Bruce Cassidy: Winning Stanley Cup this year helped ‘heal the scar’ of 2019

Bruce Cassidy wanted his name “on the damn Cup” in 2019 and was one win away from doing so with the Boston Bruins. They ultimately fell to the St. Louis Blues on home ice in Game 7.

Three years later he was out of the job. One year and seven days after being fired by the Bruins, Cassidy was hoisting Lord Stanley on home ice as coach of the Vegas Golden Knights.

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Cassidy carried the burden of that 2019 Cup Final with him over the years, and revealed on “The Jeff Marek Show” there was a point after Game 7 that he was unsure if he’d ever have the opportunity to reach the Stanley Cup Final again.

And now that he’s won and is in the elusive club of being a Stanley Cup champion, Cassidy admitted it helped “heal the scar” from the 2019 loss.

“To me it was always about ‘I want to win a Cup’ because that puts you, to me, in different company, right? Like when you do that, you’re a winner. They can’t take it from you,” Cassidy told Marek and Marchese. “It’s forever. ... And that’s what I always wanted, whether I was gonna be in Boston or anywhere. And I’ve talked about in 2019. I felt that loss as much as, or more, than anybody in the organization, I think. It’s hard to measure that. But this helps heal the scar so much from that ‘19 run where we just didn’t get it done.”

The Bruins made the playoffs in each of the six years Cassidy was the coach. But after a first-round exit at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2022, they made the decision to move on. The 58-year-old doesn’t feel his former club made the decision because he couldn’t coach anymore, though. After all, Vegas made the same decision when it fired Peter DeBoer a month before Cassidy received the same fate.

“I don’t think Boston ever felt like, ‘Oh, this guy can’t coach anymore.’ They just wanted a new voice,” Cassidy told Marek and Marchese. “So they thought they were better off with someone else and that’s entirely their call. Teams make that call all the time. Vegas made it, and I got the opportunity here. ...”

Cassidy coached the Golden Knights to a 51-22-9 record — good for first place in the Pacific Division. Vegas then knocked off the Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers, Dallas Stars and Florida Panthers en route to its first Stanley Cup.

Despite being let go by the Bruins, Cassidy said during his introductory press conference with the Golden Knights that the 2022-23 NHL season wasn’t a “revenge tour.”

He just wanted to prove himself — a sentiment he echoed with Marek.

“So at the end of the day, it’s not vindication — it is and it really isn’t. Of course you want to prove to people you can do it,” Cassidy told Marek and Marchese.

Cassidy plans to bring Lord Stanley to Cape Cod — where he still lives during the summer — when it’s his day with the Cup.