Bruins Fire Cassidy

John Marzano Olympic Hero

has fancy plans, and pants to match
Dope
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2001
24,533
He obviously knew the game, and his practice was fun to watch, but he poked fun at Mark Denehey (the previous year's presenter) for using technology, mentioned not liking stats, and just came off pretty nonchalantly.
I say "Good day" to anyone who has any sort of anti-Merrimack College sentiment in their blood. No thank you.
 

Dummy Hoy

Angry Pissbum
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Jul 22, 2006
8,232
Falmouth
I say "Good day" to anyone who has any sort of anti-Merrimack College sentiment in their blood. No thank you.
I was always a Denehey fan because of his UMass connections, but that man taking Merrimack College to the Hockey East final (which they could have won) and the NCAA tournament boggles the mind.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

has fancy plans, and pants to match
Dope
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2001
24,533
I was always a Denehey fan because of his UMass connections, but that man taking Merrimack College to the Hockey East final (which they could have won) and the NCAA tournament boggles the mind.
He did a really good job his first couple of years finding players that were overlooked. He couldn’t keep doing it over the long haul but for a couple of years MC hockey was really fun.

And actually those teams are probably what kept MC in Hockey East.
 

Dummy Hoy

Angry Pissbum
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Jul 22, 2006
8,232
Falmouth
I'd be open to a college guy but I want all the other boxes to check. Leaman has a great track record in NCAA. The guy from Duluth seems like an awesome coach. Would it translate? I don't know. I do know that I'd rather take a shot on someone like that than a known mediocrity. Leach has a great reputation but a lot of players came to the Bruins from his system and were not even close to being ready to play. I don't know how much of that was their talent versus his role in their development. He also had a troubling tendency to defer to veteran AHL guys. I'd hope he didn't adopt much of Hakstol's system in Seattle this year.
Two things here...

Great call on Sandelin- he's been a great coach at UMD. Same questions about translating to the NHL though. I'd throw the name of Greg Carvel out there as someone who could make the switch...he's obviously a great coach, but he has 7 years of experience on an NHL bench and at 51 is a good age to slide in. I hope to god he doesn't though.

Regarding the bolded. I'm just spitballing, but what if Leach did a good job with those young guys and it was on Cassidy? Someone made a list on here of guys that came up from Providence and almost all of them showed flashes at the NHL level before getting stuck in Butch's doghouse. Now, there could be a lot of reasons- maybe they weren't NHL ready; maybe the lines of communication between Providence and Boston were poor about what skills to develop; maybe (as you note) they just weren't good enough; maybe Butch was too hard on the kids; maybe Leach is bad at player development; who knows.
But it did occur to me that a lot of those guys showed flashes before getting shut out, not sure where the blame lies on that one (although I think we know where the FO thinks the blame lies)
 

burstnbloom

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Jul 12, 2005
2,761
Two things here...

Great call on Sandelin- he's been a great coach at UMD. Same questions about translating to the NHL though. I'd throw the name of Greg Carvel out there as someone who could make the switch...he's obviously a great coach, but he has 7 years of experience on an NHL bench and at 51 is a good age to slide in. I hope to god he doesn't though.

Regarding the bolded. I'm just spitballing, but what if Leach did a good job with those young guys and it was on Cassidy? Someone made a list on here of guys that came up from Providence and almost all of them showed flashes at the NHL level before getting stuck in Butch's doghouse. Now, there could be a lot of reasons- maybe they weren't NHL ready; maybe the lines of communication between Providence and Boston were poor about what skills to develop; maybe (as you note) they just weren't good enough; maybe Butch was too hard on the kids; maybe Leach is bad at player development; who knows.
But it did occur to me that a lot of those guys showed flashes before getting shut out, not sure where the blame lies on that one (although I think we know where the FO thinks the blame lies)
Ya, I agree it could be that. I very much believe Cassidy struggled with young players unless they were finished products. Truth be told, we know very little about how much impact Leach, Cassidy or the players themselves are responsible for in the end and Sweeney and his staff has a lot more information. I'm bringing my own bias into the conversation about Leach. He feels very "easy" and most of my anxiety about this front office is their lack of creativity. I think Leach represents a similar lack of creativity. That doesn't mean he's a bad coach at all and I should be more open minded about the idea. Also, its undeniable that Studnicka was dynamite under Leach pre covid. He also unlocked Frederic. So who knows. I just remember being mad for years about Senyshyn playing on the 4th line every night. Maybe Leach was right.