‘It was fun’: Before Olympics, Bruce Cassidy reflects on playing days in Italy
Bruce Cassidy once was teammates with a cop and a plumber.
Such is the life of a hockey player in Italy.
In a playing career that was derailed by injuries, the Vegas Golden Knights coach spent three of his final years overseas in the mountainous Italian village of Alleghe.
Cassidy, a former defenseman, played 88 games from 1991 to 1993 with Alleghe HC of Serie A before returning to the United States, where he began his transition to full-time coaching.
He’ll go back to Italy this week, this time as an assistant coach with Hockey Canada when the NHL breaks for the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina.
“I was over where they’re doing most of the Alpine events in Cortina,” Cassidy said. “Going back, geez, 35 years? It might be interesting to see the country again.”
This will be Cassidy’s first time coaching in the Olympics, as it also marks the first time the NHL will have players playing best-on-best international competition since the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia.
Cassidy got a small taste of it last February as an assistant on Canada’s staff for the 4 Nations Face-Off. Canada won the championship by defeating the U.S. 3-2 in overtime.
“It’s twofold, right?” Cassidy said. “You’re representing your country, and coming out of the 4 Nations, I thought we generated a lot of good energy for the Olympics, kind of create a budding rivalry with Team USA. It’s an honor to represent your country.”
Life in Italy
Cassidy has always been adventurous. That doesn’t just stem from seeing the world. It also had to do with his playing career.
Cassidy’s NHL career ended before it got off the ground. He suffered a torn ACL in his left knee while playing ball hockey a month after the Chicago Blackhawks took him 18th overall in the 1983 NHL draft.
He didn’t have surgery right away. That decision — further cemented by a Blackhawks team doctor at the time — impacted the rest of his playing career. Cassidy went on to play only 36 games with the Blackhawks.
Cassidy finally had full knee replacement surgery in June 2019.
Cassidy spent most of the 1980s in the International Hockey League, a feeder league that rivaled the American Hockey League at the time. He was an IHL all star with the Saginaw Hawks and Indianapolis Ice.
He would get the occasional call-up to Chicago, but Cassidy wasn’t cracking the lineup.
After winning the Turner Cup — the IHL championship — with the Ice in 1990, Cassidy felt he had more to give as a player. At 25, he tested the international waters and signed with Alleghe HC.
Much of that decision, Cassidy admitted, was the money.
“Back then, they didn’t pay the guys very well in the minors,” he said. “So, I had a chance to, looking back on it, double your salary. That was the impetus behind it. Maybe a little frustrated I wasn’t advancing (in the NHL). So something different.”
Alleghe is a mountainous village in northeastern Italy better known for its views and skiing resorts. Cassidy called it a postcard-kind-of town.
“Very few people live there,” Cassidy said.
The few people were good people, he said. Going to Italy resulted in Cassidy learning the culture, as well as another language. A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Cassidy went to a French school until he was 11 years old.
Similarities between the French and Italian languages allowed Cassidy to pick up Italian rather quickly. It was a bit of a crash course. Cassidy’s defense partner only knew Italian, so communication on the ice was trial by fire.
“By the time I was in there, I could do interviews in Italian. Not great, but good enough to answer questions,” Cassidy said.
He followed that up, jokingly, “I’m still working on the English part.”
On-ice product
Imagine the roster construction of your local beer league. There are varying levels of skill. Some are former pros, some are amateurs and some are doing it as a side hustle.
That’s what came to mind as Cassidy described the level of play in Alleghe.
The 1990-91 season was 36 games played on the weekends. Some of the townsfolk came to Alleghe to either ski or watch hockey. Cassidy was playing twice a week.
Second, the talent pool, putting it lightly, was not up to par.
“The players in that league, the Italian guys, were not great players,” Cassidy said. “I don’t know if any of them ever played in the NHL or were ever close.”
Cassidy attributed that to there not being any prominent Italian hockey players for inspiration. Italy was more about soccer and tennis.
Other players had side jobs. Playing hockey in Italy wasn’t a true way to make a living.
Case in point: Cassidy’s defense partner was a police officer.
Defenseman Reed Larson, who played 904 NHL games and 708 with the Detroit Red Wings, played with Cassidy in Alleghe his first year.
Larson’s defense partner was a plumber.
“It was that type of thing,” Cassidy said.
The class of Serie A at the time were the Milan Devils. They had the benefit of playing in Milan, but also had the money to pay star players. Hockey Hall of Fame winger Jari Kurri played for Milan that year. Longtime NHL winger Mark Napier was also in the league.
It was a safe bet to take the over in a lot of these games.
“There were a lot of games that were 10-6, so it wasn’t as high intensity until you got to the playoffs and there’s a couple of good teams,” Cassidy said.
Roster construction was also not ideal. Alleghe carried only four defensemen rather than the conventional six.
Safe to say, it was a great way for Cassidy to test out his knee.
“You probably played 45 minutes a night easily,” he said. “A lot of offense. It was fun.”
Cassidy scored 23 goals and 75 points in 1991. It was the most goals he ever scored in a season as a professional. He followed that with 43 points in 1992 and 42 in 1993.
After, he played one year with Kaufbeuren ESV in Germany before getting called back to Indianapolis for three more seasons before retiring from playing in 1996. His coaching career began in 1997 with the Jacksonville Lizard Kings of the ECHL.
“The experience was good in terms of seeing the world,” Cassidy said. “The hockey, I would say, was very average. But I enjoyed it.”
Coming full circle
Cassidy experienced a lot of great things while in Italy. He got to see Rome, Florence and even went to France.
There was a part of him, though, that felt he should’ve hung on a little longer to play there.
“It was a fun time to play hockey and I figured if I wasn’t going to make it to the NHL, in hindsight, maybe I should have stuck it out,” he said.
Cassidy doesn’t think he’ll have time to make it to Alleghe, given Cortina is about an hour drive away. It wouldn’t take long to get through it, but time is of the essence.
There were plenty of memories, good or otherwise intriguing, while Cassidy played there. He’s hoping he leaves Italy this time with a memory he’ll remember forever.
“To go back after all these years, I’m excited,” he said.
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
