Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant watches players during the team’s development camp at City National Arena in Summerlin Wednesday, June 26, 2019.
Published Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020 | 8 a.m.
Updated Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020 | 11:59 a.m.
Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant created a true us-versus-them moment during last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs when he called Sharks counterpart Pete DeBoer a “clown” going into the teams’ first-round Game 7 showdown. Vegas fans rallied around Gallant as their guy, with DeBoer immediately becoming someone who could expect to be greeted with pictures of him in clown makeup whenever he stepped foot in T-Mobile Arena for years to come.
The battle lines were drawn — until they were blurred Wednesday morning.
The Golden Knights simultaneously announced that Gallant, and assistant coach Mike Kelly, had been fired and replaced with DeBoer. The 51-year-old is expected to join the team shortly and make his coaching debut Thursday in Ottawa.
“As a manager, sometimes you have a feeling that something isn’t the way you need it to be or want it to be,” general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. “We feel that we’ve underperformed a little bit, and that’s certainly not to pile at the feet of Mike and Gerard, but sometimes you feel change is needed.”
Vegas fell out of the current postseason picture with a 4-2 loss to the Sabres on Tuesday, completing its second four-game losing streak of the year. The Golden Knights are struggling, but that doesn’t make Gallant’s firing any less stunning.
Gallant led the Golden Knights to a 118-75-20 record during his tenure, which included a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2018 and a Jack Adams Award as the league’s top coach that year. He was the only coach Vegas had ever known but has now gotten fired for the second time in three years after Florida also ousted him in January 2017.
“We would like to thank Gerard and Mike for their service to the Vegas Golden Knights. They were both instrumental to the success we have enjoyed in our first two-plus seasons and we wish them all the best moving forward,” McCrimmon said in his initial statement announcing the moves.
Vegas still sits only three points out of the Pacific Division lead after sitting in first-place at the halfway point of the season two weeks ago, a benchmark that secured Gallant a spot as the Pacific’s coach in the NHL All-Star Game. His status for the event is now unknown.
Vegas’ underlying numbers suggest that the team should be performing much better, and not with more losses than wins at 24-19-6 overall. The Golden Knights have the second-best expected-goals percentage in the NHL (54.8), the second-best share of scoring chances (55.4) and the third-best Corsi (53.6), suggesting this season is far from a lost cause. Corsi measures the shot-attempt differential while at even strength play.
But goaltending has been an issue after a tremendous start to the season by Marc-Andre Fleury. Vegas has a .911 save percentage at 5-on-5, which ranks seventh worst in the NHL.
That’s led to its PDO, a team’s total of shooting percentage and save percentage, sinking to the NHL’s fourth-worst mark at 98.5. PDO tends to stabilize to 100 over the long term, meaning some positive regression or bounce-back appeared inevitable.
In this Oct. 26, 2018, file photo, then-San Jose Sharks' head coach Peter DeBoer directs the team during the second period of an NHL hockey game, in Raleigh, N.C. The Vegas Golden Knights fired former NHL coach of the year Gerard Gallant on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020, amid a four-game losing streak and replaced him with Peter DeBoer.
The Golden Knights weren’t willing to wait for it. In comes DeBoer, a coach who, like Gallant, has recent postseason success on his resume. DeBoer led the Sharks to the Stanley Cup Final in 2016 and the Western Conference final last season. He also helped the New Jersey Devils to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012.
In five seasons with the Sharks, DeBoer went 198-129-34. Along with six-plus seasons on the Devils’ and Panthers’ benches, DeBoer has a career caching record of 415-329-111. San Jose fired him on Dec. 11, and McCrimmon declined to say if DeBoer’s availability played a part in Wednesday’s moves.
“This is all in the last 24 hours that any of this has gone on, so it came together very quickly,” McCrimmon said. “There is no reason to do what-ifs on the hypotheticals. The events that have taken place, have taken place and that’s where we are today.”
Can DeBoer provide the spark that has been lacking? His Stanley Cup appearances with San Jose and New Jersey each came in his first year at the helm, though he took over both teams in the offseason, not less than three months before the start of the playoffs. As the advanced statistics suggest, Vegas is due for a turnaround, and perhaps getting a new voice behind the bench is what the team needs to jumpstart it.
“We had high hopes for the year, still have real high hopes for the year,” McCrimmon said. “We’re in a unique position where we’re right in the mix. This isn’t a case where the bottom fell out and we were left with no choice.
“Proactively this was our belief that this is what was going to be the best thing for our organization.”
Between DeBoer’s debut and Mark Stone’s first game in Ottawa since his trade from the Senators last year, Thursday’s game will have no shortage of storylines. DeBoer will have plenty of time on the road to get acclimated with his new club, as Vegas has seven more games on the current trip, which includes the All-Star break and bye week. DeBoer’s home debut won’t be until Feb. 8 against Carolina.
And on Feb. 8, Golden Knights’ fans will have a choice to make — embrace the new coach or carry on considering him a clown? The seven games before then will surely play a part in determining whether DeBoer is cheered as the future of Vegas hockey or booed as the man who replaced a fan favorite.
Maybe it’s a mix of both, but the only certainty is that a one-time adversary is now the unexpected leader of the Golden Knights.
