Former Bruins Coach Opens Up About Drama in Boston

Former Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy cleared the air on many topics over the weekend. The bench boss was relieved of his duties after last season and recently met up with Boston Sports Journal's Conor Ryan to discuss Jake DeBrusk drama, and the returns of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejc.

What I know about (Bergeron), we talked at the end of the year - he was upfront about, 'I'm going to take some time. don't think the decision they made with me had anything to do with Bergy. (as for Krejci). He told us that his parents were getting older, he wanted his kids to get to know his grandparents. With COVID, there was a good challenge and he was going home. For how long? He said, 'I don't know. But if I come back ... listen, I'm gonna probably just come back for the Bruins. With (Krejci), we never had disagreements - he wanted to play (with David Pastrnak) more than he did. Who didn't, right? He'd be the first to admit it. Hopefully he gets his chance this year.

Cassidy was as candid as ever throughout the interview as the new Vegas Golden Knights head coach didn't shy away from the drama that surrounding DeBrusk and his trade demands:

Only he can answer that. I thought he had a really good finish to his year. I think there was different things that went into his trade demand. We just signed Taylor Hall to a long-term contract, who was a left winger. (Brad Marchand) had a long-term contract, so there may have been some issues of how high (he) can get in the lineup.

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Cassidy was behind the Bruins' bench for six seasons, collecting a record of 245-108-46, making the Stanley Cup Playoffs each year. Now he turns his attention to getting the Golden Knights back into the postseason after missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time last season.