Keith Cassidy was not exactly blind-sided by the decision of the Estevan Bruins' executive to relieve him of his duties last week.
That's not to say he was expecting it, but coming off a disappointing season, knowing the community and the executive were desperate for a winner, and knowing that a meeting was planned for March 27 to discuss the matter, Cassidy was aware it was a distinct possibility.
"We did have that meeting Wednesday night. There was nothing discussed while I was there regarding the coaching situation. I was just told they were going to speak to me the next day. When you get that kind of phone call after a meeting, you sort of got an inkling of it," Cassidy told The Mercury on Monday.
Cassidy had also made a couple of comments during the second half of the season suggesting he knew his job could be in jeopardy.
While some may say he should have been given more time to right the ship, the decision to move on certainly has its merits.
During his first season behind the bench in 2011-12, expectations were relatively low with a young club, and the results were satisfactory: a fourth place finish and a survivor series victory.
Expectations ramped up this season, with plenty of returning players and a talented team on paper.
The season began with a 10-2 loss in Melville and the Bruins never got untracked, finishing in fifth place and falling to the Yorkton Terriers in the Sherwood Conference semis.
Cassidy's dismissal was about the results, but also about the reasons for those results.
Discipline was a significant issue this season, moreso off-ice than on-ice, and it seemed Cassidy was unable to keep a tight ship at times.
Cassidy's a new-school bench boss who, as he put it in his very first interview with The Mercury after being hired, doesn't "rant and rave," but there were times this season when maybe he should have.
Sometimes a team simply needs a kick in the ass, and he either couldn't or wouldn't deliver it.
Cassidy's an extremely kind person, and that extended to his coaching style, sometimes too much.
Usually on a hockey team, the head coach is the bad cop and the assistant coach is the good cop. In this case, it seemed to be the other way around.
It seemed like there was no urgency this season, even as the Bruins continued to struggle into November and December. During post-game interviews, I wondered when I would hear a quote that recognized and tackled the gravity of the situation. It never came.
The reason the executive wasn't willing to give Cassidy more time is because they felt these flaws were fundamental to his coaching style and as such, that the same problems would result in the future.
Regardless of Cassidy's success in Estevan, I want to publicly wish him the best of luck in whatever the future may hold.
He was by far the easiest coach I've dealt with in my short career covering hockey.
He was always accessible, and he was certainly the only coach I could ever text less than one hour before game time to get lineup notes.
Unlike many coaches, Cassidy really gets the relationship with the media.
He always strove to be available when I needed an interview and, for the most part, provided whatever information I was seeking.
He often thanked local media for the coverage, good, bad or ugly, saying it was refreshing after coming from the Winnipeg Saints, a team that got no coverage in a large city.
I wrote an awful lot of negative things about the Bruins this season. It wasn't something I enjoyed doing, but it was simply part of my job. Cassidy never got upset about it, or if he did, he never said so. He was more likely to tell me I was absolutely right.
Cassidy is a first-class individual who really embraced the community of Estevan, and many will be disappointed to see him go, regardless of his coaching record.
Contact Josh Lewis at 634-2654 or sports@estevanmercury.ca. Would it be overkill to say he's fully, completely excited to see the Tragically Hip in Estevan on July 8? No small town bringdown here.
