Bruce Cassidy surprised by Golden Knights' firing and sounds ready to return to coaching

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said Tuesday he was surprised at his late-season firing, but indicated he was ready to get back behind a bench.

“You grind for 74 games and you want to be there at the end,” Cassidy said while serving on TNT's studio show for the NHL playoffs. “That's the payoff, playing for the (Stanley) Cup, getting your name on the Cup again. But Vegas, they have their standards. They felt we weren't there, so they made a change. Great guys in that locker room. Great players. I'm excited for the guys, but disappointed I didn't get a chance to finish the job with them.”

The Golden Knights host the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday night in Game 5 of their opening-round series, which is tied at 2-all.

Cassidy coached the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup in 2023 and is the organization's longest-tenured coach. He went 178-99-43.

Vegas was fighting to hold on to a playoff spot when Cassidy was dismissed March 29, with eight games left. John Tortorella, who has praised Cassidy's work with the Golden Knights, took over and went 7-0-1 to close the regular season and won the Pacific Division.

Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon said at his news conference explaining the firing that he believed the team needed a spark before the season got away.

“If we didn’t have the expectations and the belief in our team that we do, we probably would have let this thing ride out,” McCrimmon said at the time. “We like our team a lot, and we think our team has a chance to win. We needed to make this change to help that happen.”

Cassidy was asked if he deserved the benefit of the doubt, given he had won the Cup.

“I would've liked to have seen it through,” Cassidy said. “We had won once before, so we knew what it looked like to win. We were a first- or second-place team most of the year. I felt like we would've got in. I don't know where we would've finished at the end. That's speculation, but yes, I would've loved to have had the opportunity. It didn't work out that way, so you start thinking about your next challenge.”

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