Q&A: Bruce Cassidy with Gary Lawless | Part 1

Vegas hockey fans know how to carry a torch. For their team, its players and the entire Golden Knights experience. There's no denying the love VGK people have for their team.

One of the best things about the Golden Knights fanbase is the extreme loyalty it has for its players and coaches. It makes it difficult for fans when a player gets traded or a coach moves along, but it's an undeniable passion that reverberates through the rink on game night and the community on a daily basis.
Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy is quickly being integrated into the city's hockey bloodstream. He's becoming, in the words of a fan, "one of us."
There's a scene in the movie Hoosiers where the character played by Gene Hackman tells the people of the small Indiana town where he's coaching high school basketball how things are progressing. "The boys and I are getting to know each other, see who we are and what we can be," says coach Norman Dale. "So far I like what I've seen."
In many ways, Cassidy is going through a similar experience. He's getting to know his team, the city of Las Vegas and the people who cheer on the team. And they're getting to know him. Today's Vegas is a different kettle of fish from rural 1950s Indiana but the comparison fits.
Everyone in Vegas has an opinion about the team and how it should play, Cassidy's just happens to be the one that matters most. His approach, quite naturally, gets questioned on a shift-by-shift basis. People care and for a sports franchise that's vital.
Cassidy is open, funny, fiery and competitive. He's also one helluva coach. The Golden Knights have built a record of 17-6-1 under the coach called Butch and sit first place in the Western Conference and Pacific Division.
By every measure, Cassidy has been a success. He's winning and he's likable. He fits the team and the town. The 57-year-old Cassidy previously coached the Capitals and Bruins in the NHL. While in Boston, he took the team to a seventh-game Stanley Cup Final loss and won a Jack Adams Award. Along with his wife Julie, son Cole and daughter Shannon, Cassidy has immersed himself in Vegas. School, sports programs and work make the Cassidys a pretty typical young family. When Cassidy isn't trying to win NHL games he's a carpool dad or grocery getter.
With the season just hitting the quarter pole and this current road trip including a return to Boston where Cassidy coached the Bruins for six seasons, he was gracious enough to offer up some of his time for a talk about hockey and his life. Cassidy sat down in the lobby of the team hotel in Pittsburgh and let loose on a host of topics.
Here's Part 1 of a three-part conversation with Bruce Cassidy.
Gary Lawless: You were singing a song from Wayne's World when you came off the ice the other day, then you mentioned the movie in a postgame interview as well. Do you like movies?

Bruce Cassidy: Yes, I don't watch movies twice. So, if I like a movie, I watch it, and that's it, because I like to read so it's usually one or the other. I have not watched movies in a long time. Julie and I used to go to the movies all the time, as most dating couples probably did. Then you have children, and then I'm at Henderson all the time (for youth hockey practice), as you know. Those would have been movie nights, and we enjoyed that.

I do enjoy movies, but most of them don't stick with me. When I'm singing that one, that's probably one of the ones that did. And some of those bus movies, don't forget -- I spent a lot of time in the minors. The players would all watch a movie on the bus, but I wouldn't. It'll be fifteen minutes that I'll catch, and then I'll tune into the funny part.

GL: So you don't purposely watch a movie twice?

BC: I will if it's like Slapshot. They put it on the bus, I'm going to watch it. If they play Casino, great movie, I watched it once, that's it. If they put it on the bus, I won't watch it.

GL: You just mentioned Casino, have you been to Piero's in Vegas yet?

BC: No, I've been to very few places in Vegas. I went and saw Absinthe the other night with Julie, it was her birthday. It was a great night out. I saw one of the Cirque shows with the family, and we'll go again. But no, I've not been. My wife loves Mexican food; we only have to go five minutes in Summerlin and we can get her a good meal.

GL: You mentioned books, what kind of books do you read?

BC: I try to mix them up. I like to read about history, World War II, so anything related to that. There's a lot of spy ones, a long time ago that I read. John Irving is probably one of my favorite authors who is more political. I will read sports books, but not all sports books. I don't want to read about a different coach's philosophy every month. I have read Pat Riley's book, or Bob Knight, in the past. More currently, Legacy to me was a great book. It was a really good read. Scotty Bowman had one out a while ago, that I read. Rick Vaive's book; I played with Rick. So, there will be some of that for sure, but it's not constant hockey or sports psychology.

I was having dinner with Bill Foley at training camp, and he told me his family story and said, 'You should read Lonesome Dove.' I said, 'Lonesome Dove, isn't that a TV show that my dad watched?' I read it. I'll read a lot of recommendations; I'm reading a book called "Ahab: A Hockey Story". It's a wounded warrior that plays hockey over in Germany, and his buddy is from South Boston, and he had sent it to me. So, I said, I'll read it. It looks like an interesting story, it's kind of his story. The book I like the best there, a couple years ago, it was a hockey book about these young kids. It's a really good story about high school, junior age kids, and one of the star players gets into trouble with sexual assault and how it impacts the whole town and just tears families apart. It's kind of a moral compass book, it's excellent. It's called "Beartown". I highly recommend you read it.

GL: You mention going to kids hockey practice Henderson. You're a coach in the NHL. You were a player in the NHL, and you're a hockey parent. All different jobs, which do you like best?
BC: Well, being a player was my dream. I just didn't quite meet it for different reasons. That's what I wanted the most. When you're that age, you're in your own world a little bit. You're 21, you have your family, but you're not a parent, you're a son more than anything and your parents are looking after you. And when you get older, I love being a hockey parent. I am probably one of the mellowest hockey parents you're going to meet, because I know how difficult it is to be professional hockey player and it's not all what it's cracked up to be either. I hear parents talk sometimes about the pressure they put on their kids, and I would never do that to mine. It may be because of the of line of work I'm in, they already have enough pressure. But I love watching them play, even watching them practice, to see their growth. Does that put coach third? I think it does. I love coaching, don't get me wrong, I have a passion for it. It's not as fun as the other two -- it's more work, let's put it that way.