Cassidy firing one of the biggest panic moves seen in a long time
The Vegas Golden Knights have earned a reputation for being a little quick to pull the trigger on things, even when it might be head-scratching to some. Well, what they did on Sunday has raised a lot of eyebrows, especially with the Stanley Cup Playoffs right around the corner.
With just eight games remaining in the regular season, the Golden Knights elected to fire head coach Bruce Cassidy, hiring John Tortorella for the remainder of the season. It comes as the team is still on a path to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, though they may not be as much of a force as they were in recent years. That said, the timing of the decision to relieve the man who guided Vegas to its first Stanley Cup and hire a relic that hasn’t accomplished anything noteworthy in 20 years is a bit of a head-scratcher.
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Ken Boehlke of SinBin.vegas joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to explain why the Golden Knights’ firing Cassidy is a panic move.
Ken Boehlke: It’s a panic move. It’s a massive panic move. And it’s one of the bigger panic moves we’ve seen in the NHL in a long time. It goes back 20-plus years here. There’s eight games left. What is a new head coach supposed to do in eight games?
Carter Hutton: Not much. That’s the problem. It’s on the players. It’s on the players. in my personal opinion. That’s why I agree with you. This seems like such a panic move.
Ken: How much can you actually change? They’re not going to change systems. Not to mention, the systems weren’t bad. We know that. The systems won them the Stanley Cup not that long ago. They’re bringing in a guy to, I guess…it’s the same personality, just more over the top to a personality they apparently were not responding to, and I’m not even sure I buy that, because that’s just the convenient thing we all like to say when a coach gets fired. ‘Ah, he lost the room. They needed a new voice.’ Like, oh, okay.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…