Bruce Cassidy makes bold statement on Pietrangelo hours before Game 6 following foolish penalty
Pietrangelo’s unnecessary penalty late in Game 5 cost his team and more is being said ahead of Game 6 tonight in Vegas.
The Vegas Golden Knights are facing eliminated tonight in their first round series against the Dallas Stars, and many have been blaming veteran defenseman Alex Pietrangelo for it. Late in Game 5, Pietrangelo took an unnecessary penalty that helped set up the go-ahead power-play goal in a pivotal 3-2 win for the Stars. He was even called out by his own head coach Bruce Cassidy on Wednesday night:
“Veteran guys should know better,” Cassidy said of Pietrangelo. “We didn’t like the hit on Theodore by Seguin. Quite obviously left his feet, targeted the head. So, you’re going to be upset, but that’s playoff hockey. You’ve got to find a way to channel it. … We should know better.”
However, hours before Game 6 on Friday, Cassidy made a bold statement about his blue liner and his penalty and how it was on his teammates to be able to kill a penalty at that crucial time, per team insider Jesse Granger.
“How many penalties has that guy killed over the last two years for his teammates? Good penalties, bad penalties, whatever.”
Cassidy added they obviously need to keep their cool, but they also needed to kill a penalty for their teammate.
The penalty to Pietrangelo in Game 5 came when the veteran player bloodied the nose of Stars’ Tyler Seguin, who had earlier targeted Vegas blue liner Shea Theodore. It was seen as unnecessary payback.
While initially given a five-minute major penalty, a review downgraded it to a minor. The Stars capitalized on the powerplay as Jason Robertson’s tally ultimately stood as the game-winner, leading Dallas to take a 3-2 series lead over Vegas in Round 1.
After the game, it was reported that Pietrangelo was unavailable to speak to the media due to “time constraints.”
While I never imagined that Pietrangelo would be benched or a healthy scratch for his back-to-back game-costing penalties because he is too important to the group, I never thought Cassidy would bring back the issue and target the rest of his players hours prior to Game 6.
But one thing is clear: the Golden Knights are on the edge of elimination, and Pietrangelo needs to be better.
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