From backlash to Pacific title: The Golden Knights’ Tortorella gamble paying off so far

But it's difficult to argue his controversial decision March 29 to fire popular and successful coach Bruce Cassidy and hire John Tortorella hasn't worked out.

Going into its playoff opener at home Sunday against Utah, Vegas is 7-0-1 under the fiery coach known as Torts. A team struggling to hang on to a playoff spot just won the Pacific Division for the fifth time in their nine years.

Top center Jack Eichel, who had 90 points for the second consecutive season, said Tortorella injected confidence in a team that was lacking it just three years after winning the Stanley Cup.

“Sometimes you need a reminder,” Eichel said. “He saw we have a really good hockey team in here and we need to believe in ourselves and in each other. That's the first step to being a great hockey team is believing in ourselves. I think you've started to see that the last few weeks. We started to build more confidence in each other and our game.”

The 67-year-old Tortorella, who led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup title in 2004, said at his introductory news conference that he wouldn't overload the team with information and make massive changes. It's a strategy he's stuck to since then.

“I knew it was a good team coming in,” Tortorella said this week. “I know it was coached well prior to me. I had some points of emphasis, probably three or four, that I want to bring across to them. We've done that. I think they feel good about themselves. When you win some games, you feel good about yourself, and hopefully we keep on building on that.”

Tortorella made two notable changes that have worked.

One was to create a more aggressive north-south game. Vegas went from scoring 3.12 goals per game and allowing 3.07 to outscoring opponents on average 4.13 to 1.88.

“Attack the games. Put pressure on the other team,” Eichel said.

The other move was to go with Carter Hart as his primary goalie. Cassidy installed Adin Hill in that role down the stretch, but Tortorella coached Hart in Philadelphia and has spoken glowingly about him. Tortorella said Hart was carrying the Flyers into contender status in 2024 before he was suspended by the NHL as one of five 2018 Canada world junior hockey players accused in a high-profile sexual assault case.

They were acquitted last July. The league reinstated those players beginning Dec. 1 and the Golden Knights gave Hart a chance. He has delivered under Tortorella's watch, going 6-0 with a .930 save percentage and a 1.66 goals-against average.

“I think he looks dialed in,” Tortorella said. “I just think he's making saves. He just looks confident, and hopefully that'll continue. I think Hilly's last couple of starts, he's made some really good saves also. So going into the playoffs, if both of them are going well, that's a good thing for us.”

McCrimmon said the decision to fire Cassidy was a difficult one, especially since the coach was responsible for the organization's only Stanley Cup and they were consistently on the same page. But the GM said the season and its playoff chances appeared to be slipping away and there was little time to wait. He knew the decision would be criticized but that wasn't the point.

“When we've changed coaches along the way — I'm going to say each time — it was likely viewed in this room as being unpopular or not the right time,” McCrimmon said March 30 at a news conference. “And I think in each case, the decisions were good ones.”

The decisions to fire Gerard Gallant in 2020, Pete DeBoer in 2022 and Cassidy this year — all with winning playoff records — were met with wide skepticism but management largely got the results they desired.

That includes with Tortorella, but the postseason is coming.

Then the true verdict will be delivered.

So the victory lap is on hold — for now.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl