Breakaway
“It was an easy decision,” says new men’s hockey coach Reid Cashman, currently an assistant coach with the NHL Washington Capitals. “I wanted the professional challenge of being a head coach at a place where you can compete for championships.” The former Quinnipiac defenseman and assistant coach (2011-16) knows Dartmouth well—although he didn’t learn that Caps owner Dick Patrick ’68 was an alum until he read the Patrick profile in DAM’s May/June 2020 issue, after he’d accepted the job. (“Honestly, I thought he went to Princeton,” Cashman says.) The new coach already has a house in New Hampshire, where he plans to move with his wife and two young daughters. But first things first: The loaded Capitals started a playoff run in August as the NHL resumed play, and Cashman won’t turn green until the season ends. What will he do with no Dartmouth hockey planned before January as the Ivy League monitors the spread of Covid-19? “We’ll use the extra time to get ready,” he says.