EP Rinkside mailbag: What's next for the Boston Bruins?

Boy, this was a newsworthy week in the NHL, for sure. A big coaching change, a team with two bona fide superstars getting swept by a team with four or five bona fide superstars, and the Eastern Conference Final continues apace.

People had questions about all of that and more.

Let’s get to it:

Han asks: “How many head coaches are the Bruins going to go through before Don Sweeney and/or Cam Neely are ousted?”

I got several questions about the Boston Bruins’ surprising decision to let Bruce Cassidy go — the NHL is running out of guys named Bruce too quickly! — but this one kind of gets to the heart of it.

This absolutely feels like a general manager using the last bullet in his chamber to change horses in midstream; the Bruins were trying to be Cup-competitive as recently as a month ago, and now they feel like they’re close to tearing it down as much as they reasonably can. 

The local reporting has them bringing in a “young coach” and exploring a David Pastrnak trade, which says to me they’re closer to blowing it up — facilitated in large part by a potential Patrice Bergeron retirement and the prospect of playing without Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy until potentially December.