As the Golden Knights turn the page into a new era, the man in charge of the last one is doing the same himself. Pete DeBoer was recently named head coach of the Dallas Stars taking over a team that went one round further than the team he coached in Vegas this year.
In his introductory press conference, DeBoer shared his reaction to being let go from the Golden Knights this summer.
The Vegas one rattled me because I really thought as a coaching staff we worked as hard as we could with the situation that was handed to us this year. Getting 94 points out of a team that had lost 500 man games to injuries, I thought our coaching staff really worked hard to get that. To put it in perspective the other team that lost that many man games finished in dead last. I’m not going to lie to you, it rattled me a little bit that we were relieved of our duties. -Pete DeBoer
He went on to explain why he was so shocked.
I took the job in Vegas and thought I made an impact. We went to the conference final in the Bubble, went to the conference final, and beat Colorado the President’s trophy-winning team last year, and I thought we were building on that. We’re just starting to reach our potential and then had as disastrous an injury-filled year as I’ve experienced as a coach. -DeBoer
It’s actually fairly similar to the remarks Gerard Gallant made after he was let go from the Golden Knights in early 2020.
Usually you have an idea. You can feel something. But I didn’t have that. Maybe that was my own stupidity, I don’t know. I never felt like anything like that was going to happen. The Florida one I knew was coming, it was just a matter of when. I knew that from a meeting in the summertime. I had the feeling. This one I had no idea it was coming. I didn’t feel it coming at all. That was the toughest part. –Gallant to LVRJ in January 2020
DeBoer exits Vegas posting a record of 98-50-12 in the regular season, 22-17 in the playoffs (including three “round-robin” wins) and a 4-2 mark in series. These marks are all slightly better than Gallant’s 118-75-20 regular season, 16-11 playoff, and 3-2 series records.
Now, in walks Bruce Cassidy, who has enjoyed similar success as his two predecessors. However, all three have failed to deliver the one thing that matters to the Vegas Golden Knights.
And if he doesn’t do it, and do it quickly, he’ll probably be “rattled” or “shocked” in a few years too.
Joseph
In the late seventies Paul Masson Wineries had the slogan “we will sell no wine before its time”. Apparently not the slogan of the VGK Winemaster owner/creator. Also not the slogan of seventies successful Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.
Both Paul and George are long gone now. Hard to say which strategy will prevail. (My money would be on George).
THE hockey GOD
@ Joseph I like Seinfeld’s parody of GS. I wonder which comedy show will parody the grape stomper, and how will they do it ?
Nice post, I agree.
My favorite quote from GS “You know, George, as painful as it is, I’ve had to let a few people go over the years. Yogi Berra, Lou Piniella, Bucky Dent, Billy Martin, Dallas Green, Dick Hauser, Bill Virdon, Billy Martin, Stump Merrill, Billy Martin, Bob Lemon, Billy Martin, Gene Michael, Buck Showalter… Uh, tut! George, you didn’t hear that from me. [George exits] George!”
Buck learned from Billy Martin, who learned from Casey Stengel who learned from great NY Giants Manager John Mcgraw. But the game has changed so much, they think stealing signs , which was common back in day, is like a mortal sin. I don’t like all the changes they made to game. Next year even more changes, like getting rid of the stupid shift. They should allow you to only shift one player in line up, or maybe once every three innings. And all infielders should have to play in the INFIELD. They are looking at stop watch on pitcher, and I really hate the catcher sending electronic signals to pitcher. Who stand there looking in for hand signal like stupid idiot, he should be looking at runner on base. Hey wait, will someone figure out how to steal that signal and pass it to batter ? Billy Martin would. The best sign stealer there ever was. I wonder who will take the baton from Buck ? He is best manager in BB, has Mets in first place.
Cindy
Hey Pete Deboer…. Now you know how Gerard Gallant felt. And that didn’t give you a clue? Foley, McPhee, and McCrimmon don’t care about your record, your hard work, etc. get the cup in two or you’re out!
THE hockey GOD
The Vegas one rattled me because I really thought as a coaching staff we worked as hard as we could with the situation that was handed to us this year. Getting 94 points out of a team that had lost 500 man games to injuries, I thought our coaching staff really worked hard to get that. To put it in perspective the other team that lost that many man games finished in dead last. I’m not going to lie to you, it rattled me a little bit that we were relieved of our duties. -Pete DeBoer
that says it all, he’s a great coach, and is scape goat.
Blitz
I especially love his power play, his ability to quickly implement the 1-1-3, and his scheme to limit odd man rushes.
Syrix
LoL
TS
I feel the fan base’s distaste for having the Shark’s coach on our own bench was a contributing factor to his firing. He faced an uphill battle of negative opinion from the start. So, after our injury- plagued sub-par year, it was the expected result by mgmt to let him go.
With Gallant, fans supported him, respected him, and LIKED him. His firing is still a sore spot with fans. I don’t expect many objections with PDB’S departure in favor of a fresh coach. I think VGK will respond well next season. Fans will get behind him.
Blitz
Yep firing had nothing to do with the PP or the several goalie situations or the complete loss of the locker room or the mother-like defending of Spott or the constant lying to the fans or blaming others. Nothing to do with odd man rushes and lack of defense. Definitely not for his lack of in game (or even between game) adjustment when “the system” gets shut down. It’s all based on the distaste of having a Sharks coach. Same as the Shark fan’s distaste for him because he was a NJ coach. Same as the Stars fan’s distaste for him *already* for being a VGK coach.
TS
Blitz, I wasn’t saying the PDB firing was ALL because of fan dislike, but it CONTRIBUTED to his firing. Of course, the team struggled with PP, odd- man rushes, defense etc.. as you mentioned. The team needed changes, and PDB WAS that change.
Mark
No matter how you slice it, the injuries were devastating to this team. I remember hearing about the Alex Tuch shoulder surgery and he’s out most of the season and that hit me, it was a bad omen. The list is long on injuries from the very beginning, we didn’t have a shot. PDB was never embraced by the fan base, never really liked. We need Stone, Eichel, Patches, Marchy, Karlsson, Smith, Roy, Carrier all healthy, all firing at all times. Petro, Theodore and Whitecloud are a solid base for DMen. No more damn trades for now, we didn’t do ourselves any favors getting rid of these young guys, Suzuki,Tuch,etc… The key is Eichel, if he’s not a top 3 or 4 guy in the league, we got hosed big time. That Tuch trade blew me away, he was such a beast and Krebs we never saw him much. It’s going to be a watershed year, Jesus, not sure how many games I can make, I’m out in Centennial Hills, a 35 mile ride each way, in my F150 at an upcoming $10 a gallon, that’s roughly $50 round trip. My couch sounds better, in 6 months from now, the least of my problems will be how are the Knights are doing, Biden destruction will hit everyone between the eyes by then.
Jk
Maybe a change in the power play scheme and personnel and a more wide open offense with forwards around the net and defensemen playing defense instead of offense as was mentioned at least oh 700,000 times would have helped both scoring and winning games…
THE hockey GOD
@Mark, nice post , unlike the others with their conspiracy theories, presumption on fan hate, completely ignoring the extenuating (and obvious) circumstances . You know that you can pick up a shuttle and save some money on the “trip to the strip”???
I like the biden reference !! Crude has dropped a ton in last week, expect some relief from crazy, nonsensical dementia ridden agenda. They are seeing the poll numbers and it’s not looking good , route in November if they stay the course. You can bet your life on it. November can’t come sooner ! They are trying to spin it with their bogus J6 hearings , that no one is watching because it doesn’t impact every day American’s pocket book. What a waste of time and energy.
Mark
1000% agree with your post. I just hope how the Knights are doing will be the least of my problems in 6 months. J6 is a smoke screen of course, people say, “don’t talk politics”. Well, it affects everything about our lives. Not many people are going to cough up $175 to go to a game, when we are being robbed by hard core leftist politicians who have no answer and always blame the other guy. Switching gears, I hated losing MAF, Stastny, Schmidt, Haula, Tuch, etc… I loved our guys, but that wasn’t PDB’s fault. The 100% key to this is Eichel. It’s still up in the air with him, that injury is extremely tricky. We gave up a ton for him, a huge price, it rides on his production this upcoming year. We are a top heavy team now. Guys like Carrier, Roy, Kolesar will tell the tale. The 1 to 2 million guys need to produce or we collapse like a cheap suit. I never liked trading away our draft picks, it leads to a void in depth, I like how Foley went public with his opinion about loyalty, we need more of that here. The problem on this blog is most of these guys secretly don’t like our team, their transplants from back East or the Midwest. I’m a 40 year resident, the Knights are the only team I’ve ever loved. We might do well the next couple of years, but we need to develop our younger prospects, not trade them away, I get tired of reading how well a Suzuki or Tuch is doing, while Stone and Patches are battling injuries and I love those guys. Our window to a Cup is still open, but it’s getting darker and darker.
THE hockey GOD
I hear ya Mark, I hope a couple of the prospects break through next year too !
Remember this core , healthy team beat the AVS in playoffs.
Mark
We won 4 in a row, just kicked their asses, that was alot of fun just 12 months ago.
TS
Um…mark, the “Blame Game” you mentioned is a calling card of the REPUBLICANS, like Trump trained his minions to believe. ” “The DEMS became the ” enemy of the people”…the far- right people, that is. The press became the ENEMY of the People”. Repubs don’t like the facts of the corruption, so they BLAME the PRESS. They presented ” ALTERNATE ELECTORS”, because they BLAMED the fake ” Election Fraud, BIG LIE” for Trump’s defeat. The Repubs blamed Venezuela. Chavez ( dead man). Dominion voting machines.. China. Satellites in space. Poll workers, JUST DOING THEIR JOBS….like COUNT THE BALLOTS.. They BLAMED the Jan 6 committee for not having a bi- partisan representation, yet they refused to offer ANY LEGITIMATE reps, except JIM JORDAN!!(A TRUE- TRUMPER);and THEN BLAMED the DEMS for it!
The Repubs have been playing the BLAME GAME since TRUMP entered the White House, and they STILL ARE.
Stephanie
So I’m not telling you what to think but here’s some facts .summer 2008 oil prices hit their highest levels ever far higher than currently .people thought it would hit $142 a barrel .it didn’t. But at the pump it was 3.78 a gal back then and that was alot .since last yr the oil companies have booked record profits of 8 to 10x that and oil per barrel was cheaper .and still is compared to 2008 drama .They also got bailed out by the billions to keep people employed and ready to go .prior to covid they their output was 13 mil barrels a day .covid went to 10 and now they’re at around 11 and a qtr .saying they can’t drill faster .Oh and now it’s not them it’s the individual gas station owners .Sorry that’s pure price gouging .btw George Jr was in office during that time .Big oil are criminals .Nothing to do with parties however I think someone should charge them or make them pay back ppp loans .that was suppose to be for small businesses even tho even Tom Brady got a million bucks .cuz he suffered?
THE hockey GOD
it’s not price gouging when the prices are all the same,, and you have a clown in white house who
1) cut funding to a substantial pipeline
2) curtailed oil drilling on federal land
3) changed tax provisions for oil companies
4) refused to grant more leases for drilling oil
5) releases oil from strategic reserve, when there is no emergency
6) outwardly hates oil company
7) obviously promoting technology that can’t compete against oil and traditional energy in open market place
8) promotes selling EV cars which common man can’t afford, and BTW does not cut emission down because power plants still emit
9 ) blames it on everything from Trump (who predicted that under biden gas prices would go through the roof) to Putin!
10) inflation is rising, food shortages and supply chain crises, all due to Biden.
11) big oil are not criminals, only people who believe that are those indoctrinated into far left brain washed cults. Mainly liberal arts people who couldn’t pass a math, science, economic, or physics exam if their life depended on it.
He’s a walking disaster and his poll numbers yesterday come out and he’s hit an all time new low. JoeFlation is what Obama predicted “a major F up”
TS
THG: BITCH ALL YOU WANT ABOUT BIDEN . BLAME HIM FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD’S ECONOMIC SITUATION…..BUT CAN YOU SAY “COUP COUP COOKOO FOR COCOA PUFFS??” ENOUGH SAID.
Blitz
FJB!!
TS
Jan 6 hearings are only a waste, if you happen to be TRUMP OR ANY REPULICANS WHO WERE INVOLVED IN THE INSURRECTION… CRY ME A RIVER. ( AMAZING HOW THE CONSTITUTION MATTERS, UNTIL IT DOESN’T, HUH???)
vgk21
Reilly Smith will stay in Vegas. new contract is agreed to verbally.
knights fan in minny
awesome
TS
Great news!!
VGK Fan
Getting 94 points out of a team that had lost 500 man games to injuries,
Pete DeBoer
Yes, there were a lot of man games lost no doubt. But for a team that was $15,000,000 over the cap at different points of the season you have to think that number was somewhere closer to 300 or 350 games still a lot though. I do wish Pete well in the future.
Cassidy man games lost this year will be at least 82 games if there are no injuries when you consider Weber is on LTIR for the entire season.
THE hockey GOD
weber doesn’t count as man game lost, sorry to burst your bubble; and you left out comparison to Montreal who went to final in prior year.
considering all in all, PDB tried his best to keep the Golden Years together, but ultimately the grape stomper had to blame someone for his own poor decisions.
STay sane.
Ken
AS I said before, best of luck to DeBoar. His firing was only because of the fans dislike of him. As a coach he did a good job!
THE hockey GOD
firing had nothing to do with fans, and it’s all on grape stomper; grape stomper doesn’t listen to fan base. If he did MAF would still be here, and same team in 2017 would still be here.
Blitz
So you two are saying you love the PETER? Can’t get enough of the PETER?
THE hockey GOD
blitz, don’t put words in my post that aren’t there , what part of “iring had nothing to do with fans, and it’s all on grape stomper; grape stomper doesn’t listen to fan base”
Poster here actually thinks grape stomper listens to the fans. that is rich.
knights fan in minny
it would be better then listening to you hockey dunce
Ken
Says the know it all expert, again!
knights fan in minny
well said ken
THE hockey GOD
Ken I agreed with half of your post, the other half was garbage. So I guess that is “half knowing” by your misguided “logic”?
Fans have no say, because fans have all sorts of different views. When owner starts “listening to fans” is first step in owner going insane.
VGK Fan
With the reports of Reilly Smith being locked up at around 5 million per year for next three years I give credit to management on a big time score getting a great player/great teammate at a discount. This gives the team 19 players signed and $200,000 left in cap space.
Just my prediction I see LB being moved and LT being promoted to back up goalie now you have $1.758 million in cape space. With 4 RFA’s left to deal with and 4 open positions to get to a 23 man roster some large salary will still need to go sadly. We may also see an RFA being traded. Going to be an interesting summer.
knights fan in minny
rieley does not seem like a guy who needs a ton of money he must really enjoy vegas and playing with marchy and wild bill and isnt he starting a family soon
vgk21
expect to see Dadonov, Janmark, Brossoit, Patrick all gone
Dadonov is already gone…..$5m
Janmark 2m
Brossoit 2.325m
Patrick 1.2m
total= $10.525 million likely gone
plus, after game 1 of season, Weber will be put on LTIR…that opens up another $7.857 million of cap space.
total= $18.382 million in recovered cap space
vgk21
possible roster=
Pac-Eichel-Stone
misfits 81-71-19
Brisson-Stephenson-Roy
Carrier-Howden-Kolesar/Amadio
forwards guesstimated total cap= $50 m
Dmen
Petro, Martinez, Theodore, McNabb, Whitecloud, Hague, Hutton
total = $26.5 m
goalies
LT and RL
total= about $6 m
Tim
I think no doubt DeBoer was a shock to most fans when he was hired. To his credit he did a good job here but could never drop the stigma of coaching our hated rival San Jose. Cassidy is getting some slack although another retread ( As the coaching cycle turns) . That should be a title of a game show.
THE hockey GOD
@ Tim so the opposing Bruins are well liked by the “fans”.
Another misfire.
THE hockey GOD
Reilly Smith RW, Vegas Golden Knights
rs
Reilly Smith and the Vegas Golden Knights reportedly have a verbal agreement in place for a contract extension, according to sources.
Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that the deal “may not be immediately announced for offseason/tagging cap considerations.” Seravalli added that he is hearing that the new agreement is believed to be around three years with an AAV of $5 million. Smith was eligible for unrestricted free agency after completing a five-year, $25 million contract. He was limited to 56 games in 2021-22 due to injury. while providing 16 goals and 38 points.
THE hockey GOD
Jesse Granger
@JesseGranger_
The Henderson Silver Knights have signed goaltender Jordan Papirny to an AHL contract for the 2022-23 season.
He played his college hockey in Canada in the ACAC, and appeared in two ECHL games for the Fort Wayne Komets last season.
It will also not surprise you that he played his junior hockey for the Brandon Wheat Kings, where he was goalie partners with Logan Thompson.
The mentally unbalanced “fans” will now go all hate on coGmGm, completely ignoring signing of LT. Most unsophisticated fan base in all of sports per that Cole guy, putz.
THE hockey GOD
life, God, humanity wins today big
while heads are exploding on the left
(and that is a good thing)
TS
Old white men, deciding to PUNISH WOMEN FOR MEN’S INABITY TO KEEP THEIR JUNK IN THEIR PANTS….WHAT COULD WOMEN POSSIBLY BE ANGRY ABOUT??
Tim
I’m glad their resigning Reilly Smith as most of us said before we elected Stone as captain Smith was the only other name that came up as a possible captain. Hopefully Karlsson’s game improves and the Misfit line has a good year. I trust them more then the Stone, Eichel, Patch line which is one hit away from the infirmary.
THE hockey GOD
! @ Tim
The Golden YEARS !
HA
Ha
ha
ha ha ha
aka Golden infirmary.
Jim dotter
I’m think the vgk management are in for a big awaking because Mr. Foley ‘s trusted couple ,McFee and mccrimmon are gonna put this team in such a bad spot that they don’t even know it, mccrimmon said on the NFL channel there gonna give each new coach two years to get the cup and after that they move on to someone else , i say sooner or later their gonna run out of coach’s then what , Mr.Foley is trying to hard and soending too much money , if i was him , id sellbtge team ans go into horse racing ged have a better chance of winning..