(Photo Credit: @CapitalsPR on X/Twitter)

The Golden Knights had seen enough.

42 losses in 72 games, four wins in the last 16, and their position in the postseason growing more perilous by the day.

To rescue a season in which they’ve spent to and through the salary cap, added a superstar winger, and gave up a 1st, two 2nds, two 3rds, three prospects, and Zach Whitecloud, more had to be done.

So, they huddled up and brainstormed a new solution. The verdict: axe Bruce Cassidy and replace him with John Tortorella.

It’s bold, it’s brash, it’s unapologetic.

A coaching change typically signifies a new direction for a team. It usually means massive changes to systems, structure, line combinations, player usage, special teams and so much more. It’s a step towards recognizing and correcting the problems that caused the team troubles, and a path towards future success.

Except, the Golden Knights are telling anyone who will listen that it’s definitely not any of that.

The general manager, the new head coach, the captain, the star player, and the gold medal-winning defenseman all agreed that nothing tangible needs to change. Instead, they just need a shift in one singular intangible.

Somewhere along the way we lost our spirit and we lost our energy as a team. -Kelly McCrimmon

We’re not going to make many changes. The biggest part of hockey now is not the X’s and O’s, it’s your mind. That’s a readiness. -John Tortorella

We didn’t play with the same emotion we normally do… That has to be the mindset going forward is to start the game with that kind of emotion. -Mark Stone

More energy. More spirit. More enthusiasm. It feels like we’ve been lacking a few of those things recently. -Jack Eichel

Get back to playing with some energy, some jam. We just have to turn the page here and get on a roll. -Noah Hanifin

Everyone agrees. The systems are fine, and the structure is good. There’s no different style of play, way to attack or defend. The lineup will remain completely unchanged. The assistants are still in place and the morning practice ran the exact same way, without the new coach ever stepping on the ice.

The only difference is that Bruce Cassidy is no longer here.

That, and that alone, is supposed to mean the Golden Knights will suddenly start playing the way they believe they are capable. They’ll play harder. They’ll play with more emotion. They’ll play with a better spirit. Everything that has been missing for the last 74 games will suddenly show up, and it’s all because of the departure of a “pretty-damn good coach” (Tortorella’s words today).

Tonight, it will all probably happen because the Golden Knights are taking on the only team in the NHL with a worse points percentage than them since the Olympic Break and the undisputed worst team in the NHL this season.

But the unified belief that the entire collection of problems the 32-26-16 Golden Knights have faced this year will all be corrected simply by removing one person is not only naive but delusional.

If the Golden Knights are going to succeed in the final eight games and go on a deep playoff run, they must look markedly different on the ice. They must improve their forecheck, clean up their puck management, exit the zone with pace and precision, win more stick battles, outskate teams to loose pucks, and execute at a much higher level both in shooting and stopping pucks.

Simply being the more talented team by name recognition is not good enough, and even more so, playing with more intensity, hunger, spirit, energy, or whatever other immeasurable item means nothing if the fundamentals of winning hockey aren’t present.

In professional sports, there’s a tendency to connect the score of the game to the effort level of the players. If a team is winning, they are giving it everything they have to make it happen. If they are losing, they are not trying hard enough.

With a collection of players including Olympians Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Tomas Hertl, Shea Theodore, Noah Hanifin, newcomer veterans Rasmus Andersson, Nic Dowd, and Cole Smith, a group of Stanley Cup champions in Reilly Smith, Brett Howden, and Brayden McNabb, and a lineup rounded out by bonafide NHL players, the chances that every single player failed to play up to their highest effort level on the exact same night is minuscule for even one game.

Sure, there may be a moment here or there when there are dips, that’s natural, but it’s damn near impossible to believe that can be the lone problem 42 times out of 74 games. And, the Golden Knights have been one of the most dangerous teams in the NHL when they fall behind, and one of the most successful teams in the league in the 3rd period. That simply cannot be the case for a team that lacks energy or a positive spirit.

The reality is that the Golden Knights have not been playing elite hockey. They have not executed at a high enough level for the vast majority of the 2025-26 season.

The exodus of Bruce Cassidy on its own will not fix that problem.

It sure sounds like the Golden Knights believe it really is that simple, though and it reeks of scapegoating to deflect the blame, rather than a truly viable solution.