Graney: Knights coach won’t change style despite roster turnover
You never really want to change the way you coach. Bruce Cassidy says it’s about first getting to know your players.
How do they need to be taught?
It can take a while.
Cassidy in his third season leading the Golden Knights. This year’s roster features several new names and some young ones.
Cassidy never bought into the narrative that when he was Boston’s coach for six seasons, he didn’t deal with young players well enough. That they just weren’t developed at a high enough rate.
He never thought it true.
“Some guys respond and they want to be coached hard,” Cassidy said. “Some guys want to be pulled aside and shown how it’s done. It’s just about getting to know each one of them.
“But I would say, internally, we’re not changing our whole philosophy. The overall message is the same.”
There’s very little gray area with Cassidy. What you see is what you get. And it can lead to some serious back-and-forth with certain players.
The best example here is former Knights right wing Jonathan Marchessault, who got into it with Cassidy more than once. On the bench, during games, during the Stanley Cup playoffs two years ago.
But none of its impeded the team’s chances at succeeding, at capturing its championship. It was Marchessault who said Cassidy will always have his respect. That they won together. They managed to work together.
“It hasn’t always been the rainbow and the good weather between us,” Marchessault said to TVA Sports last year. “But I think he wanted the best out of me.”
Said Cassidy before Marchessault left to sign with Nashville: “I love coaching Jonathan Marchessault. The (development) of our relationship was maybe one of the best I’ve ever had with a player.”
Non-negotiable
Sometimes, there is no separating one person from the next.
Cassidy pointed to a sequence in a preseason game against San Jose this year, when the Knights had a reload and the Sharks got a good scoring chance.
“Unacceptable,” Cassidy said. “Non-negotiable for anyone in the room, from (captain) Mark Stone down to our youngest kid.”
Guys are different. Some are OK with their mistakes being shown in front of a group. Others won’t respond to such coaching. So you pick and choose. Cassidy says it’s important to coach all of them, even those who might begin the season in Henderson.
Players need feedback, whether it’s from the head coach or his assistants.
“I think (Cassidy) coaches like he coaches because he has had great success doing it,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “He’s great at it. He’s a good teacher and the new guys will adjust.
“He’s very thorough. I don’t think he’ll change. Why would he? His record speaks to how good he is. He tells you how it is. That’s what you want from any coach. You want things black and white as a player. Everyone is different but he handles things the right way.”
Players, the new ones, the young ones, will first have to gain Cassidy’s trust. That’s big. When you come from a different place and perhaps are used to different styles and voices, you should want to get on board as quickly as possible.
You should want to get adjusted.
What has worked
Cassidy’s results are obvious. He has 388 wins in 673 regular-season games in 10 years as an NHL coach. He’s made the playoffs nine times, reached the Stanley Cup Final twice and won it all with the Knights in 2023.
He won’t change for the sake of it, or just because there might be new faces in the room. He’s not built that way. And he shouldn’t be. Go with what has worked for years now.
“He coaches some guys differently, but with the whole group, he’s pretty steady in his ways,” defenseman Shea Theodore said.
How do they want to be taught?
It can take a while.
But as Cassidy has proven, things work out far more often than not.
Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on X.
