[kdcing]

No, the squirrel cage is 1 piece. The squirrel cage is pressed onto the shaft of the blower motor's shaft and the squirrel cage is removable from the motor's shaft with some persuation, however, the blower motor and squirrel cage were removed from my car as 1 piece to do the blower motor replacement.

The rubber piece that needed to be cut - as well as the hidden screw and plastic piece that needed to be removed - are part of the ventilation ducting that the blower motor/squirrel cage are attached to (i.e. the ventilation ducting is basically the area in your picture that the red arrow is pointing to).