"Boston had one of the more perplexing season-end availabilities that I've watched this year. It's hard to fault the Bruins on their first-round, seven-game exit to the Canes. Boston played hard, but Carolina was just a little better in the end. Cam Neely seemed to suggest Bruce Cassidy's job status wasn't certain, which shocked a lot of people in hockey, who view Cassidy as one of the best coaches in the game.
"I think we have to look at making some changes as far as how we play and the way we do some of the things," Neely said at his season-end session with reporters. "I think Bruce is a fantastic coach. He's brought a lot of success to this organization. I like him as a coach. We'll see where it goes. But I do think we need to make some changes."
Some of those changes will be dictated by necessity. Captain Patrice Bergeron has yet to decide his future and very well could retire. If Bergeron retires -- and even if he doesn't -- the Bruins need to address center depth organizationally. Boston has sacrificed draft picks for short-term success recently, as the Bruins don't have a first-rounder in 2022 or a second-rounder in 2023 or 2024.
Brad Marchand underwent surgeries to both hips that will sideline him for the first two months of the regular season. Defenseman Matt Grzelcyk underwent shoulder surgery that could also keep him out for the start of 2022-23. While I was told the Bruins had a very positive exit meeting with Jake DeBrusk, the winger is still going to take some time to decide whether he wants to stay in Boston or maintain his request to be traded."
The Bruins have been retooling on the fly, with slow departures of their Cup-winning core (Zdeno Chara, David Krejci, Torey Krug, Tuukka Rask), but even more changes appear on the horizon."
