec 1, 2014
2,420
2,223
Boston, MA
As much as I liked Claude for what he did for the team and his leadership, I liked the offensive style of hockey the team played under Cassidy. I think it's a better fit going forward, especially with the young offensive players on the rise in our system.
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->