{"id":532942,"date":"2026-03-31T14:47:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/532942\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T14:47:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:47:20","slug":"john-tortorella-overcomes-mistakes-to-win-vegas-golden-knights-debut-golden-knights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/532942\/","title":{"rendered":"John Tortorella overcomes mistakes to win Vegas Golden Knights debut | Golden Knights"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> didn\u2019t pitch a perfect game to begin the John Tortorella era. They still won.<\/p>\n

The same could be said for Tortorella.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was calling (Nic) Dowd by a different name,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize I was doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tortorella wasn\u2019t expecting perfection out of the gates, for himself or his new players, but the Knights will take the wins any way they can get them in this unprecedented time.<\/p>\n

The Knights had to rally from down a goal against the team with the fewest points in the NHL, but still secured a win in Tortorella\u2019s debut, 4-2 over the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> on Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some rust,\u201d said Tortorella, coaching his first game in 370 <\/a>days<\/a>. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t too bad. I got a good feel for the lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still trying to learn nicknames when you\u2019re calling people to go up, but it was good. I\u2019ve leaned on the coaching staff quite a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting out strong<\/p>\n

Tortorella made two things clear in his first day on the job.<\/p>\n

One, he wasn\u2019t going to reinvent the wheel from what Bruce Cassidy had <\/a>implemented<\/a>. The lines stayed the same, with the exception of swapping the top-six centers in the second period.<\/p>\n

The power play units remained the same, including the five-forward look on the top unit.<\/p>\n

Two, he wanted the Knights to play a much faster, more direct approach than what he\u2019s seen in limited time.<\/p>\n

The first period didn\u2019t reflect that. The Knights went down 1-0 off a 2-on-1 goal from Canucks winger Evander Kane.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked nervous in the first period,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cWe were slow. I thought we made too many D-to-D plays in the first period, looking for a partner, playing sideways.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Tortorella swapped wingers for centers Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner. He thought the Knights looked stale and tentative offensively.<\/p>\n

The lines progressed, and the Knights eventually got to that direct game with three goals in the second \u2014 two by defensemen Rasmus Andersson and Shea Theodore, and the third set up by Brayden McNabb for Reilly Smith\u2019s one-timer.<\/p>\n

The Knights outshot the Canucks 15-10 in the middle frame, including 14-6 at 5-on-5. They doubled Vancouver in shot attempts (67-33) and had a 30-12 edge in the second period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second period was night and day,\u201d Tortorella said.<\/p>\n

More of that<\/p>\n

The second period is what Tortorella wants to establish as the constant. Part of that contrast is the team loosening up and a reminder to play hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want them to relax,\u201d he said. \u201cI want them to realize they\u2019re just in a hockey game and allow themselves to play. And I thought the second period, especially, they did. The bench was more alive. Probably helped us score a goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s reason to be optimistic that this can continue. It helps that five of the Knights\u2019 seven opponents are outside of the playoff picture.<\/p>\n

But Monday was also a reminder that it was the Canucks, who have gone such bizarre lengths to have the fewest points in the league this season. The Knights will play them again on April 7.<\/p>\n

If Tortorella wants to instill anything in this short window of regular season games, it\u2019s this fast-paced mentality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really simple part of our game,\u201d Theodore said. \u201cI think playing fast can really elevate our scoring chances. We\u2019re not in our d-zone a lot. I thought it really paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tortorella still has some kinks to iron out \u2014 like calling the next line correctly after the power play, or not having the right people to go.<\/p>\n

The first step in the eight-step process at least resulted in a win. The Knights will take them as they come right now, as will Tortorella.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll pick away at it, but I am not going to overthink this,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cI am not going to overload them and paralyze them. We\u2019ve got some quality people here. I want to come in here and try to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @DannyWebster21<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vegas Golden Knights didn\u2019t pitch a perfect game to begin the John Tortorella era. They still won.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,4,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-532942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-golden-knights","9":"tag-goldenknights","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-vegas","13":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","14":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116324338753329579","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}