From a strictly hockey perspective, Bruce Cassidy had plenty on his plate Sunday. His Vegas Golden Knights will be without their No. 1 defenseman for a fourth straight game Monday night as Alex Pietrangelo tends to a personal matter.
They may also be without their star center, as Jack Eichel left Saturday’s game against Detroit with what appeared to be a lower-body injury. Cassidy said he will be a game-time decision for Monday.
Oh, and his team is about to face the best team in the NHL, the Boston Bruins. Of course, this game will mean a lot to Cassidy for so many reasons beyond the level of difficulty.
Cassidy walked back into TD Garden for an optional practice Sunday for the first time since the Bruins fired him in June. He had spent nearly five and a half seasons as Boston’s head coach, and 14 seasons total in the Bruins organization.
While he had plenty of work to do, Cassidy made sure to take a few moments to reflect as well.
“Good memories,” Cassidy said when asked what he was thinking about Sunday. “I walked out to the other bench, the home bench, just to see what it was like. I’ve been in that spot a lot. I used to always look at the banners up top. Wanted to hang one. That didn’t happen, but still great memories.
“Good to see Grizz’s dad [John Grzelcyk, a member of the TD Garden bull gang], people walking around. [Monday] will be better -- the McCorkles [TD Garden security managers Jack and Jim] I’m sure will be here. Things like that. There’s good memories of people you meet behind the scenes. Ran into Billy Jaffe [of NESN] for a while, talked hockey, youth hockey. So yeah, just stuff that happened in the past. Like I said, I always had great memories here.”
Cassidy made the playoffs in all six of his seasons leading the Bruins, won at least one playoff series in four of them, and went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2019. His team had 107 points last season, but lost in the first round in seven games to the Carolina Hurricanes.
General manager Don Sweeney said the Bruins needed a change in “the messaging and the voice” when explaining the decision to dismiss Cassidy, and Cassidy made it clear after the fact that he would be “mindful” of what Sweeney told him and work on his messaging wherever he landed next.
That wound up being Vegas, a team that missed the playoffs last year for the first time after qualifying in each of its first four NHL seasons. For the first month of the season, Cassidy’s new team was keeping pace with his old team in a cross-country battle for the NHL’s best record, racing out to a 13-2-0 start. The Golden Knights have slipped a bit since then, going 5-5-1 over their last 11 games while dealing with some injuries/absences.
Cassidy has made it a priority to tighten up the Golden Knights’ defense, working to build the same kind of foundation his Bruins teams had. He is trying to do that without sacrificing too much of the offensive firepower that Vegas has had for years.
That has included allowing Pietrangelo (21 points in 23 games) and Shea Theodore (19 points in 26 games) the freedom to activate from the blue line and help drive the offense -- coincidentally, the same kind of freedom new Bruins coach Jim Montgomery has given Boston’s blue-liners this season.
“I think every year you change a little bit,” Cassidy said. “For me, in my situation, you’re reflecting. Some things change. I still believe in a culture of team first and accountability to one another. What are you going to change? Dealing with players. How do they handle the messaging? We didn’t change a lot of how we play. We want to be a solid defensive team. We were at the start. It’s slipped a little bit. We want to keep building that into the game.
“Offense was never a problem here in Vegas. That started six years ago. They did a great job with the rush attack, from Gerard [Gallant] to Pete DeBoer. We’ve gotten our D involved. I think we’ve had good success with our offense coming from our D because we have those guys that are natural at it, with Theodore and Pietrangelo, [Zach] Whitecloud. They like to get up. That part of our game is noticeable.”
Eichel, a North Chelmsford native and former Boston University Terrier, has been at the center of it all for Cassidy. After having his past two seasons derailed by injury, with a trade from Buffalo to Vegas worked in, the 26-year-old Eichel has been playing arguably the best hockey of his career. He leads the Golden Knights with 29 points (13 goals, 16 assists) in 26 games, but it’s been his defensive buy-in that has really impressed Cassidy.
“My impressions of him here is he’s been our best player every night, and away from the puck,” Cassidy said of Eichel. “That is a conversation that we had. I thought for him to be a truly elite player and a good playoff player, he had to have a 200-foot game. The model is always Bergy [Patrice Bergeron], we know that. There’s [Anze] Kopitar, there’s [Jonathan] Toews, there’s a lot of guys like that. That’s what we were hoping Jack could at some point get to.
“I think he’s been outstanding. I saw a story on the metrics the other day, the analytics that supported that. He’s been really good in our system defensively, really playing below the puck, not cheating anywhere on the ice. Offensively, his game’s there. … I can’t say enough about the commitment he’s made to be a full, complete player, and he’s walked the walk.”
Cassidy knows Monday night’s game would mean a lot for Eichel as well, as he hasn’t gotten a chance to play in front of his family and friends in Boston since Dec. 29, 2019. Cassidy hopes Eichel is able to get clearance to play.
“It’s a tough one for him. I just found out he hasn’t played here in a few years,” Cassidy said. “He’s having such a good year. He was really looking forward to it. So, hopefully he heals quickly, but we’ll see, probably not until game time.”
So far this season, Cassidy has fared well against his old East Coast rivals, as the Golden Knights are 7-0-0 against the Atlantic Division. He noted that he “seems to know those teams a lot better” and joked that he “should know about” Monday’s opponent as well.
Whether that knowledge will translate to on-ice success remains to be seen. Cassidy knows the Bruins will be one of Vegas’ toughest tests yet, and it’s one he’s looking forward to.
“It’ll be one of the best, I assume. You’ve got a team that hasn’t lost at home. They’re firing on all cylinders, in every category,” Cassidy said of the Bruins. “Sometimes that’s good for your team, to play that team. Being out a couple of guys will make it more difficult, but then sometimes your game simplifies when you’re missing key players.
“I think our team has responded to good teams. I think we’re a bit of that team that can elevate our game. Sometimes unfortunately we can go the other way against opponents we should be doing better against. I’m looking forward to it. See where we’re at. And then whatever happens, we’ll go back to work Wednesday.”
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