Stanley Cup champ, member of Team Canada coaching staff and a coach who hasn’t missed the playoffs in the better part of a decade – Bruce Cassidy is one of the best at what he does.
Cassidy has taken a team to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in eight straight seasons making him No. 1 in that category among NHL coaches right now.
John Cooper and Jared Bednar are right behind him with seven consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup tournament.
Cassidy got it done six times with the Boston Bruins and now the last two straight with the Vegas Golden Knights.
In his first season in Vegas, Cassidy led the team to the Stanley Cup and last year his crew fell in seven games to the Dallas Stars in the opening round of the playoffs.
“I'd rather have a short summer. This one was long. One of the things, and I guess time will tell here, is, you know, in our case, we lose in the first round, if you're not going to win, are we better off doing that to give these guys that had so many surgeries more time to heal?” said Cassidy. “I mean, it's easy to say that going into the year now that they've had time to heal, but you want to play as long as you can. So I don't necessarily agree with that. But sometimes when you have a long, extended run, you don't win it all in the short ability to recover and catch up to you. But having said that, Florida proved that wrong. They had a long run, and they found a way. So for me would be, I know that was a long answer, but it would be a short summer every time.”
Cassidy and his staff will take to the ice today to begin the on-ice portion of training camp. It’s his third training camp in Vegas and his 29th as a coach.
“The theme will be revisiting fundamentals, and it won't be a lot different than the last two camps,” said Cassidy. “Part of the reason for that is we’ve had good starts. So that will be the theme. There will be a few underlying objectives to find out where the new wingers fit. So that's the part of camp that, as coaches, we'd have to do some evaluating, whereas last year, we kind of went with the lines that got us the Cup, so it was a little bit easier.”
Pro sport is a tough racket and head coaches face pressure from all fronts. The players want the right mix of strategy and accountability. GMs want coaches to maximize the roster which management has built. Fans want the team to win and give their favorite players opportunity. And owners? They want an entertaining team that wins and sells tickets.
Cassidy says keeping everyone happy comes down to one thing.
“You have to win. I look at it as very simple. You don't win enough, they find someone else. I don't think they fire you when you're winning and winning on a consistent basis,” said the Ottawa native. “In general, if you don't win enough, they'll try to find someone that does. And there are coaches that have coached the same teams for a long time due to winning lot. I don't think the message gets stale if you keep winning.”
Cassidy has some decisions to make with his forward group. Who plays with Jack Eichel will be one of the biggest and the coach says there will be some movement during training camp and the preseason. Figuring out the wings is one factor but the coach is comfortable with his roster due to strengths in net, on the blueline and at center ice.
“On the blue line, it's simple (Noah) Hanifin in, (Alec) Martinez out. Marty's a Stanley Cup decorated guy that we had towards the end of his career, and Hanny is still in the middle of his. So I'm not being disrespectful in that regard, and I don't think the other five guys have aged so much that they're they're still really good hockey players, and a few of them are in their prime getting better too,” said Cassidy. “So up front, down the middle, well, you're putting (Tomas) Hertl in for (Chandler) Stephenson. So that's your argument. Stevie's won the Cup twice too, so I wouldn't be disrespectful of that. Tomas Hertl is a great NHL player. Are we better? We'll see this year. I guess certainly we could be. Jack is a young guy, Karly, I still think, is a young guy, and Nic Roy certainly is too. We’re pretty good down the middle.”
Cassidy is a hockey lifer. An excellent junior player who had his pro career derailed by injuries before turning to coaching. He’s been doodling lines on the back of his golf scorecard all summer.
“I have it in my head, and we're gonna try and see if they work. But typically what happens is chemistry develops, sometimes organically, and we'll try not to close that off,” said Cassidy. “You come into camp and see who fits where. We're set down the middle, so who compliments who? We're going to move a lot of pieces around. We may even put Nic Roy at the wing and see, does that give us more offense and what do we lose if he goes from the center to the wing. Can we replace him and still have a valuable fourth line? So those are the things you probably discuss more than anything. Little bit of the D pairs, but we know what we have back there. We like our goaltending. So the biggest challenge for us will be fitting those new pieces in on the wing. Who has the best chemistry with Jack? Karly, Tomas, Nic?”
