Perhaps it’s much ado about nothing, but there was one jarring takeaway from the Vegas Golden Knights’ reaction to the firing of Bruce Cassidy.

Not one of the three players that spoke Monday mentioned Cassidy by name.

Combine that with captain Mark Stone saying the Knights’ locker room had gone a bit “stale” with eight games left in the regular season, it might be more telling than anticipated.

“Sometimes you can just take to a new voice,” Stone said. “We weren’t playing with that same emotion that we normally do.”

That new voice the rest of the season is John Tortorella after Cassidy, who coached the Knights to their first Stanley Cup championship in 2023, was fired after less than four seasons into the job.

Making the change

Cassidy became the longest-tenured and winningest coach in Knights history, coaching in 320 games and winning 178 of them, including 24 in the playoffs.

But general manager Kelly McCrimmon felt the team’s spirit wasn’t there, which compelled him to make one of the more stunning coaching moves in recent history.

The Knights entered Monday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks in third place in the Pacific Division and three points back of the Edmonton Oilers for second.

They’ve gone 5-10-2 since returning from the Olympic break. Nothing was resonating. The players felt the same.

“For whatever reason, it just showed in the play,” Stone said. “I think for us, it was more of there was some good hockey being played at times, But like I keep coming back to the emotion and that it wasn’t there for whatever reason. So that’s why the changes were made.”

Fall from first

Center Jack Eichel said the responsibility falls on the players whenever a coaching change is made.

The Knights were in first place for 96 days before their slide after the Olympics.

Since their seven-game winning streak in January, they’ve gone 8-15-4.

Eichel has been one of the heads of that struggle with 10 points in 16 games. Three of those points came Saturday in the 5-4 shootout loss to the Washington Capitals.

Stone has four points in 11 games. Tomas Hertl has five points in 17 games and has not scored a goal since March 4.

“We’re the ones that go out there and perform every night,” Eichel said. “We’re all grown men and you should be able to go out there and do your job now. Sometimes things happen over the course of long relationships. That’s just how things go.”

Time will tell quickly if Tortorella is the answer.

The Knights have given up 3.43 goals per game during their 1-4-2 stretch since March 15 with a power play that’s only converted 16.7 percent of its chances.

“I think it’s all about energy and even the way we play the game,” defenseman Noah Hanifin said. “The way we carry ourselves as a team is about having confidence and swagger, playing fast, playing in tight spaces. That’s the recipe we’ve always had when we’ve been good here. We got to get to that quick.”

Tortorella said he’s not coming in and making wholesale changes to the way the Knights play. Much of what they’ve done is going to be the same.

Tortorella wants the Knights to play faster, along with re-finding that spirit and getting some enthusiasm back.

“We got to start winning games, and that’s what’s important at the end of March, and we’re heading into April here,” Eichel said. “You just have to win hockey games this time of year.”

‘Wake-up call’

Stone reassured multiple times that he still has belief in his teammates in the locker room and the direction that the front office wants to go in.

But Stone also added that “we were on a path that just didn’t seem like it was going the right way, so they made a change.”

“I don’t know,” Stone continued. “Call me crazy. I believe in every single one of the guys in this room. I believe in the organization, I believe in the team. I’m excited for the next eight games and hopefully get the team playing well and the playoffs here.”

Eichel agreed.

“(It’s a) wake-up call, I think, for the group,” Eichel said. “We have a really good team in here and we obviously haven’t been performing too well to our capability and expectations. I think that it’s a message that management believes in us, but we have to start playing better.”

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