How Bruce Cassidy Plans to Change the Vegas Golden Knights

When Bruce Cassidy took the Vegas Golden Knights head coaching job on June 14th, he knew what he wanted to do with this team. While the Golden Knights failed to qualify for the postseason for the first time last season, the Vegas powers-to-be feel Cassidy can improve upon that.

“There are different teams and different coaches that, with the right personnel or in the right year you have a real good power play, or a real good penalty kill or maybe one’s better than the other significantly,” Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon said. “In Bruce’s case, the penalty kill, and the power play consistently have been very, very good for a long period of time. So that’s really important to us. It’s part of the decision-making process we had in terms of what we think Bruce’s strengths are and what can translate to our team.”

Both special team efforts from last season will need to improve. They were just 21st on the penalty-kill and 25th on the power play. It seems with Cassidy’s guidance in those areas, it was a primary reason he was selected to coach the team.

Bruce Cassidy’s Plan

Cassidy will implement a “goalie-friendly” zone defense which he hopes will help his goalies. And, with the present situation that the team faces in between the pipes, that’s a refreshing thought. Robin Lehner is gone for the season. Planned backup Laurent Brossoit is out for an undisclosed amount of time. That leaves Logan Thompson in the spotlight in net. He will be there along with newly acquired Adin Hill.

Cassidy explained his goalie-friendly system to The Athletic recently.

“When I say goaltender-friendly, we want to protect the high danger and slot chances that are more difficult stops. So we’re going to try to minimize those opportunities. Some of those are odd-man rushes, breakaways, two-on-ones. We’ll take less risk in our game through the neutral zone.” –Bruce Cassidy to The Athletic

Cassidy’s plan seems to call for a much more passive style in the neutral zone, likely both when the Golden Knights have the puck and when they are defending it.

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Two Cassidy System Objectives

First of all, keep the puck to the outside. Whether we’re talking about in-zone defending, neutral zone play, or even forechecking, the idea that when the puck is on the boards it’s further away from being in our net is paramount.

Second, attack and defend with numerical advantages. In breakouts, Cassidy prefers the puck to head towards the strong side. That provides for defensive coverage in the event of a turnover. In the neutral zone, Cassidy has used a passive 1-2-2 system that kept four players in between the puck and the goal as often as can be. And, when the team was holding a lead, a 1-4 neutral zone system would even be deployed stacking four of the five skaters on the blue line to force dump-ins constantly.

While this passive system will more than likely please the goalies, how will it affect the offense? Cassidy’s magic needs to kick in as soon as possible to get those poor power play stats improved. The Vegas team has always been a good defensive team. They’ve averaged 2.7 goals against per game over the last three seasons. If Cassidy can get the offense going, with a full year of Jack Eichel, and hopefully Mark Stone, things should get better.

Cassidy is a Very Good Coach

He has accumulated an impressive 292-155-9-53 record over his eight years as an NHL head coach. His points percentage of .635 during the regular season is excellent. Yet, his playoff success has not been that great with just a .481 points percentage. It may take the players a bit of time to adjust to his system, but when they do they have a reasonably good chance of making the playoffs. They stand at a -240 to qualify for the postseason at this point. If Bruce Cassidy can improve on the special teams and hope his goaltending holds up… they can make it.