Cassidy Comments on Golden Knights Departure: ‘I Would Have Liked to See it Through’

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On March 29th, the Vegas Golden Knights made a change behind the bench with just eight games left in the regular season. They relieved head coach Bruce Cassidy of his duties and subsequently brought in John Tortorella to take his place.

From broadcasters to the media to fans, this move caught the hockey world by surprise. And when Cassidy joined the NHL on TNT intermission panel nearly a month after the incident, he admitted that it shocked him, too.

“Yeah,” said Cassidy on Tuesday. “You know, you grind for 74 games, and you want to be there at the end. That’s the payoff, right? Playing for the cup, getting your name on the cup again… Great guys in that locker room, great players. I’m excited for the guys, but disappointed I didn’t get a chance to finish the job with them.”

Throughout their nine-year history, the Golden Knights have earned a reputation as a team that will do whatever it takes to win. This move is a bit too extreme to be par for the course, but it’s not completely without precedent.

“Vegas, they have their standards,” Cassidy acknowledged. “They felt we weren’t there, so they made a change.”

In 2022, the Golden Knights hired Cassidy as their third head coach in franchise history. The move immediately paid dividends, and he led them to their first Stanley Cup in 2023. Typically, Stanley Cup Champion head coaches get a longer leash; in this case, the floundering Golden Knights needed a spark, and Cassidy was the casualty.

“I think somewhere along the way, we lost our spirit, and we lost our energy as a team,” said general manager Kelly McCrimmon after the coaching change. “You need to make hard decisions, and the easiest thing in the world to do is nothing… If we didn’t have the expectations and the belief in our team that we do, we probably would’ve let this thing ride out.”

Following the coaching change, the Golden Knights went on a 7-0-1 run to close out the regular season.