Mark Stone<\/a> at times.<\/p>\n\u201cMitchy\u2019s too good a player to be locked into one line,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack will be moved around, too.\u00a0I don\u2019t go into any game thinking about what I\u2019m going to do with my lines. I let the game dictate it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is exactly what Kelly McCrimmon was talking about when he discussed hiring the two-time Jack Adams winner to give his sagging team a spark.<\/p>\n
The GM watched Wednesday\u2019s 50\u2011minute practice alone from a perch in the corner of the rink, watching the 67-year-old in his shiny new Golden Knights tracksuit put the lads through a spirited practice.<\/p>\n
He gave the players Tuesday off, sending them up to the gym while he learned as much as he could about his team and surroundings.<\/p>\n
He said he feels more organized now than when he arrived Sunday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such a crazy couple days before that Monday game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I feel better about knowing more people, understanding the lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n
His practice focused largely on tempo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always thinking pace,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing we want is a pressure game. Pressure up the ice, pressure in the offensive zone, taking time and space away in all three zones. We\u2019re not reinventing the wheel here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between drills, he huddled the lads together, punctuating the skate with an on-ice meeting with leadership he refused to delve into.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team is a pretty good team \u2014 good leadership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep asking them what they think. They\u2019re part of the conversation. They\u2019ve been very receptive.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the new Tortorella, and it seems genuine.<\/p>\n
He says he wants to do less micromanaging than he did earlier in his career and focus on learning how best to manage the different personalities in the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to be that guy who wanted to control the whole game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a game of mistakes. Now, you pick and choose (when to address a miscue). Sometimes you just have to turn away. The most difficult part is understanding personalities. You can\u2019t coach every player the same way. You might help one guy and hurt another. You\u2019ve got to build a relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing that\u00a0is\u00a0new: he\u2019ll be wearing a suit again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even know how in Philly it all worked doing it,\u201d he said, shaking his head at the memory of those three-quarter zip-ups.<\/p>\n
He was fired there with nine games left last season. Now he\u2019s hired here with eight left.<\/p>\n
Vegas spent 96 days atop the division before a post-Olympic nosedive that saw them go 5-10-2 after the break.<\/p>\n
Eight skaters from Vegas went to the Games. The team hasn\u2019t looked the same since.<\/p>\n
That shouldn\u2019t concern the team, he said.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s worried about pace, pressure and energy.<\/p>\n
The stuff McCrimmon says went missing.<\/p>\n
And if Wednesday was any indication, Tortorella\u2019s already starting to find his way, with an eye on lighting matches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 A mere 72 hours into his tenure as the Golden Knights\u2019 fixer, John Tortorella isn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536029,"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-536028","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\/116333450339600077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536028","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=536028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}