Cassidy can celebrate anniversary of Golden Knights hiring with Cup

Bruce Cassidy will mark one year since becoming coach of the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday. He has a chance to celebrate the anniversary with the Stanley Cup.

Cassidy and the Golden Knights can win the Cup for the first time with a victory in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS). Vegas heads home with a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series after a 3-2 victory in Game 4 at Florida on Saturday.

Cassidy needs one more win to complete the job he was hired to do.

"We're not there yet, but before you can get to 16 wins, you've got to get to 15, and we did," he said Sunday. "So, we're one away. We understand that and that's the rewarding part. Now, if you're able to do it, I think (forward Jonathan) Marchessault said it, you're considered a winner forever. You've won. That would be the ultimate reward for me is to be part of a team that won as a team and played as a team.

"But like I said, we've got some work to do."

Teams with a 3-1 lead in a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final have gone on to win the series 97.3 percent of the time (36-1). The 1941-42 Toronto Maple Leafs were the lone team to overcome such a deficit in the Cup Final, when they climbed out of a 3-0 hole against the Detroit Red Wings.

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Cassidy hoped to be in this position when he joined the Golden Knights on June 14, 2022, but the 58-year-old acknowledged, "I didn't know what to expect." He'd been fired after six seasons with the Boston Bruins on June 6 and was out of work for only eight days when the Golden Knights picked him to replace Peter DeBoer.

Cassidy took over a team that missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, going 43-31-8 to finish three points behind the Nashville Predators for the second wild card in the Western Conference, but had qualified in its first four seasons after entering the NHL as an expansion team in 2017-18. That included a trip to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, when it lost to the Washington Capitals in five games, and appearances in the Western Conference Final in 2020 (lost to Dallas Stars) and the Stanley Cup Semifinals in 2021 (lost to Montreal Canadiens).

"I was going into a situation with a team that they want to win, that much I knew, and they had," Cassidy said. "They hadn't won the Cup, but they were as close as anybody other than probably [the Tampa Bay Lightning, who won the Cup in 2020 and 2021] in terms of how often they were knocking at the door. So, I knew that was there and there was a dressing room full of good players. …So, for me, that's what I knew I was getting into.

"Then, it's up to the coach to build a certain style of play, culture, identity of a team."

The Golden Knights (51-22-9) started strong, going 13-2-0 in their first 15 games under Cassidy, and then went through some ups and downs before going 16-3-3 in their final 22 games to finish first in the Western Conference. They rolled into the playoffs and defeated the Winnipeg Jets in five games in the first round, the Edmonton Oilers in six games in the second round and the Stars in six games in the Western Conference Final before winning three of the first four games against Florida.

Vegas has not trailed in a series since losing 5-1 in Game 1 against Winnipeg.

"The rewarding part is seeing it all come together at the right time," Cassidy said. "We addressed it in the group in September. You want to build your game so that you're playing your best hockey at the end of the year when the playoffs are rolling around. You've got to get here to do that. And I think we were. We had a very good second half, really strong finish and have carried that into the playoffs. So, that's the rewarding part for a coach.

"Every coach in this league works hard to prepare their team, puts in a lot of time and effort, sacrifice away from your family at times. So, that's the rewarding part and then to get your name on the Cup is the ultimate reward."

Cassidy knows from experience not to count on that, yet. He was one win away from winning the Cup with Boston in 2019 and lost 4-1 to the St. Louis Blues in Game 7 at home.

The Bruins had to win Game 6 on the road just to get into that position, though. The Golden Knights have some room for error leading 3-1, but also don't want to let the Panthers back into the series with a win in Game 5.

Cassidy believes the Golden Knights learned from their experience in the Western Conference Final against the Stars, when their 3-0 lead was cut to 3-2 with consecutive losses before they closed out the series with a 6-0 victory in Game 6 in Dallas.

"We know it's a closeout game. I don't have to tell the players that," Cassidy said. "They know what's at stake. They lived it with Dallas when they were able to extend the series and made it tougher on us. A little adversity is OK, especially when you get through it, and we did. We came out with a really good game in Game 6, so the whole process for us probably made us better."