Lizard Kings to Lord Stanley: Bruce Cassidy completes coaching odyssey

The emotion was evident on Bruce Cassidy’s face as he and his assistants grabbed one another on the bench Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena.

The Golden Knights coach experienced quite a journey to reach that moment. Final seconds ticking off the clock. Championship well in hand.

Cassidy’s playing days were derailed by knee injuries. His coaching career came with peaks and valleys, including his firing by the Boston Bruins last season.

It all led him to where he was supposed to be. Cassidy accomplished what he set out to do one year ago when he sat down in the City National video room June 16, 2022, to be introduced as the Knights’ third coach and declared “I want my name on the Stanley Cup.”

He got it after his team’s 9-3 victory in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. Cassidy became the ninth coach in the past 30 years to win a championship in his first season with a franchise.

“It’s been a hell of a year,” he said. “Everyone plays the game to get their name on the Cup, and we were able to do it and I was able to do it my first year. Very thankful and grateful that I ended up here.”

It took a lot of twists and turns of fate for Cassidy to arrive where he was meant to be.

He had a rapid rise early in his career, going from coaching the ECHL’s Jacksonville Lizard Kings to the Washington Capitals in the span of seven years. Then he hit the first of several skids.

He was fired by Capitals general manager George McPhee — now the Knights’ president of hockey operations — 28 games into his second season in 2003. He didn’t get another chance to run an NHL bench until Feb. 7, 2017, when the Boston Bruins fired Claude Julien and promoted Cassidy from assistant to head coach.

The following run was remarkable. Cassidy led the Bruins to the NHL’s second-best record during his tenure, won the 2020 Jack Adams Award for the league’s top coach and came one win shy of winning the Cup in 2019.

That didn’t stop Boston from firing him after a first-round exit last season. Cassidy’s direct and demanding style seemed to wear out its welcome despite his success, but it had an immediate impact on the Knights.

“He thinks the game really well,” right wing Jonathan Marchessault said. “Every game we’ve made adjustments. … He kept us humble and kept us also in the mindset of just one game at a time and don’t think too far (ahead). Stay in the moment.”

Cassidy’s fingerprints were all over the Knights’ run.

He installed the defensive scheme that appeared to form an impenetrable wall at times in front of his team’s net. It’s why the Knights were able to withstand starting a franchise-record five goaltenders and still wind up with the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.

Cassidy also spread his talent throughout the lineup and relied on his depth to overwhelm the opposition. He got forwards such as Michael Amadio and Brett Howden to buy into complementary roles next to some of the Knights’ most skilled players, which allowed him to find four units that clicked.

Cassidy even pushed the right buttons off the ice, giving his players days off from thinking about hockey at times and finding the right moments to inspire the group at others. He had all of T-Mobile Arena roaring before puck drop Tuesday after submitting a starting lineup with five of the Knights’ six original members — Marchessault, left wing Reilly Smith, center William Karlsson and defensemen Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore.

“That was Bruce’s idea to start them, so credit to him for doing that,” defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “That’s a pretty cool idea.”

Not long after that, Cassidy fulfilled his lifelong dream of earning the right to have his name on the Cup. He won’t win the Jack Adams again this season — he wasn’t named one of the three finalists despite leading the Knights to a franchise-record 111 points — but he got the trophy that matters most.

Cassidy told McPhee he was “gonna get it right this time” when the two reunited a year ago. He’s delivered on that promise.

“At first, you’re leaving a spot (in Boston) that’s been home to you for a long time,” Cassidy said. “It turns out, it could be the best thing to ever happen to me in my career.”

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.