NHL Final: Cassidy has just one career goal: ‘It is everything to win the Cup’

Before Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, then Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy was asked about his legacy and was blunt with his answer.

“As for your legacy I think that’s judged down the road,” he said at the time. “We use that word around here, but I think it’s for much later, so I haven’t thought about mine personally. I just want my name on the Cup, that’s what I want, and then you can talk about it however you want later on.”

He came one win short that year when the Bruins lost to the St. Louis Blues in seven games. Four years later, Cassidy is at the precipice again. In his first year leading the Golden Knights, after being fired by the Bruins a year ago, Las Vegas has a 2-0 series lead over the Florida Panthers heading into Thursday’s Game 3 in Sunrise, Florida.

Cassidy has a ring already. He earned it for leading the Bruins’ black aces during the team’s 2011 Cup-winning season. But that doesn’t get his name etched on hockey’s hallowed trophy. Two more wins would secure that immortality.

He was again asked what it would mean to his career to win. Cassidy, who has won two conference crowns and a coach of the year trophy, didn’t couch his answer.

“I don’t have my name on it,” Cassidy said. “I don’t want to say it’s everything, but in terms of my career, it is everything to win the Cup. Those (trophies) are all great. They are. They’re accomplishments, but they’re not the Stanley Cup. People talk about Stanley Cup champions, not Jack Adams winners or Presidents’ trophy winners.”

Cassidy was 245-108-46 behind Boston’s bench and the Bruins never missed the playoffs in his six seasons. He led them to an Eastern Conference championship in 2019. He was fired after they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in 2022 amid reports that his sometimes abrasive style had begun wearing on certain players. He wasn’t unemployed long. He was hired by the Golden Knights led Vegas to the Western Conference championship.