Knights hope Tortorella hire brings spark; debut ends in win

LAS VEGAS — General manager Kelly McCrimmon said Golden Knights players had lost their spark, and that played into Sunday’s surprising decision to fire coach Bruce Cassidy and try to inject life into whatever remains of Vegas’ season.

John Tortorella replaced Cassidy for at least the rest of the remainder of this season and the playoffs. Tortorella met with the players Monday, and the organization hopes his presence will jump-start what players agreed was a needed energy boost.

For one night, at least, it did, as the Golden Knights beat Vancouver 4-2 on Monday to snap a three-game skid. Vegas, which had lost six of its past seven games, is in third place in the Pacific Division with seven games left and in playoff position despite the recent downturn that includes a 6-10-2 record since the Olympic break through Monday’s win.

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“I think the locker room had gone a little stale,” captain Mark Stone said before the Canucks game. “We weren’t playing with that same emotion that we normally do. We have to bring ourselves into the fight a little bit.”

Tortorella joins Vegas for his 24th NHL season as a head coach. He was not in the league this year and was an assistant for the U.S. at the Milan Cortina Olympics when it won gold. He coached Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup title in 2004 and is 770-648-37 with five teams overall.

A year ago, he was the one run out of an organization when Philadelphia fired him with nine games to go. Now he’s on the opposite end.

“I’ve been in the league a long time,” said Tortorella, 67. “Won some, lost some, did some dumb things along the way. To get an opportunity at this point in my career to come here, are you kidding me? I just want to help. That’s what I told the boys today. We’re going to do it together. A good man lost his job. That affects these guys. Don’t think it doesn’t.”

Tortorella is on an agreement to coach the team throughout the regular season and the playoffs should the Golden Knights make them. Then a decision will be made on a more long-term arrangement, with McCrimmon comparing it to the Rick Bowness situation in Columbus. The Blue Jackets hired Bowness in January under similar circumstances.

Tortorella said there wasn’t enough time to make major changes and overload his players with information. He instead will make some tweaks, and he even let the assistant coaches put together the lines for the game against the Canucks. Tortorella said he is still learning names and is relying on the players to provide him the necessary information to move forward.

Moving forward, McCrimmon said, was what he had in mind after making this decision. The Golden Knights, who spent about three months atop the Pacific Division, were built to compete for the Cup this season, most notably acquiring forward Mitch Marner in a sign-and-trade with Toronto last offseason.

The Golden Knights are just three years removed from winning the championship — and management approaches every season with the idea of doing all it can to eventually hoist the Cup again.

“If we didn’t have the expectations and the belief in our team that we do, we probably would have let this thing ride out,” McCrimmon said. “We like our team a lot, and we think our team has a chance to win. We needed to make this change to help that happen.”

The players agreed with that assessment.

“If there’s one coach who can help our team a lot with eight games left and kind of turn things around, it would be [Tortorella],” defenseman Noah Hanifin said. “We’re excited about the opportunity to work with him and get back on track and get back to playing with some energy and some jam. It’s a weird situation. It’s not like it’s halfway through the season. There’s not a lot of time left.”

Which makes it prove-it time for the Golden Knights.

This move could look like anything from brilliant to a disaster, with plenty of possibilities in between.

McCrimmon said the short amount of time remaining in the season didn’t call for inaction.

“We’re in a tight race right now,” center Jack Eichel said. “It’s the end of March, and we’re heading into April. At the end of the day, you’ve got to win hockey games this time of year. I think for all the guys in the room, we could be better on the ice on a night in and night out basis.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.