It’s the dawn of a new day for the Vegas Golden Knights. On Sunday night, the franchise made the shock decision to fire Bruce Cassidy with eight games to go in the regular season.
While Vegas is on pace to make the playoffs, they’ve been one of the worst teams in the NHL since the Olympic break. With that in mind, Vegas’s management wasted no time in showing Cassidy the door, putting John Tortorella in charge for however many games they play between now and the end of the playoffs.
Speaking to reporters on Monday ahead of facing the Vancouver Canucks, Mark Stone and Jack Eichel were asked for their thoughts on the Cassidy firing.
Mark Stone, Jack Eichel Address Golden Knights Firing Bruce Cassidy
Golden Knights captain Mark Stone said the situation was “obviously disappointing” before adding that all is not lost just yet in Sin City.
“The team’s not where we want to be, not where we want to be playing. When these decisions happen, you take it a little bit on yourself,” Stone said. “But it’s a new day. Excited to get going. Still feel like we’re in a pretty good spot in the standings. We’ve got eight games to get dialled in and have a push for the playoffs.”
As things stand, Vegas is third in the Pacific Division and has a four-point lead over the trailing Los Angeles Kings.
Jack Eichel called the whole thing a “wake-up call.”
“We have a really good team here,” Eichel pointed out. “We obviously haven’t been performing to our capability and expectations. I think it’s a message that the management believes in us, but we have to start playing better.”
Cassidy will leave the Golden Knights having steered them to a 178-99-43 record, good enough for 5th-best in the league over that span. He also led VGK to 24 playoff wins, two Pacific Division titles, and, of course, a Stanley Cup.
John Tortorella will now take charge of the Golden Knights starting Monday night against the Canucks. Vegas will be Tortorella’s 6th different head coaching stop, tying Peter Laviolette for the 4th-most in NHL history. For his part, Tortorella called Cassidy a “damn good coach.”
Interestingly, since 2000, only five teams have won a Stanley Cup after changing head coaches in the middle of the season. The two most recent examples of those wins are the 2019 St. Louis Blues (when Craig Berube replaced Mike Yeo) and the 2016 Pittsburgh Penguins (when Mike Sullivan took over from Mike Johnston).
The Golden Knights, however, are long shots to win the Stanley Cup this year, even after taking the new head coach bounce into consideration.
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