The Vegas Golden Knights needed a new voice after last season’s disappointing exit in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Enter Bruce Cassidy.
Cassidy was fired by the Boston Bruins on June 6 of last year, and it took him just a week to become the Golden Knights’ new head coach. The 58-year-old is a demanding coach who holds his players accountable, and he also brings plenty of fire and passion to the job.
It turns out the Golden Knights needed a little of that intensity, as captain Mark Stone explained after Vegas clinched its first Stanley Cup title Tuesday night with a Game 5 victory over the Florida Panthers.
“He came in and brought an intensity to our locker room that maybe we needed,” Stone said on the TNT broadcast amid the on-ice celebrations. “He wanted to win just as badly as everyone else in that locker room. You can see the emotion on his face right now.”
The Golden Knights’ playoff run was quite impressive. They needed just five games to eliminate the Winnipeg Jets in the first round, and then they ended the high-scoring Edmonton Oilers’ run in a six-game second-round series. After taking a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference Final, the Dallas Stars won the next two games to put some pressure on Vegas. The Golden Knights responded with a Game 6 series-clinching win on the road.
The Stanley Cup Final was never close. The Golden Knights dominated the Panthers in five games and outscored them 26-12.
Cassidy did a great job in Vegas, and his effort was rewarded with a much-deserved Stanley Cup title.
