Knights look to Tortorella to provide late-season spark

LAS VEGAS — For the Vegas Golden Knights, it’s about moving forward at this point.

It’s about starting games faster, finishing them better and securing a spot in the postseason. Management didn’t feel Bruce Cassidy could do it, so they’re giving John Tortorella eight games to figure it out.

Tortorella replaced Cassidy Sunday and he flew to Las Vegas, met with Cassidy’s staff, all of who remain with the club, talked to the players, some he knew, most he didn’t, and prepared to get behind the bench as a head coach for the first time run more than two years as the Knights hosted Vancouver at T-Mobile Arena Monday night.

Can he light a spark under this group? Can he get them across the finish line over these next eight games and into the playoffs?

Tortorella is essentially on a PTO. He’s the coach now and if the Knights make the playoffs. Nothing about a future for him with Vegas has been decided, much like nothing has been decided in Columbus between the Blue Jackets and Rick Bowness, whose team is in playoff contention and held the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference prior to Monday’s play.

“We’re not going to make many changes,” Torts told the media at City National Arena while assistant John Stevens ran the morning skate. “I have some points of emphasis I want them to know but I haven’t watched this team that much this year.”

He praised Cassidy, saying, “I was texting Butchie last night when I was flying in here to thank him for having the team the way it is right now. Just remember, the guy that left here is a pretty damn good coach. So I feel very fortunate coming into this situation.”

General manager Kelly McCrimmon, who collaborated with president of hockey ops George McPhee and got owner Bill Foley to sign off on the coaching change, said the team waited as long as it could for things to improve. And after the 5-4 shootout loss to Washington Saturday, the decision was made.

“Somewhere along the way we lost our spirit and lost our way,” McCrimmon said. He added that he didn’t believe Cassidy had lost the room and praised him for the job he did in his nearly four years in Vegas, including winning the Stanley Cup in 2023.

But there was something amiss with the way the Knights had been performing since the Olympic break, where they were 5-10-2 and went from first place to second place to third in the Pacific Division.

“We felt we needed to bring in someone new,” McCrimmon said.

McCrimmon isn’t asking Tortorella to perform any miracles. Just get the team back on track and play to its potential.

Eight games is not enough time to implement new systems,” GMKM said. “You’ll see some tweaks and I believe he’ll come in and give our team a spark.”

In all honesty, it needs one. Whether it’s a pat on the back or a kick in the pants, the Knights have looked lethargic for most of the last five weeks. McCrimmon did not discuss the decision to make a change with the players. But this is a mature group. They know it’s on them at this point. It doesn’t matter who’s behind the bench. Whoever is dressed on a given night needs to perform.

There’s a good leadership group headed by captain Mark Stone. The team needs to rally around them, play for each other and show some fight. And by fight, I’m not talking dropping the gloves and balling up your fists. It’s winning puck battles, winning faceoffs, exiting your own end of the ice cleanly and quickly and having your goaltender make the big save when needed.

It’s about pride now.

“The easiest thing would have been to do nothing,” McCrimmon said. “We’re evaluating things every day. We discuss what we like, what we need to do better.

“I think the leadership group feels it needs to do something. I think you’re going to see a positive bump in our play.”

For Tortorella, who is 67, this may very well be his last chance to be an NHL head coach. He won the Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004. He has stayed involved in the game, working with Team USA at this year’s gold medal run at the Winter Olympics and last year at the 4 Nations Face-Off. It didn’t end well in his last NHL stop with the Flyers so motivation isn’t an issue.

“It’s a crazy situation,” he said. “I left Philly with nine games left and now I come here with eight games left.”

Crazy? Indeed. Welcome to Vegas, where crazy seems normal.