Cassidy, Golden Knights prepare for 'different animal' in familiar Stars

LAS VEGAS --Bruce Cassidy is the new guy to this Stanley Cup Playoffs rivalry between the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars.

Cassidy, the Golden Knights first-year coach, walks into the coach's room at City National Arena, the team's practice facility, and sees John Stevens, who was an assistant with the Stars from 2019-22, and Ryan Craig and Misha Donskov, who have been with Vegas since the beginning in 2017.

"When we have our meeting this morning, I'm just putting my feet up to relax," Cassidy said jokingly before his coaches meeting Tuesday. "Those guys have all the information, and it's up to me to decide what to do with it in a couple days."

On the other side, there's Dallas coach Peter DeBoer and his longtime assistant Steve Spott, who held the same roles with the Golden Knights for two-and-a-half seasons before they were let go exactly one year ago Tuesday.

"There's a little more knowledge in this series, internal knowledge," Cassidy said, "and we'll see how that plays out."

RELATED: [Complete Golden Knights vs. Stars series coverage]

Cassidy said that knowledge will serve each team well going into Game 1 of the Western Conference Final at T-Mobile Arena on Friday (8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, CBC, TVAS, ESPN+).

"I think it'll help them a lot because [DeBoer] does know individual tendencies of the players and he can point out certain things that they may be able to do," Cassidy said. "I was in Boston for six years, if we played them tomorrow I certainly know some of what maybe you don't see on film of an individual. That's where he'll help their defensemen against our forwards or their forwards forechecking against our [defensemen].

"We have a guy in our room that coached Dallas last season in John Stevens; he's going to know individual tendencies of a lot of the Dallas guys. 'Mish' and 'Craiger' know Pete and how he likes to coach."

None of that changes the challenge the Golden Knights are up against in the conference final.

Cassidy said he feels the Stars have some similarities to the Edmonton Oilers, who the Golden Knights defeated in six games in the second round to advance.

He noted the Stars have a dominant top line with Roope Hintz, Jason Robertson and Joe Pavelski. The Oilers had Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on separate lines but also played them together during games.

Hintz's 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) are second in the playoffs behind McDavid (20). Pavelski has eight goals in eight games. Only Draisaitl (13) and Hintz have more.

"Hintz is probably as close to McDavid as there is left in the playoffs," Cassidy said. "He's having a great playoffs, real dynamic player. Pavelski probably has some similarities to Draisaitl in his ability to finish."

The Stars, like the Oilers, are good at generating power-play opportunities and taking advantage of them. They lead the playoffs with 41 power plays in 13 games, one more than Vegas has in 11 games. But Dallas has 13 power-play goals (31.7 percent); Vegas has seven (17.5).

The difference, and the reason why Cassidy called the Stars "a different animal," is how the Golden Knights are going to try to attack them.

"They just play a different system in the [defensive] zone," Cassidy said. "It's going to be a lot tougher to get to the front of the net or create situations like [Jonathan Marchessault is there by himself. When it's man-to-man like Edmonton, it's don't over-support the puck, try to create some confusion, then work your way in and hope that you've lost your check. I think Dallas is going to do a better job of taking away those net-front opportunities."

Cassidy said the Stars play more of a swarm-type defense low in the zone and try to outnumber you with a low forward, whereas the goal against Edmonton was to have active forwards that could pull their defensemen away from the net front.

"And then that requires probably the center or one of their forwards to be more disciplined to stay in front of the net if he's on Marchessault, for example," Cassidy said. "So, you test that, and I think it worked to our advantage. They weren't always as disciplined staying with their check or switching.

"We tried to not support the puck carrier right away because we knew he only had to beat his one check. That's why you'd see a lot of cutbacks and stuff like that, trying to shake your guy 1-on-1."

He said the Golden Knights will have to support their puck carrier early in the play and change direction against Dallas because there won't be as much time and space.

"And I think their [defense] will be closer to the net," Cassidy said. "I don't think you'll see them chase anybody out. They'll pass those people off to their forwards. … So, we'll try to get to those areas where they pass off people and see if we can generate from there if we can't attack right away."

Defensively, the Golden Knights will have to finish checks early on the Stars defensemen, particularly Miro Heiskanen, who leads the playoffs in total ice time (367:17) and ice time per game (28:15).

"You can't let Heiskanen just waltz out of his end every time," Cassidy said. "You're going to try to have to wear him down over a series by finishing checks, playing through his hands, etc. A lot of their offense is driven with their second layer of attack with their [defense] coming up the ice. Sometimes, to eliminate that, you have to either outspeed them up the ice or finish your check in their end so that they're too late to jump. That will be the game plan and sometimes that leads to penalties. We've seen it and that will be the challenge for us."

Another key is to maintain discipline in front of the net and understand the Stars are going to be looking for shots from the outside that lead to deflections in the high slot or tips and rebounds in the low slot.

"So, what are we going to do with our middle forward? Are we going to give him the outside or maybe protect in a little more with him? That'll be determined how we go," Cassidy said.

"We can have the greatest plan on Earth going into it, but until you feel it and see it, then you slowly get through some of those periods where maybe it works against you or maybe it works for you."