On February 7, the Bruins went through a public relations nightmare with the firing of the wildly popular Claude Julien after a decade behind the bench. It wasn’t the axing itself that got the ire of Bruins fans, but rather the announcement of the Julien news and subsequent press conference coming on the same day as the Patriots’ Super Bowl parade through Downtown Boston.

For the rest of the season, GM Don Sweeney tabbed Bruce Cassidy as interim coach. Cassidy, who earned a promotion as an assistant coach following a five-year stint as the head coach in Providence.

On Day 1, Cassidy said he wasn’t here to reinvent the wheel. But he needed to get the Bruins results and quickly. At that point, they sat on the outside looking in of a playoff spot with 58 points and a mark of 26-23-6.

He may not have reinvented the wheel, but with a few tweaks and an emphasis on a quick transition game, Cassidy guided the Bruins through rough waters. With an 18-8-1 mark in the final 27 games, the Bruins managed to return to the postseason for the first time in three years.

The ending to the 2016-17 campaign may not sit well at the moment for the Black and Gold a day after suffering their season-ending loss to the Senators in Game 6. Yet, Cassidy and company have a lot to be proud of as the team inserted several playoff newcomers to the lineup, including Charlie McAvoy and Sean Kuraly, battled through injuries and other forms of adversity in a tough first-round matchup with their Atlantic Division rivals.

“Well, I think it was apparent to everybody that we weren’t at full strength, and guys had to step up, and we talked about it. Other guys got an opportunity. I thought they did very well. So, yeah, I’m proud of the guys’ effort from February 9 on,” Cassidy said during his Game 6 postgame press conference.

“We put ourselves in a position to be here in the first place. I think we played well enough to have the opportunity to advance, but they made a few more plays than us. Every game could have gone either way. So, I’m proud of the players. Like I said, if we could have made a play or two more, we’d be moving onto Ottawa or New York or whatever the place may be. But, we’re not and they did, so congratulations to them.”

As the post-mortem of the Bruins’ season takes place, the talk of their future begins. The first order of business for Sweeney is to decide whether or not to remove the interim tag from Cassidy and give him the label of full-time head coach.

Though the decision is out of his control, Cassidy wasted little time in expressing his desire to return behind the Bruins’ bench next season.

“Absolutely,” Cassidy said about returning potentially for his first full season in Boston in 2017-18. “One-hundred percent.”

Given his short-term track record, the Bruins’ locker room would sure love to have Cassidy back next year as well.

“The results speak for themselves,” said first-year Bruin David Backes about Cassidy. “We were climbing uphill when he took over and made our way [to the playoffs]. It wasn’t easy. We had to string some wins together, we lost a couple [of games] that we really needed and in the end, we were able to pull together as a group. I don’t know how you make an argument against [keeping Cassidy].”

I can’t imagine that Bruins fans will argue against Cassidy’s track record through 27 games either, David. And now the media and fans await the press release from the Bruins regarding Cassidy’s future in Boston.