It would be easy to say the Blackhawks’ decision not to renew the contract of assistant coach Bruce Cassidy was a direct result of a woeful power play, which was his main responsibility.
But general manager Dale Tallon and coach Trent Yawney said Wednesday the power play had little to do with the move.
“I accept responsibility for the power play,” Yawney said.
The Hawks’ power play was last in the NHL last season at just 12.2 percent. That was the lowest conversion percentage for the Hawks since they began keeping the statistic in the 1967-68 season.
Now, after saying all last season that the power play was a collective effort by all the coaches, Yawney and Tallon said Wednesday that Denis Savard will be running it this season.
Savard, a Hall of Fame center, scored more than a quarter of his career goals, 127 of 473, on the power play.
“[Savard] was one of the most creative players in the history of the game,” Tallon said. “We’re looking for something different. A lot of what he did, it was improvised but within a system.”
Yawney said the power play has to be “simplified.”
Savard has been in charge of the Hawks’ penalty killing, and last season that was the one bright spot in a dismal season. The Hawks finished ninth in the league, killing off 83.9 percent of opponents’ power plays while facing more power plays than any other team in the league.
Yawney said the main reason for the change was Cassidy’s difficulty in adapting to an assistant coach’s mentality. Cassidy had been a head coach in the minors and with the Washington Capitals.
“When you’ve been a head coach as long as he has been, you have to think about how you’re going to approach the situation as an assistant,” Yawney said.
Traditionally, the assistant coach serves as a buffer between the players and the head coach, and the feeling was Cassidy may have been too hard on the Hawks’ young defensemen–a role better suited for Yawney as the head coach.
Tallon hired Cassidy as a pro scout in January 2004, and he was added to the coaching staff in May.
Yawney said he wants to have another assistant hired soon. Whoever the Hawks hire will be the one who changes the defensive pairings during the game and will run the penalty killing.
———-
rfoltman@tribune.com
