The Boston Bruins came out victorious against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night at TD Garden. Anything special? Of course, a 14-game point streak was kept alive. The Bruins went 6-0 in the season against the teams from California. But this is still not the main point of this article. Bruce Cassidy has had a strong love affair with the Sharks.
It’s not easy to face the Sharks nowadays as they are really chasing the Stanley Cup glory for quite some time. Bruce Cassidy has coached his first Bruins game versus the Sharks at TD Garden on February 9, 2017. Boston won that game 6-3. The very first road game for Bruce Cassidy during his Bruins tenure came at SAP Center in San Jose. The Bruins won 2-1 in overtime on a breakaway goal from Brad Marchand.
Prior to his time with the Bruins, Cassidy coached Washington Capitals between 2002 and 2004. He faced Sharks three times during his coaching time in D.C. and lost all of those game. With the Bruins, he is 6-0 against San Jose and their coach Peter DeBoer.
The San Jose Sharks and the Arizona Coyotes are the only teams that have not beaten Boston with Bruce Cassidy behind the Bruins bench. Last season, the Bruins defeated the Sharks 2-1 at TD Garden and then 3-1 in San Jose just a month later. During the current campaign, Boston swept the Sharks yet again.
When talking about the clubs from California, the first thing coming up to your mind would be big, heavy, physical teams. The Bruins under Bruce Cassidy have a 6-0 record against the Sharks, 4-0-1 against the Kings and 2-3-0 against the Ducks. In terms of facing Anaheim, when Bruce Cassidy came on the Bruins bench, they were on a six-game losing skid against the Ducks. That skid extended to a nine-game one, but the B’s broke it this year with two wins featuring a convincing 6-1 score.
In those 16 games under Cassidy against the California clubs, the Bruins allowed 34 goals, that´s just two goals conceded per game on average. Boston has the second-best defense in the NHL as of now. That’s the trend for Cassidy with his Bruins. The best way how to beat heavy and physical teams is to counter with the same kind of play. And the B’s have been able to consistently do that under Bruce Cassidy as his record against heavy teams from California shows.
