Bruce Cassidy Believes Bruins Mentally, Physically ‘Ready To Go’ For 2019-20

Hockey season is just days away, and Bruce Cassidy believes his team is more than ready.

The Boston Bruins head coach, who helped lead his team to a 4-0-2 preseason record, has plenty of reasons to look at his 2019-20 squad and be confident for Thursday’s opening game against the Stars in Dallas. The Black and Gold dismantled the Chicago Blackhawks 8-2 in the preseason finale, both David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk netted hat tricks and David Backes has looked incredibly strong.

“Physically, I believe we are (ready),” Cassidy said, per NBC Sports Boston’s Joe Haggerty “Obviously (David Krejci) is a part of that. I’ve said I believe he’ll be ready (for opening night), but that’ll be up to him.”

That’s certainly good news regarding Krejci, who skated in just two shifts before being removed from the B’s preseason tilt against the Philadelphia Flyers. The center suffered a lower-body injury, but Cassidy remained optimistic over the last week that it wasn’t serious.

“I’ve been told that he should be ready to go. Mentally, I don’t have any doubt that we’ll be ready to play,” Cassidy added, per Haggerty. “We’ve had too many veteran guys that are just hockey guys and they like playing. So, we’ll be ready to go in that part. Are we good enough? That you never know until the puck drops at the start of the year.”

The puck drops on the 2019-20 season Thursday at 8:30 p.m. ET.