On Sunday, March 29, the Vegas Golden Knights fired head coach Bruce Cassidy. With less than 10 games remaining in the season, this comes at an odd time. Normally, coaches are fired within the first half of the season or in the offseason. But Vegas, being Vegas, are merciless when it comes to coaches and players, even when they are in a playoff spot.
Five points below the Golden Knights are the Toronto Maple Leafs, who can’t decide if they want to tank or finish as high as possible. However, perhaps more disastrous than where they sit in the standings is their team culture. Craig Berube is not a fit for this roster, and while not solely responsible for the team culture, he’s a part of the problem.
In this article, we will take a look at why hiring Bruce Cassidy is the right decision organizationally and why Cassidy fits this roster better than Berube.
The Maple Leafs can continue to do something
It was pretty obvious that general manager Brad Treliving and the MLSE board waited too long to become sellers this year. Treliving’s trades had been absolutely disastrous during his tenure with the Leafs. And I am not even referring to the trades at the last trade deadline. At the time, they seemed like solid bets. However, he failed to pivot when it was clear it wasn’t working out. This is likely what got him fired yesterday.
Other than the Nicolas Roy trade, he waited until the very last moment to make trades and received sub-par packages for pending UFAs Bobby McMann and Scott Laughton. With this poor asset management, the Leafs are in for a long, bumpy ride.
For far too long, MLSE has been reactive to events, rather than proactive. When the Leafs essentially blackmailed Vegas for tampering over the Mitch Marner contract situation, there was a glimmer of hope that this organization would finally become an organization like Vegas, or Boston, or Tampa Bay.
Instead, this was a mere flash in the pan, likely only done to save face in the eyes of fans. The Leafs have largely been allergic to behaving like a world-class organization. Fans wanted the Leafs to do something and make a change, and they fired the general manager. Strike while the iron is hot, and hire Bruce Cassidy.
Bruce Cassidy is a fantastic coach, and there’s a good bet that he could turn this roster around next season. Auston Matthews and William Nylander are still in their prime, and overall, this is still a playoff team. Hiring Bruce Cassidy immediately would send a message loud and clear to fans that they are serious about turning this 18-wheeler around. That they are not here to “sell jerseys.”
Why Bruce Cassidy makes sense
I think the obvious reason why it makes sense is that he won a Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights during the 2022–23 season. However, success with one organization does not necessarily mean success at another. After all, Craig Berube won a Stanley Cup during the 2018–19 season with the St. Louis Blues, and the Leafs are going to miss the playoffs this year.
Leafs fans have seen Cassidy in the playoffs twice, while he was the head coach for the Boston Bruins. In both the 2017–18 and 2019–19 series, Cassidy outcoached Mike Babcock, and it wasn’t even close. It’s how Cassidy’s teams played under him that makes him a good coach.
Both the Bruins and Golden Knights teams (this year excluded) play a possession-style game and generate chances off the transition. This style of play was successful under Sheldon Keefe, at least in the regular season, and is probably the style of play that the Leafs want to play. The players want to use their creativity with the puck, not play dump–and–chase.
Defensively, Cassidy favours quick puck movement and plays a defensive system that focuses on protecting areas of the ice, not man-on-man coverage. This is the polar opposite of Craig Berube, who wants the Leafs to play man-on-man defensively. Either the Leafs are too slow to play this style, or don’t want to play this style of game, or a combination of both, it is clear that it doesn’t work with the construction of this roster.
What will the Leafs do?
The MLSE thing to do would’ve been to keep Brad Treliving and fire Berube. However, with Brad Treliving fired, it’s only a matter of time before Craig Berube is let go, too. Both Treliving and Berube have outlasted their shelf life. However, MLSE makes changes at a glacial pace; it’s not surprising they have lasted this long.
Bringing in a coach like Cassidy will hopefully spark a culture change that is desperately needed in Toronto. He is blunt and calls out his players–publicly or privately. However, at this point, I think it’s clear that the players need to change, too. When Berube was brought in, he was going to make the players “accountable.” It didn’t turn out.
That being said, both Boston and Vegas have an excellent team culture, and it’s probably why both organizations hired Bruce Cassidy–he fits the culture that those organizations have laid down.
Now it’s an opportunity for MLSE to do the same.
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