LAS VEGAS — In John Tortorella’s debut as coach of the Golden Knights Monday night at T-Mobile Arena, he sent fourth-line center Nic Dowd over the boards for 12 shifts. He called him by the wrong name for roughly half of them.
“There was some rust,” Tortorella said with a laugh following Vegas’ 4-2 win over Vancouver. “I think for half the game, and the boys let me do it, I was calling Dowd by a different name and I didn’t realize I was doing it. I’m sure you’ll hear about that eventually from these guys.”
Tortorella was relaxed and jovial after the win that snapped a three-game skid for the Golden Knights, poking fun at his own mistakes as he regains his bearings behind an NHL bench. Taking over a team with only eight games remaining in the regular season means he has a lot of catching up to do.
“I made a couple of mistakes after our power play,” Tortorella explained. “I didn’t have a line ready to go. I didn’t have the right people ready to go. Just like the players, I made a ton of mistakes. It’s a game of mistakes for coaches and players.”
The self-deprecating jokes are more than just an ice breaker in a new market. Tortorella is setting an example for how he hopes to get his new team playing.
While the veteran coach doesn’t plan on making many sizable strategic or structural changes to the way the Golden Knights play, he’s hoping for a major shift in mindset to one that is less afraid of making mistakes.
“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here,” he explained. “To me, it’s a mindset. I don’t want them afraid to make a mistake. The mistakes being made have to be done through aggression, not by sitting back.”
Since he arrived in Las Vegas ahead of Monday’s game, Torotrella has preached playing a faster, more carefree brand of hockey. He was calm and collected for most of his debut behind the Golden Knights bench, wearing a sharp black suit jacket and a polka-dotted tie.
Things didn’t start perfectly. The Golden Knights, who have struggled starting games on time all season, looked like their usual, tentative selves through the first 20 minutes. They trailed the last-place Canucks 1-0 entering the first intermission.
“We looked nervous in the first period, and we were slow,” Tortorella said. “The second period was night and day (better).”
Tortorella delivered a message to his players during the first intermission. The players weren’t willing to share what it was, but they responded with three goals in the second period to take control of the game.
“The messaging was different,” winger Reilly Smith said. “Structurally, I think we were pretty similar. There was an added emphasis on playing faster, and north, and I think as the game went on, that kind of tracked a little bit better for us.”
“I just want them to relax,” Tortorella said. “I want them to realize they’re just in a hockey game, and allow themselves to play, and I thought in the second period, especially, they did. The bench was more alive. It obviously helps when you score a goal.”
Vegas didn’t just score goals. It scored goals with the type of aggression Tortorella was looking for. Defenseman Rasmus Andersson tied the game 1-1 midway through the second period by activating deep into the Canucks zone and finding a rebound in front of the crease.
Vancouver responded with a power-play goal by Brock Boeser, but Vegas quickly tied the game with a goal in transition by Shea Theodore. Once again, it was the result of an ambitious run by a defenseman.
“We talked about trying to play up ice, trying to check forward and trying to get up the ice and just not playing safe,” Tortorella said. “We’ll look at some tape and continue to teach and try to get the right mindset, an aggressive mindset of playing north and simple.”
Smith scored the eventual game-winning goal with a one-timer at the backdoor on a gorgeous pass by Brayden McNabb. Vegas’ blue line combined for five points on Monday night.
“Very simple,” Theodore said of Tortorella in his debut. “Very direct. I thought we responded and played a pretty good game.”
While Tortorella opted to start the game with the same lines Bruce Cassidy had been deploying, he made his first alterations midway through the game by swapping Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner.
“I just thought it was a little stale as the game started offensively,” Tortorella said. “We just looked tentative. I liked the way the lines progressed as we went through the game. I thought there was some chemistry there, and I thought everyone chipped in.”
While he’s still learning the players’ nicknames and perfecting his line call-outs, the players thought Tortorella was his usual self behind the bench.
“He kind of comes as advertised back there,” said forward Cole Smith, who sealed the game with an empty net goal late. “He’s going to be straight-up honest with you. He’s going to get the boys going when he needs to. It’s good.”
“He’s emotionally invested,” Reilly Smith said.
Overall, the debut was a success, but it also came against the team with the worst record in the NHL by a wide margin (Vancouver is 17 points behind the next closest team). The Golden Knights have made their hay beating up on this caliber of opposition this season, and even Monday’s game showed plenty of the warts that led to the coaching change in the first place. There’s still plenty of work to be done, without much time to do it, and Tortorella is well aware.
“I think we have some good clips that we can pull from the game, contrasting playing slow versus playing fast, because I thought it was quite a contrast between the first and the second (periods),” Tortorella said. “We’ll look at some tape and continue to teach and try to get the right mindset, an aggressive mindset of playing north and simple.”
With two days off before their next game, the Golden Knights will have their first full practice with Tortorella at the helm on Wednesday. They host Calgary on Thursday night to wrap up a homestand, but have key games against Edmonton, Seattle, Colorado and Winnipeg down the stretch to secure their playoff position.
Tortorella hopes to have them playing faster, simpler, and unafraid for those tests, which will no doubt be tougher than Monday’s. On his end, he’ll be sure to memorize Dowd’s name and number before his players let him hear about it anymore.