Boston Bruins

Bruce Cassidy Wins Jack Adams Award

Published

4 years ago

September 9, 2020

Bruce Cassidy has collected some hardware. The Boston Bruins head coach won the Jack Adams Award as the top coach in the NHL on Wednesday night. It is the first time Cassidy has won the award. He was nominated in 2018, but finished as the runner-up to Vegas Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant.

Cassidy guided the Bruins to the best record in the League (44-14-12) and the Presidents’ Trophy as the top regular-season team. At the time of the pause, the Bruins were eight points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Atlantic Division. It was the largest margin for any division leader.

The Bruins as a team won the Jennings Trophy for allowing the fewest goals in the NHL (167, 2.39 per game). They tied the Philadelphia Flyers for the seventh-most goals (227, 3.24 per game) scored. They were second to the Edmonton Oilers in power-play percentage (25.2%) and third in the NHL in penalty-killing percentage (84.3%). Only the San Jose Sharks and Oilers were better on the penalty kill in 2019-20.

Bruce Cassidy is the fourth Bruins coach to win the Jack Adams Award. Don Cherry (1975-76), Pat Burns (1997-98) and Claude Julien (2008-09) previously took home the honor.

The Bruins finished as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference following the Playoff Round Robin. The Bruins then would go on to eliminate the Carolina Hurricanes in five games in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Boston’s season ended at the hands of the Lightning in the Semifinals.

In his three full seasons as head coach of the Boston Bruins, Cassidy has helped the team rank in the Top 10 in nearly every major statistical category: 143 wins (2nd), 319 points (2nd), 3.21 goals per game (6th), 2.52 goals allowed per game (1st), 24.9 power-play percentage (2nd), 82.6 penalty kill percentage (tied for 3rd) and 50.8 faceoff win percentage (tied for ninth).

The Bruins have not missed the playoffs under Cassidy.