Talk about a short runway for John Tortorella.

Eight games remaining, and not a lot of time to get the Vegas Golden Knights on the right track with hope of trying to get back to the playoffs.

But the veteran coach, who was brought in to replace Bruce Cassidy after he was fired on Sunday, is diving head first into a situation that not even he of over 1,600 games coached could’ve imagined to be in.

“In this business here, whether you are a player or a coach, I think you need to have the ability to accept the challenge,” Tortorella said at morning skate Monday. “I got (fired from the Philadelphia Flyers) with nine games left last year. Now, I come here with eight games left in a new job. There’s a couple of crazy situations I’ve never been involved in, but that’s the league. That’s the (NHL). That’s pro sports.”

The fiery, passionate Tortorella was all smiles, donning a Knights track suit while addressing how grateful he is to be given another opportunity in the coaching realm.

Not reinventing the wheel

The 67-year-old, a two-time Jack Adams Award winner, last coached with the Flyers from 2022 until March 2025.

He comes into a situation where the Knights enter Monday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks losing six of their last seven games.

Tortorella said he’s not coming in with an overhaul of schemes and ways of playing. He said he wants the team to start playing faster, first and foremost, and getting in the right mindset.

“We’re not going to make many changes,” Tortorella said. “I am not going to upset and fill the players with information. I have a few points of emphasis that we’ll go over as a team.”

Tortorella is signed through the rest of the regular season and the playoffs should the Knights qualify, general manager Kelly McCrimmon confirmed.

A successful run could result in extension conversations in the offseason. A failure could start the process all over again.

‘We waited’

Cassidy’s run as Knights coach ended in the fourth year of his five-year contract. He led the Knights to their first Stanley Cup championship in 2023 and made the playoffs the next two years.

But McCrimmon felt the team’s spirit started to wane, especially after the Olympic break, where the Knights entered Monday on a 5-10-2 stretch that has dropped them to third place in the Pacific Division.

“As a manager, if you’re going to do your job well, you have to make hard decisions on good people,” McCrimmon said. “(Cassidy) was the exact right coach at the exact right time for our team, and he helped us become Stanley Cup champions. I enjoyed working with Bruce. We had a great relationship. I don’t think we had an argument or disagreement in four years.”

Tortorella said he texted with Cassidy while on the plane to Las Vegas to thank him for “having the team the way it is right now.”

“Just remember,” Tortorella said. “The guy that left here is a pretty damn good coach. I feel very fortunate coming into this situation.”

McCrimmon said he didn’t get the sense Cassidy lost the locker room, but felt that the collective energy from the players wasn’t there.

He added there were spurts of good hockey through the last 17 games since the Olympics, but time was running out.

“We waited as long as we could on this,” McCrimmon said. “We see lots of positive signs in spurts in our game. But we just felt that we needed to bring a different person in to lead our team at this time.”

New opportunity

Tortorella has won 770 games and has only advanced past the second round twice in his career.

He’ll be tasked to make it a third time should the Knights get to where McCrimmon expects them to be. It’s just not a lot of time to make it happen.

“To get an opportunity in this point of my career, to come here, are you kidding me?” Tortorella said. “I am trying to do the best that I can and 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. We’ve got good people in our game, They feel for (Cassidy) too. And so we’ve got to try to make a stand here. I am anxious to be part of everything.”

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.