Bruce Cassidy learned a lot from his tenure in Boston and has brought it with him in his newest chapter.
Cassidy will return to TD Garden on Monday as the head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights for the first time since being relieved of his duties as Bruins head coach in the offseason. The 57-year-old has done his job in leading the Golden Knights as their 18-7-1 record has them ranked first in the Western Conference. Vegas’ 37 points rank third in the NHL behind the New Jersey Devils’ 41 and Boston’s 40.
Ahead of Cassidy’s return, The Boston Globe’s Matt Porter had a chance to chat with the former Bruins coach about what he brought with him to the Golden Knights from his time in Boston.
“The appreciation of being around solid professionals like Zdeno Chara, Bergy (Patrice Bergeron) obviously,” Cassidy said, as transcribed by Porter. “Watched the growth of Marchy (Brad Marchand) and Pasta (David Pastrnak), the growth of Tuukka (Rask). I could go down the list. The culture that was created — and I’ve said this before, Claude (Julien) laid a terrific foundation. We built off of that, and Monty’s (Jim Montgomery) continued to do the same.”
Cassidy was head coach of the Bruins for six seasons, from February 2017 until he was let go on June 6, 2022. In his time with Boston, he went 245-108-46 while leading the Black and Gold to the Stanley Cup Finals as the Eastern Conference Champions in the 2018-19 season. Cassidy also won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in the 2019-20 season.
The Bruins take on their former head coach and the Golden Knights on Monday at 7 p.m. ET. NESN’s coverage begins at 6 p.m. with Awaken180 Bruins Pre-game Hub.
