Bruins coach, general manager take a look back before moving ahead
Mike Loftus The Patriot Ledger
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy found the postseason an experience he can learn from. General manager Don Sweeney is in charge of determining which Bruins Cassidy will continue to coach next season.
BOSTON -- Given a full season on the job, Bruce Cassidy coached the Bruins to 17 more points than they earned in 2016-17, which meant a jump from third to second place in the Atlantic Division, from seventh to second in the Eastern Conference, and from 13th in the NHL to fourth overall. The Bruins won their first playoff round since 2014, and Cassidy was named one of three finalists for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach.
So what does he do for an encore?
Nothing -- at least, as soon as he can get away with it. And when he's working, Cassidy will start the process of moving forward by going in reverse.
"You start working backwards," Cassidy said at Thursday morning's year-end press conference with general manager Don Sweeney. "There's always things you look back on. What can you do better?"
Cassidy's initial review begins with the postseason, where the B's outlasted the Maple Leafs in a seven-game, first-round series before falling in Round 2 to the Lightning, which recovered from a 6-2 loss in Game 1 to win four straight.
The good: Coming from behind in the third period to win Game 7 against the Leafs, 7-4.
"I thought we handled that situation well," the coach said. "We were behind, and we got the guys refocused, and we came out and played a hell of a period to get to the next round."
Not so good: Being forced to Game 7 after taking a 3-1 lead in the series (the B's lost Game 5 at home), which potentially drained the B's in Round 2 against the more-rested Lightning, who won their first-round series against the Devils in five games.
"When you're up 3-1, the quicker you can close out a team, the better off it is," Cassidy said. "What could we have done differently to close out that series at home?
"I thought it was a great learning experience for me to be in a Game 7 (his first in four career series, the first with the Capitals in 2002-03), and come through on the right side of it. Great learning experience to get behind and not come through against Tampa. Those are the things we're going to evaluate."
Cassidy also said he'd reviewed the Bruins' systems and was considering a change in defensive zone strategy, but before that "you get away from the game for a while, enjoy your family, and … clear your head, then come back ready to go. That's generally what coaches go through."
What Sweeney will go through is the process of determining which players Cassidy will continue to coach next season.
"Obviously, our team accomplished a lot to get to the 112-point level," Sweeney said. "Ideally, you'd like to bring everybody back and think you take another run at it.
"I don't think that's realistic in a (salary) cap environment. We can afford the salaries they're currently at (the B's came within about $100,000 of the 2017-18 cap ceiling of $75 million), but some of the guys have had very good years, and you expect that to change."
The Bruins' list of pending free agents isn't excessively long, with most expiring contracts belonging to bottom-six forwards and bottom-pairing defensemen.
The major exception among unrestricted free agents is winger Rick Nash, acquired from the Rangers at the trade deadline for roster players Ryan Spooner and Matt Beleskey, defense prospect Ryan Lindgren and the Bruins' first-round pick this year. An average 3-3--6 in 11 regular-season games before losing 12 to a concussion, Nash went 3-2--5 with a team-worst minus-7 rating in 12 playoff games, and the Bruins aren't likely to offer the 33-year-old (salary cap charge: $7.8 million) anything, unless he can't find a suitable deal on July 1 (FA signing period opens).
Despite a disappointing playoff (nine games, one assist), third-line center and penalty-killer Riley Nash's career-best regular season (15-26--41) will almost surely result in a significant boost from this season's $900,000, which could price the B's out. Their most likely in-house UFA target could be No. 2 goalie Anton Khudobin, who delivered a 16-6-7 season for only $1.2 million. Khudobin, in his second stint with Boston, hopes to stay, and doesn't appear to be pressured by any goalies in the system at the moment.
"We haven't definitively ruled anybody out," Sweeney said. "I'll sit with the coaches, and we're going to back over where we need to go, the improvements we need to make, and be target-specific in the areas we can."
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