Bruce Cassidy is among the best coaches in the NHL. And there’s an argument to be made he stands alone right now.
This space is a firm believer in, “show me a good coach and I’ll show you a great roster,” but Cassidy has proven to a difference maker with the elite roster Golden Knights management has built.
VGK hockey czars George McPhee and Kelly McCrimmon have done incredible work from the outset with Bill Foley’s NHL franchise.
They hired excellent scouts, put together a masterful plan and have continued to make smart roster moves both bold and subtle.
Players win the games. They score the goals, block the shots and take the hits. They are the true arbiter of an organization’s success or failure. But they need guidance and accountability.
It was Cassidy who found a way to get these thoroughbreds into the winning circle.
Several players said during interviews for 'It Hurts To Win' (The Official Inside Story of the 2022-23 Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights) that Cassidy’s coaching work was the ultimate difference.
“Without Bruce we don’t win,” point-blanked Vegas blueliner Alex Pietrangelo.
Some coaches have qualities that make them great for the 60 minutes or so required to get a team through an NHL game. Some can work with management to help take a team from rebuild status to contender.
Cassidy is unique in the sense that he’s both an organizational coach and one of the winningest coaches of his era.
Among coaches with 500 or more NHL games, Cassidy sits second all-time with a .644 points percentage. Scotty Bowman sits first at .657 and Jon Cooper is third at .643.
Cassidy’s Golden Knights set an NHL record on Saturday night as they became the first defending Stanley Cup champion to start a season 6-0.
Vegas is on an incredible tear dating back to last season’s All-Star Break. The team went 22-4-5 down the stretch of the 22-23 season, 16-6 in the Stanley Cup playoffs and have opened this campaign 6-0. Adding up to a 44-10-5 run.
“It feels like we’ve won a lot,” smiled Cassidy after Saturday’s 5-3 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago.
Vegas hasn’t lost a regular season game in regulation since March 28 of last season going 11-0-3 over that span. Cassidy’s team is the near perfect example of theory that scoring three goals in the NHL is the path to victory. Vegas has won 27 straight games (including playoffs) in which they have scored three goals or more.
Cassidy is demanding and passionate on the bench. He’s admitted he can let those qualities get the best of him at times. But he’s constantly willing to look in the mirror, to learn and adjust.
Defenseman Alec Martinez spoke about Cassidy’s impact on the Golden Knights during the writing of It Hurts To Win.
“I think (Bruce) learned towards the end to trust us a little bit as a group and as a leadership group. At the beginning of the year, I think that he was trying to figure out what kind of group he was inheriting and what tweaks needed to be made. There was a general feeling around the league that we were entitled, we didn't do the right things, and we didn't work hard enough. There were some things said in the media and stuff last summer,” said Martinez. “He kept us accountable, which was really good. I thought he brought intensity in practice and on the bench. That was really good as well. The main thing is that he started to trust us a little bit. I always knew that we had a really good group. There were some things that, in terms of mentality, we had to tweak or change…Bruce's demeanor and mentality gave us a little bit of a nudge…This is no disrespect to anyone else, but maybe we don't win without Bruce. His demeanor certainly helped out a lot. Both sides learned a lot more towards the end of the year. Obviously, it was a recipe for success. His tweaks and in-game adjustments are very smart. I'd like to know what you think…Bruce is very, very passionate guy. He wants to win, he cares about winning, but he also has that knack for in-game to get the job done.”
Cassidy has dragged that trust into this season. He’s given his team days off from practice on a few occasions already.
“I know my team,” he’s said, intimating that rest is a weapon his veteran roster can use to its advantage.
Last week in a tight game versus the Winnipeg Jets, Cassidy let captain Mark Stone do the talking during a media timeout. The result was a VGK win going away.
When the club arrived at the team hotel in the early morning hours after flying through the night, Cassidy kept most of his group off the ice on Friday trusting they would be ready for Saturday’s match with the Blackhawks.
“Three years ago I would have had everyone on the ice today. But the players said they knew our game in Winnipeg wasn’t up to our standard,” said Cassidy. “We’re at home all next week and there are three open days when we can practice. We can get our work done then.”
It's a big picture look than benefits Cassidy once the puck is dropped. The same goes for his handling of young players up on recall from the AHL. He gives them ice time and invests in their future. It’s not often that Cassidy gets lost looking at just what is in his immediate windshield. He’s got a much vaster horizon.
It's made him the best version of himself as a coach. And that’s saying a lot.
