The Vegas Golden Knights went into Monday’s game with a brand new head coach behind the bench: John Tortorella.
Replacing your head coach just eight games away from the start of the playoffs while your team is in playoff position is a bold move; replacing your head coach with John Tortorella sends a bold message.
Tortorella has a reputation for being a hard-nosed coach, who isn’t afraid to bluntly confront his players and demand better from them. He’s the type of coach a general manager brings in when he feels like his team has grown too comfortable, with the hope that his intense style of coaching will light a fire under his players.
For many players, it works. They appreciate his honesty and transparency, and are motivated by his intensity. For others, it’s too much. There’s a reason why Tortorella earned 38.5% of the vote when The Athletic asked NHL players which coach they’d least like to play for in an anonymous poll.
The Golden Knights are gambling that Tortorella can wake up a lackadaisical roster that has lost 42 games, and is only hanging onto a playoff position because 16 of those losses came in overtime or the shootout.
That’s something that Canucks fans can relate to. Like Vegas, Vancouver once bet on Tortorella.
When I interviewed Mike Gillis for my book about the Canucks’ history at the NHL draft, he described the Tortorella hiring as a compromise with ownership.
Gillis had broached the subject of a rebuild with Francesco Aquilini after the team was swept in the first round of the 2013 playoffs. Aquilini wasn’t interested in a rebuild, which is somewhat understandable, given the team was just a year removed from back-to-back Presidents’ Trophies.
Hence, the compromise: while Gillis and his management team quietly started putting together pieces and plans for a rebuild, he gave his aging core one more kick at the can by giving his aging core a kick in the can in the form of Tortorella’s blunt and abrasive coaching style.
It didn’t go well.
The Canucks, who had won the Northwest Division in five-straight seasons, fell to fifth in the newly-renamed Pacific Division and missed the playoffs entirely. Some of the blame could be apportioned to Tortorella, who made odd choices, like splitting up the Sedins, moving Ryan Kesler to the wing, and using Dan Hamhuis as the lone defenceman on the power play.
There were other oddities, like his refusal to live in Vancouver, instead making his home in Point Roberts, Washington, resulting in the installation of a Murphy bed in his office at Rogers Arena.
Then there’s the infamous occasion when Tortorella was suspended for 15 days after trying to punch his way into the Calgary Flames’ dressing room during the intermission of a game in January. It was a terrible decision, but it at least led to one of the greatest songs in hockey history.
I’ll remember an autotuned-Tortorella singing “Don’t push me” when I’m in a nursing home and can no longer recognize the faces of my children.
Tortorella’s most consequential decision, of course, was choosing to start Eddie Lack over Roberto Luongo in the Heritage Classic, a move that was the final straw for the frustrated star, who demanded a trade and was sent to the Florida Panthers.
Ultimately, Gillis never got to enact his planned rebuild, as he was canned before the end of the 2013-14 season. Tortorella was let go a few weeks later.
But, for all the many reasons why Tortorella’s time in Vancouver was a disaster, he was dead right about one thing.
“I felt from day one that [the core is] stale,” said Tortorella at his end-of-season press conference. “That’s not their fault. This is a group that has been together for a long time. It needs youth. It needs a change. The team needs to be retooled. It’s a young man’s game. It’s certainly not a criticism of [the veterans]. We need to surround them with some enthusiasm.”
Okay, Tortorella wasn’t 100 per cent right: he said “retool” instead of “rebuild.”
How did the Canucks respond to Tortorella’s declaration that they needed to retool? They hired Jim Benning, who insisted the Canucks were a team he could turn around in a hurry. Instead, the Canucks missed the playoffs in six of Benning’s eight seasons as general manager.
The repercussions of their refusal to rebuild can still be felt in the current Canucks. The Canucks let an abundance of veterans go to free agency instead of trading them for draft picks, which led to a lacklustre prospect pool, which led to an inability to build around the team’s top players, which led to a lack of success, which ultimately led to Quinn Hughes demanding a trade.
Now, finally, the Canucks appear to be committed to a rebuild, a dozen years after Tortorella was fired. And what a dozen years it has been.
Honestly, I’m not sure John Tortorella has aged a day. He’s looking pretty dang good for 67, which is not a meme. It’s just his actual age.
I avoided storming the Golden Knights’ dressing room when I watched this game.
This was the 1000th game of Evander Kane’s career, which is an impressive milestone, though somewhat undercut by it being an entirely meaningless game for the Canucks. I have to wonder if both he and the Canucks would have preferred that milestone to come with a different, playoff-bound team.
It may not have been a game of consequence, but Kane still had to feel pretty good about scoring the opening goal in the milestone game. It was truly a lovely finish by Kane, as he sped up the ice on a 2-on-1, took the pass from Jake DeBrusk, and neatly deked to the backhand to put the puck past Adin Hill.
Kane’s finish was nice, but DeBrusk DeServes DeBulk of DePraise. He made a great defensive play, coming down deep into the slot to support his defencemen, then knocked the puck out of the zone for the 2-on-1. Then he held the puck long enough to get Rasmus Andersson to commit to his side of the ice before flipping a sublime saucer pass into Kane’s path. That was a chef’s kiss of a pass.
Side note: it’s a shame the Canucks didn’t score a bunch of goals on Adin Hill to run up the score in this game, because I would have loved to make a “running up that Hill” joke.
The Canucks took a 1-0 lead into the second period, and (this may come as a shock) that lead swiftly disappeared. They’re the worst team in the league in the second period — I mean, they’re the worst team in the league, period — so it’s not too surprising that they gave up three goals, which ultimately cost them the game.
Kevin Lankinen had a pretty strong game and deserved better. The poor guy has just one win in his last 15 starts. He did his best to keep the Canucks in the lead, robbing Mark Stone at the toe of a tic-tac-toe passing play early in the second.
Lankinen had no chance on the first Vegas goal. Tomas Hertl knocked down a shot in front of Lankinen, then moved the puck to Rasmus Andersson at the backdoor for a tap-in goal. Andersson had activated from the point when Drew O’Connor had his back turned, leaving him wide open.
The Canucks took the lead back a few minutes later on the power play. Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser made like Ray and John Kinsella and played a little catch, pulling Mark Stone out of position to try to break it up. That’s when Boeser slipped back into the slot with a clear lane for Filip Hronek to find him with a slap pass for a top corner deflection.
Linus Karlsson and Jeremy Lauzon were in each other’s kitchens all game, and the tension broke out in a big ol’ brouhaha midway through the second period, with Teddy Blueger dropping the gloves with Colton Sissons out of the wild scrum. But the highlight for me was seeing the lonely puck sliding through the neutral zone as everyone was scrapping, as if it was saying, “Hey, uh, guys? Does anybody want to play with me? You know, hockey? Anyone?”
The Golden Knights took advantage of a young defence pair to tie things up again. Victor Mancini got caught on a pinch as Vegas cleared the puck, leaving Elias Pettersson (D) in a tough spot. He made that spot a lot tougher by chasing the puck, believing he could win the race, instead of backing into a defensive posture to face a 2-on-1. His overeagerness left Shea Theodore all alone in the middle, and Theodore sniped a shot past Lankinen.
Just over a minute later, a brutal defensive breakdown left Reilly Smith all alone at the backdoor. One of Jake DeBrusk, Teddy Blueger, or Evander Kane should have been marking Smith, which might be part of the problem, as each of them likely thought one of the other two was going to do it. Unlike the three veteran Canucks forwards, Brayden McNabb found Smith for the easy goal.
I don’t even think the goal was necessarily Kane’s fault, but this clip on the replay is kind of hilarious. There’s something about a wide-open Smith scoring, Tom Willander gesturing as if to say, “Why was he open?!” and then Kane sadly skating into frame. It’s like a short film, but shorter. A micro-short film.
The third period didn’t really matter. Smith scored an empty-net goal. Who cares? No one, that’s who.
Just nine more games.
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