Cassidy realizes dream of getting name on Stanley Cup with Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS -- When Bruce Cassidy turned on his phone at 9 p.m. on June 6, 2022, hours after he had been fired as coach of the Boston Bruins, there were already three or four inquiries. There were already NHL teams that had requested to talk to Cassidy, had believed he was the right coach for them.

The Vegas Golden Knights were among them.

Cassidy carefully considered his next step. He considered what might get him what he had always wanted, what he had come so close to having when the Bruins lost in Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, the one wish he had for his career.

He landed on Vegas.

"He's like, 'This is my shot. I've looked at this team. This is my shot.' If you're OK with it, I want to go to Vegas," his wife Julie recalled.

Cassidy's family -- Julie, daughter Shannon and son Cole -- gave their blessing. He was announced as the new coach of the Golden Knights eight days later.

And one year -- less one day -- after that, Cassidy lifted the Stanley Cup.

"It could be the best thing that ever happened to me in my career," Cassidy said of leaving Boston.

He was thankful, grateful.

"My life changed," he said. "It worked out pretty well."

He laughed.

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The Golden Knights -- and Cassidy -- finished off the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday, winning the ultimate prize in front of their home fans in Vegas, in front of the family and friends who had helped get them there.

That included the family Cassidy had moved from Boston to Las Vegas one year ago, the family that has watched him work and strive and hope for this, for these moments.

"He has been working for this his entire life," Julie Cassidy said. "I think everyone has heard and said, publicly and at home, that all he wants is his name on the Cup. This is what he wanted. This is all he's ever wanted."

Cassidy, in fact, already knew what it was like to lift the Stanley Cup. Way back in 2011, when he was an assistant with Providence of the American Hockey League, he was put in charge of the team's Black Aces. Long after most had left the ice, after most of the stands in Vancouver had cleared, Cassidy put his hands on the Cup.

But that wasn't what he wanted, what he craved.

He wanted his name on there. He wasn't shy about saying it, either.

He had thought it would happen in 2019. He was going into a Game 7 at home at TD Garden against the St. Louis Blues. He believed the day would end with his dream realized.

"Expected to celebrate," he said. "We all did. That's why you play, it's Game 7. But it didn't happen."

He took the loss hard.

"I know how Bruce felt in 2019 when we lost in Game 7 at home (to the St. Louis Blues in the Final), so I can only imagine it's a much happier feeling for him now," Bruins president Cam Neely said Wednesday. "There are such highs and lows in our sport. Bruce has proven he's a good coach in the National Hockey League, so good for him."

And by Tuesday, after the game had ended, the sting had dissipated.

"Now it's very gratifying," he said. "You dream about it when you're a kid, as a player, as a coach. I don't think it sinks in, though, right now. Still running on emotion."

Back when Cassidy was contemplating that next move, he talked to Mark Stone, the captain of the Golden Knights. He had one main question for Stone, who had been with Vegas for four seasons. He wanted to know whether the team really cared, whether it really could win.

Stone said yes.

"I think he cares so much about winning and that's why I think he jelled with our group because our team cares so much," Stone said. "We wanted to win the Stanley Cup. He wanted to win the Stanley Cup. He pushed us hard this season. He pushed a lot of buttons to help us get here.

"But I think like you saw, the tears in his eyes, he just wanted to win like the rest of us. I think that's why he chose to come here."

That's why Cassidy picked Vegas. Of course, it was only after he signed that he found about team owner Bill Foley's projection, that the Golden Knights would win the Stanley Cup in year six of the franchise.

"I found out it was year six after I signed," Cassidy said. "I said, 'All right, there's a little bit of pressure here.'

"But here we are!"

On the ice, after Game 5, Julie Cassidy scrolled through her text messages, message after message of congratulations, many of them friends from Boston, people they had gotten to know in six years of living and working in the area. Many of them were filled with exclamation points.

They will see those friends again soon, hoping to make it back to the house they still have on Cape Cod by Sunday, Father's Day.

And at some point, when Cassidy is handed his day with the Cup, it will go with him back to Boston.

As Cassidy said, "The Cup is going to the Cape. Absolutely."

It's not about revenge. But it could be argued that there is some vindication in this, in winning the Cup the year after being fired. As he put it, "It's about us. Now it didn't matter what Boston did. We're Stanley Cup champions."

He lifted the Stanley Cup, for the second time, on Tuesday.

But soon enough, when the engravers get to work, they will add "Bruce Cassidy" to the newest ring on the trophy he has yearned so hard for, for so long.

"I told you guys a long time ago, in '19, I just want my name on the damn Cup," Cassidy said. "It's going on the damn Cup. It's that simple."

NHL.com columnist Dave Stubbs contributed to this report