Bruce Cassidy believes Knights can get his name on Stanley Cup
There were no overt signs of whiplash when Bruce Cassidy arrived in a black suit with a Golden Knights pin for his introductory news conference as the third coach in franchise history.
No one would have been shocked if there was.
Cassidy was unemployed for only eight days after being fired by the Boston Bruins on June 6 and hired by the Knights on Tuesday. He didn’t have much time to lick his wounds before the phone started ringing. Once it did, there was only one response for the 57-year-old who has coached eight teams in five leagues since 1996.
He wanted back in. Not in a year. Now.
“I just got tired of being out of work,” Cassidy said. “So here we are.”
General manager Kelly McCrimmon said the Knights didn’t interview a long list of candidates after firing Pete DeBoer on May 16. The one they hired wasn’t even available when the search began.
But one of the benefits of the Knights’ longer search is they were able to adapt when Cassidy became available. His resume — which includes six playoff berths, a Presidents’ Trophy and a trip to the 2019 Stanley Cup Final during parts of six seasons in Boston — put him on the team’s short list.
“Any way you want to measure performance of a team, his teams have been extremely successful,” McCrimmon said.
Cassidy said he had “almost daily” conversations throughout the process with McCrimmon and that the decision to take the job from a hockey standpoint was a “no-brainer.” He declined to discuss the details of his contract but said he was “exceptionally pleased” with it.
The only question was moving his family across the country. Cassidy is an Ottawa, Ontario, native. His wife, Julie, is from New Jersey, and their children, Shannon and Cole, have been raised in New England. It was an easy decision once they were convinced, though Cassidy is still negotiating with Cole over becoming a Raiders fan.
“I’ll tell him you can have the Red Sox, but you’ve got to give up the (Patriots),” Cassidy said.
In the meantime, he will start getting adjusted to his new surroundings. Cassidy and McCrimmon discussed filling out his coaching staff Wednesday and Thursday. The Knights have two openings with the potential for a third if goaltending coach Mike Rosati isn’t retained.
Cassidy also is reaching out to players before training camp. He and captain Mark Stone already have talked.
His challenge after that will be getting a team that has been to one Stanley Cup Final and two semifinals in five years over the hump. The Knights are coming off an injury-plagued season in which they missed the playoffs for the first time. Stone (back) and goaltenders Robin Lehner (shoulder) and Laurent Brossoit (hip) needed offseason surgeries. McCrimmon said Thursday right wing Keegan Kolesar also did after missing the final three games with a lower-body injury.
Cassidy will bring new ideas to the mix in the hopes of sparking another deep playoff run. His Boston teams were exceptional on defense, excellent on special teams and solid on offense. The Bruins ranked first in goals allowed, third on the power play and third on the penalty kill in his tenure.
They were from eighth to 20th in five-on-five goals per 60 minutes in his five full seasons.
The formula got results. Boston was second in points percentage and wins in the NHL under Cassidy. The one thing the Bruins didn’t do was lift the Stanley Cup. They had a Game 7 on home ice in 2019, but Alex Pietrangelo and the St. Louis Blues prevailed.
Cassidy wants to finish the job with his new club.
“I want my name on the Stanley Cup,” he said. “I believe this team has the ability to do that.”
Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.