AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File

By STEPHEN WHYNO

Associated Press

Bruce Cassidy has come a long way from writing his first NHL practice plan on a napkin.

Craig Berube hasn’t changed a bit from the moment he was fired from his first NHL head coaching job.

Two roads diverged in a crazy world of hockey and brought them to this Stanley Cup Final. Cassidy has guided the Boston Bruins to this point a decade and a half after a disastrous tenure in Washington. Berube took the St. Louis Blues from worst to their first final since 1970 several years after a short stint in Philadelphia.

One of them will become the sixth coach in 12 years to lift the Cup in his second stop as NHL head coach and reward an organization and countless people for giving him another chance.

“The guys that are good in this business, they learn a lot along the way and just continue to improve,” said Vegas general manager George McPhee, who hired Cassidy with Washington in 2002, had Berube as a player and then interviewed him for the Capitals’ coaching job in 2013.

“In some ways it’s a shame that these guys didn’t get opportunities earlier. But they continue to coach because they’re good at it and they get opportunities at the American (Hockey) League and then get opportunities at the NHL because they deserve it.”