BRIGHTON, Mass – Bruce Cassidy has earned plenty of honors in the last three-plus seasons while serving as the bench boss for the Boston Bruins.
He’s been a finalist for the Jack Adams trophy and coached in a Stanley Cup Final last spring for the first time in his career. He’s guided a playoff team in each of the three seasons calling the shots for the Black and Gold.
Now, Cassidy will also be able to put All-Star Game coach on his NHL coaching resume, as he was named the Atlantic Division coach for this month’s NHL All-Star weekend.
LIVE stream the Celtics all season and get the latest news and analysis on all of your teams from NBC Sports Boston by downloading the My Teams App.
Todd Reirden (Washingon Capitals, Metropolitan Division), Craig Berube (St. Louis Blues, Central Division) and Gerard Gallant (Vegas Golden Knights, Pacific Division) were also selected as All-Star head coaches right along with Cassidy.
Under the All-Star selection process, the head coach of the team with the highest points percentage (points earned divided by total possible points) in each of the four divisions through games of Thursday, January 2 – the halfway point of the regular season – will guide the respective All-Star rosters.
“It’s an honor. That’s what it means to me. It’s obviously a reflection of what the players have done on the ice and I get the benefit of it,” said Cassidy. “I thank the staff as well. We all work hard to do our part every day, but it’s obviously the players that perform on the ice. So they should be thanked first. But it’s an honor. I’ve never been to one, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Cassidy will join David Pastrnak and Tuukka Rask, who have already been selected to represent the Bruins on the Atlantic Division All-Star squad for the weekend of activities.
Boston Bruins
Find the latest Boston Bruins news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Boston.
Cassidy has led the Bruins to a 24-7-11 record through 42 games this season, tied for the most points (59) in the National Hockey League. The B’s lead the league in goals against per game, rank second in penalty kill percentage, third in power play percentage and 10th in goals per game (3.31).
The B’s head coach has compiled a 141-59-33 record over his career in Boston and has the second-highest points percentage (.676) among coach’s in B’s franchise history with at least 200 games coached, trailing only Tom Johnson (.738).