Hopefully everyone has had the chance to breathe after the last 48 hours.<\/p>\n
It went from wondering if the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> were going to make the playoffs, to if they were going to make the playoffs with a new coach.<\/p>\n The Knights were going to enter this final stretch of seven games remaining in a good spot to return to the playoffs whether it was John Tortorella<\/a> or Bruce Cassidy<\/a> behind the bench.<\/p>\n Five of their final seven games, starting with Thursday\u2019s tilt against the Calgary Flames, are against teams outside the playoffs cutline.<\/p>\n The kind of collapse it would take for this team to not take care of business down the stretch would be impossible to comprehend.<\/p>\n But it reached the point general manager Kelly McCrimmon needed a new voice to lead this roster he\u2019s constructed. The players, for what it\u2019s worth, felt the same way<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Knights are moving forward with what\u2019s going to be the most interesting stretch of games in recent memory.<\/p>\n It\u2019s off to a decent start after a 4-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe easiest thing in the world is to do nothing, right?\u201d McCrimmon said Monday. \u201cAnd, we wouldn\u2019t be having this press conference if that was the path that we chose.<\/p>\n \u201cI think when we\u2019ve changed coaches along the way, I\u2019m going to say each time it was likely viewed by this room as being awkward or not the right time, and I think in each case the decisions were good ones.\u201d<\/p>\n A different situation<\/p>\n The Knights don\u2019t play for another two days. Decompression is needed somewhere. That starts with Tortorella getting situated in his new lodgings at Red Rock, getting to know his coaches a little more and getting the last names of his players right.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a process, and one that doesn\u2019t have a lot of time.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a tall ask for the former Stanley Cup champion coach to get a group that has been barely above water since the Olympic break to ignite a spark.<\/p>\n Tortorella isn\u2019t walking into a rebuild like he had in Philadelphia. The three-year grind left the Flyers in better shape than where they started and they\u2019re inching toward a playoff spot this year.<\/p>\n He\u2019s inheriting a team that\u2019s well-structured, to where he texted his predecessor Sunday on his way to Las Vegas to thank him for how he left everything.<\/p>\n Whether that results in 16 wins throughout the spring and another 35-pound silver trophy to the collection remains to be seen.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very fortunate to get the opportunity to work with this management, this group of players because the organization is so well-respected, I don\u2019t want to let them down,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cI am going to prepare myself each and every day to be the best I can be, the best version of me to help the team.\u201d<\/p>\n Questions, again, in net<\/p>\n Tortorella has some things to iron out between now and the regular season.<\/p>\n Chief among them is the goaltending, and how he\u2019ll handle three goaltenders on the active roster in the near future.<\/p>\n Carter Hart, out since January with a lower-body injury, has returned to practice and is nearing a return. McCrimmon said he anticipates Hart playing in the regular season.<\/p>\n But they\u2019re still trying to get Adin Hill his reps as the No. 1 netminder until otherwise noted, along with Akira Schmid as the backup.<\/p>\n \u201cThree goalies, it\u2019s a tricky thing to do, especially at the end of the year when you are really trying to figure out hoping you get in and getting your team ready to play in the playoffs,\u201d Tortorella said.<\/p>\n Tortorella coached Hart in Philadelphia for parts of two seasons. In the two times mentioning him, he seemed excited to be working with the 27-year-old goaltender again.<\/p>\n Cassidy seemed hell-bent on Hill getting the lion\u2019s share of the reps between now and the playoffs. Now, it\u2019s not certain.<\/p>\n The last couple of days have been a whirlwind with the Knights being at the epicenter of the hockey world yet again.<\/p>\n And here we thought it was going to be a calm coast to the April 15 season finale. Silly us.<\/p>\n Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @DannyWebster21<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n Up next<\/p>\n Who: Flames at Golden Knights<\/p>\n When: 7 p.m. Thursday<\/p>\n Where: T-Mobile Arena<\/p>\n TV: KMCC-34<\/p>\n Radio: KFLG 94.7 FM\/KKGK 1340 AM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hopefully everyone has had the chance to breathe after the last 48 hours. 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