Report: A group of Bruins players may have been responsible for Bruce Cassidy firing
The Bruins' decision to fire head coach Bruce Cassidy this past week caught a lot of people by surprise. Cassidy, by all appearances, has been an excellent coach who has gotten the most out of his team regardless of illness, injury or anything else that prevented them from icing a healthy roster.
On Sunday, something rather shocking came up in relation to Cassidy's termination. Apparently, several Bruins players banded together to bring to light that the team had been having some issues with Cassidy. They raised their issues with GM Don Sweeney, who sided with Cassidy. With their voices going unheard in their meeting with Sweeney, the players took things a step further, involving Bruins PresidentCam Neely.
An NHL inside source had this to say about the situation:
-Jimmy Murphy of Boston Hockey Now
It's really anyone's guess how Sweeney plans to handle the ordeal now with Cassidy done in Boston. Will he take aim at some of the players who had the vendetta against his friend and colleague? Will there be trades on the way? I'd imagine that Sweeney is not too happy about having to fire his coach shortly after telling him that his job was safe. Might we see Sweeney tender his resignation?
Lots of summer ahead and lots of interesting conversations to be had. The Bruins are already dealing with significant injury issues that will prevent them from having 50% of their top 6 defenders in the lineup on opening night and for a lengthy period thereafter due to offseason surgeries and lengthy recovery times. Patrice Bergeron is also a pending UFA and could be contemplating retirement, signing with another franchise for one more run at the Cup before he rides off into the sunset. Brad Marchand is also slated to miss significant time to start the year. Add to that the rumours of David Pastrnak potentially being moved if the Bruins' brass elects to commit to a full tear-down and it leads to a lot of uncertainty in Bean Town this summer.
