Every so often when you voice your opinions, especially when they are published or broadcast for public consumption, something happens to challenge those beliefs.<\/p>\n
Such was the case last Sunday with the firing of Bruce Cassidy.<\/p>\n
This space has long expressed admiration for the way the Vegas Golden Knights operate.<\/p>\n
Emotions have meant nothing.<\/p>\n
This is a front office that brazenly has ignored the feelings and beliefs of its fanbase and shipped off one popular figure after another and turned Misfits into no-longer-fit in the name of constantly pursuing its north star of chasing championships.<\/p>\n
As they should.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been an unbelievably successful franchise under the direction of George McPhee and Kelly McCrimmon, who have had the support of owner Bill Foley in making moves that could spark outrage among even the most loyal supporters.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not easy to do, but it\u2019s how a professional sports organization is supposed to do business.<\/p>\n
Heartless and ruthless. Bravo.<\/p>\n
Fans ultimately matter. They watch the games to support media revenue and buy tickets and pay for parking and concessions and the $42 margaritas that allow the team to keep printing money and find ways to use that cash to keep bringing in elite talent.<\/p>\n
But the Knights always have understood that fans will get over the emotions of seeing their favorite player unceremoniously shipped out of town if ultimately the team finds a way to win. And they consistently have done that at a high level.<\/p>\n
As a devotee of analytics and the economics of roster construction in salary cap-based sports, it\u2019s a quality that has drawn them plenty of praise from this column.<\/p>\n
But, in the interest of fairness and honesty, this one stings.<\/p>\n
On the surface, it\u2019s understandable. The Knights had way too much talent to be dropping points the way they had been since the Olympic break.<\/p>\n
Something needed to change, and there weren\u2019t many options.<\/p>\n
Acquiring an elite goaltender could have helped, but it\u2019s too late for that. And the front office wasn\u2019t going to punish itself for failing to do so sooner.<\/p>\n
It also would be easy to say the team had just hit a lull with so many of the players, and even Cassidy himself, having competed in the emotional grinder that was the Olympics. Perhaps the regular season wasn\u2019t big enough and they could have dialed it up once the games mattered more.<\/p>\n
But they were in danger of missing the playoffs altogether, and at that point, it was far too late.<\/p>\n
So the dispassionate mind easily could look at this and say it was a slam dunk move to make. The biggest and most jarring move that had a chance to work and would send a message to the team\u2019s stars that it\u2019s time to get it together before a roster capable of playing into June found itself done in April.<\/p>\n
A patented Golden Knights move. One that ordinarily would be easy to praise.<\/p>\n
And early returns have been good, so it\u2019s tough to argue.<\/p>\n
Once again, they probably got it right.<\/p>\n
But, as much as fans have been admonished in this column for being far too passionate and not analytical enough, our original reaction might not have been an example of what we have preached.<\/p>\n
Because our first response was an emotional one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are they doing? Bruce won a title! He\u2019s a great coach and an even better guy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis stinks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Feelings took over. That\u2019s not good for business.<\/p>\n
The bottom line is Cassidy is and will forever be one of my favorite people I have ever covered. You could not attend a practice or a news conference or even have a casual conversation with him without learning something. About hockey or life.<\/p>\n
He was so thorough in his answers to even the worst questions throughout his tenure. He would listen and try to understand what he was being asked before providing more detail that was expected or deserved.<\/p>\n
He was awesome to cover, and he will be missed.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s probably why it was so tough to get that text that he had been fired. But something big was necessary, and this was big.<\/p>\n
Cassidy\u2019s presence will be missed, nowhere more than in the media room.<\/p>\n
But winning isn\u2019t about emotion.<\/p>\n
This shouldn\u2019t be judged on how it made us feel. All that matters is if it works.<\/p>\n
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @AdamHillLVRJ<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every so often when you voice your opinions, especially when they are published or broadcast for public consumption,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541391,"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-541390","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\/116349917733221257","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541390","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=541390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}