{"id":536461,"date":"2026-04-02T11:50:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/536461\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:50:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:50:33","slug":"vegas-golden-knights-mark-stone-jack-eichel-comment-on-bruce-cassidy-fired-golden-knights-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/536461\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegas Golden Knights Mark Stone, Jack Eichel comment on Bruce Cassidy fired | Golden Knights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps it\u2019s much ado about nothing, but there was one jarring takeaway from the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a>\u2019 reaction to the firing of Bruce Cassidy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not one of the three players that spoke Monday mentioned Cassidy by name.<\/p>\n

Combine that with captain Mark Stone saying the Knights\u2019 locker room had gone a bit \u201cstale\u201d with eight games left in the regular season, it might be more telling than anticipated.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you can just take to a new voice,\u201d Stone said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t playing with that same emotion that we normally do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That new voice the rest of the season is John Tortorella<\/a> after Cassidy, who coached the Knights to their first Stanley Cup championship in 2023, was fired after less than four seasons into the job.<\/p>\n

Making the change<\/p>\n

Cassidy became the longest-tenured and winningest coach in Knights history, coaching in 320 games and winning 178 of them, including 24 in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

But general manager Kelly McCrimmon felt the team\u2019s spirit wasn\u2019t there, which compelled him to make one of the more stunning coaching moves in recent history.<\/p>\n

The Knights entered Monday\u2019s game against the Vancouver Canucks in third place in the Pacific Division and three points back of the Edmonton Oilers for second.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve gone 5-10-2 since returning from the Olympic break. Nothing was resonating. The players felt the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor whatever reason, it just showed in the play,\u201d Stone said. \u201cI think for us, it was more of there was some good hockey being played at times, But like I keep coming back to the emotion and that it wasn\u2019t there for whatever reason. So that\u2019s why the changes were made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fall from first<\/p>\n

Center Jack Eichel said the responsibility falls on the players whenever a coaching change is made.<\/p>\n

The Knights were in first place for 96 days before their slide after the Olympics.<\/p>\n

Since their seven-game winning streak in January, they\u2019ve gone 8-15-4.<\/p>\n

Eichel has been one of the heads of that struggle with 10 points in 16 games. Three of those points came Saturday in the 5-4 shootout loss<\/a> to the Washington Capitals.<\/p>\n

Stone has four points in 11 games. Tomas Hertl has five points in 17 games and has not scored a goal since March 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the ones that go out there and perform every night,\u201d Eichel said. \u201cWe\u2019re all grown men and you should be able to go out there and do your job now. Sometimes things happen over the course of long relationships. That\u2019s just how things go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time will tell quickly if Tortorella is the answer.<\/p>\n

The Knights have given up 3.43 goals per game during their 1-4-2 stretch since March 15 with a power play that\u2019s only converted 16.7 percent of its chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s all about energy and even the way we play the game,\u201d defenseman Noah Hanifin said. \u201cThe way we carry ourselves as a team is about having confidence and swagger, playing fast, playing in tight spaces. That\u2019s the recipe we\u2019ve always had when we\u2019ve been good here. We got to get to that quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tortorella said he\u2019s not coming in and making wholesale changes to the way the Knights play. Much of what they\u2019ve done is going to be the same.<\/p>\n

Tortorella wants the Knights to play faster, along with re-finding that spirit and getting some enthusiasm back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to start winning games, and that\u2019s what\u2019s important at the end of March, and we\u2019re heading into April here,\u201d Eichel said. \u201cYou just have to win hockey games this time of year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Wake-up call\u2019<\/p>\n

Stone reassured multiple times that he still has belief in his teammates in the locker room and the direction that the front office wants to go in.<\/p>\n

But Stone also added that \u201cwe were on a path that just didn\u2019t seem like it was going the right way, so they made a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Stone continued. \u201cCall me crazy. I believe in every single one of the guys in this room. I believe in the organization, I believe in the team. I\u2019m excited for the next eight games and hopefully get the team playing well and the playoffs here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eichel agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201c(It\u2019s a) wake-up call, I think, for the group,\u201d Eichel said. \u201cWe have a really good team in here and we obviously haven\u2019t been performing too well to our capability and expectations. I think that it\u2019s a message that management believes in us, but we have to start playing better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @DannyWebster21<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perhaps it\u2019s much ado about nothing, but there was one jarring takeaway from the Vegas Golden Knights\u2019 reaction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,4,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-536461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-golden-knights","9":"tag-goldenknights","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-vegas","13":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","14":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116334967427736349","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}