Time for Tortorella to accept credit for Knights' Cup run

LAS VEGAS — If you’re looking for a word to describe John Tortorella these days, here’s one you might overlook, but shouldn't:

Grateful.

The man who got behind the Vegas Golden Knights bench on March 29 after Bruce Cassidy was let go has the team in the Stanley Cup Final. He went 7-0-1 over the final eight games of the regular season and helped the Knights clinch the Pacific Division title.

He parlayed that into a 12-4 mark in the postseason, including the sweep of the Colorado Avalanche, the NHL’s best team during the regular season. He leans on Cassidy’s assistants, all of which were retained to work with him. He handed Carter Hart the starting goaltender’s crease and Hart has emerged as the top net minder in the playoffs.

He stuck with Pavel Dorofeyev when he was struggling early in the Utah series. Ditto with Tomas Hertl who didn’t find his game until midway in the Anaheim series. He rolled with Dylan Coghlan when Jeremy Lauzon was hurt and Kaedan Korczak was struggling and Coghlan has had a great postseason.

And he leaned on the top guys to show the way. Mitch Marner. Jack Eichel. Shea Theodore. Mark Stone, when he’s healthy. And the others fell into line. Brett Howden is having his best postseason ever. Nic Dowd and Cole Smith have delivered great minutes as bottom-six forwards. William Karlsson is anchoring the second line with Marner and Howden and they’re a tough trio to defend.

Tortorella isn’t willing to take much credit. He praises his assistants, talks about how much he trusts his players and how he’s glad to be a small part of this. He has referred to himself as a guidance counselor during his time in Vegas, more about making sure the team stays on track.  

Oh, yeah, and he’s grateful for this opportunity.

“I’ve been very fortunate,” he said of a year that saw him on Mike Sullivan’s staff during the Olympics in February when Team USA captured the gold medal prior to his arrival in Vegas in late March.”Sully put together a staff and I was fortunate to be one of those guys. It’s fun to see some of the greatest players in the world that you coach against in that type of situation. You watch how they play up close, how they practice. So to be on a team that won it, it was fun.

“Here, it was weird being here at this time of the year. But I feel very fortunate to get back in the league and coach. To be with this organization, one of the best organizations in the league, with Bill (Foley), George (McPhee) and Kelly (McCrimmon) running it. How lucky am I?

“I’ve gotten to know the players better over three rounds and now we’re playing for the Stanley Cup. I shake myself sometimes. I pinch myself. I can’t thank the people enough for having given me this opportunity.”

And to his credit, Tortorella has taken full advantage of that opportunity. He has a mature group to coach, one with 12 players from the 2023 Stanley Cup championship team. The players appreciate the confidence he has had in them and believing in them that they could turn things around. Remember, the Knights weren’t guaranteed a spot in the playoffs when they made the change from Cassidy to Tortorella. It could’ve gone the wrong way and Vegas would’ve missed the postseason.

But the opposite happened. The team responded. The winning ways returned. And it’s about time that Tortorella accept a lot of credit for this postseason run. It’s not easy to coach today’s athletes. They make millions of dollars and when you’re asking (or is it demanding?) they show up every day and take care of business, well, it’s why we see so much turnover in the coaching ranks, not just in the NHL, but in all sports.

Suffice to say, Tortorella has shown he can do the job here in Vegas. McCrimmon isn’t going to talk about anyone’s future, be it player or coach, until after the Stanley Cup Final. He has tried to keep the whole Cassidy not being allowed to interview for with other teams from being a distraction  The players don’t talk about their former coach.

And the current coach? Please.

Tortorella is friends with Cassidy. He’s not talking about that situation. His focus is strictly on preparing his team for Carolina and trying to win four more games.

“We’ve gone through three (rounds),” he said. “We've got one more.

“I just marvel at the athletes. Coaches, especially the assistant coaches, they do a ton of work. But I marvel at the athletes, what they go through as far as playing each and every day, how hard they play. So, to be up close and personal on a bench behind them and watch what they do, that's why we're in it. I don't have the words to explain what these athletes are about. We've got great athletes in our league, and to be with them going through this, I feel very fortunate.”

Grateful too.