Bruce Cassidy talks Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, and his return to TD Garden.

For 6 years former National Hockey League defenseman Bruce Cassidy served as the head coach of the Boston Bruins, building relationships within the Bruins organization with staff and players alike. That all came to an end though at the conclusion of the 2021-22 NHL season though and now for the first time since being fired Cassidy will return to his former stomping ground.

This time though Cassidy enters the arena as the bench boss of the Las Vegas Golden Knights and he will look to disappoint the hometown crowd at TD Garden on Monday night when his Golden Knights face the Bruins. The Golden Knights took to the ice on Sunday for a routine skate ahead of Monday's game and following that skate Cassidy spoke about how he had felt walking into TD Garden for the first time after so long as the head coach of the Bruins.

"Good memories," admitted Cassidy. "I walked out to the other bench, the home bench, just to see what it's like. I've been in that spot a lot. I used to always look at the banners up top, I wanted to hang one. It didn't happen.

"Things like that, there's good memories of people you meet behind the scenes."

Cassidy also spoke of the important lessons he took away during his many seasons as the head coach of the Bruins, seasons he spent alongside the likes of star players like Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and many more.

"The appreciation of being around solid professionals like Zdeno Chara, Bergy obviously, watching the growth of Marchy and Pasta, the growth of Tuukka," said a very sincere Cassidy. "The culture that was created, I've said this before but I think Claude [Julien] laid a terrific foundation, we built off that and Monty's continued to do the same and I think that's what I took from it. Strong organizations are teams that are there every year, they have a foundation and culture. That was really important for me, when I was younger I maybe didn't appreciate it that much."

Cassidy spoke to reporters for well over 10 minutes and you can listen to his full comments in the video below: