{"id":547618,"date":"2026-04-08T15:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547618\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:51:13","slug":"vegas-golden-knights-finding-different-ways-to-win-under-john-tortorella-golden-knights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547618\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegas Golden Knights finding different ways to win under John Tortorella | Golden Knights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is this a game the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> don\u2019t win 10 days ago?<\/p>\n

The one where they dominate in nearly every analytical statistic, but find a way to score just two goals against the league\u2019s last place team?<\/p>\n

Maybe it can be chalked up to the Knights handling business the way they should\u2019ve against the Vancouver Canucks in their 2-1 win at Rogers Arena<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Or perhaps the \u201cmindset\u201d<\/a> that coach John Tortorella has drilled into everyone\u2019s heads since he took the job over a week ago is trickling into every facet of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a night where it was just a grind, we just stayed with it,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cIt certainly wasn\u2019t pretty. Find a way to lead, we found a way to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the Knights should\u2019ve ran away with this one based off a quick glance of the game\u2019s box score on Natural Stat Trick.<\/p>\n

Shot attempts: 63-42.<\/p>\n

Scoring chances: 29-14.<\/p>\n

High-danger chances: 14-4.<\/p>\n

Expected goals: 3.74 – 1.42.<\/p>\n

And yet, the final score was 2-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t give them much,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cIt\u2019s just one of those games where it can get away from you. That\u2019s what I like about our team. They stuck with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding the formula?<\/p>\n

Sometimes, that\u2019s all teams need this time of year. The Knights were in desperate need of them nine days ago.<\/p>\n

Four straight victories later, they\u2019ve gone from being four points away from the playoff cutline to now tied for first place in the Pacific Division with four games to go.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve done it with 17 goals through four games while only giving up seven.<\/p>\n

Four straight losses from the Anaheim Ducks later, and the Knights are back in the driver\u2019s seat of having home-ice advantage in the first round.<\/p>\n

None of that seemed probable on March 29. Call it the \u201cnew coach bump.\u201d Call it the \u201cwake-up call\u201d<\/a> that Jack Eichel thought it would be.<\/p>\n

The Knights have taken care of business in four games they, arguably, should\u2019ve won. Yes, even against the Edmonton Oilers, given they were without Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman.<\/p>\n

Does this team do that if Bruce Cassidy is still the coach? You can make the argument that the Knights absolutely should have.<\/p>\n

Keep going forward<\/p>\n

But Tortorella has continued to preach a north-only mentality that has showed in games like these \u2014 one where the Knights can dominate the shot chart 28-10 and make it seem like they had the puck in the offensive zone every time you looked up.<\/p>\n

Look at their two goals as the prime example of how they want to do that.<\/p>\n

Brayden McNabb\u2019s goal is a shot through traffic, but it starts with Colton Sissons winning the race to the puck on the forecheck. It cycles around to McNabb, who lets it go with Tomas Hertl providing the screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys did a great job down low,\u201d McNabb said. \u201cI just tried to get it on net. Tommy kind of did all the work in front to make him not see it, so he should get most of the credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole Smith\u2019s game-winning goal started with him forcing the turnover at the blue line and the fourth line using its forechecking ability on the counter attack.<\/p>\n

Two goals, and none from the Knights\u2019 top players. A defensive-minded defenseman and a fourth-line winger who has been with the team for about a month made the winning plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a really good sign for our team,\u201d Tortorella said.<\/p>\n

They handled business in a game they should\u2019ve won, even if the scoreboard was closer than it should\u2019ve been.<\/p>\n

Because maybe they\u2019re not winning these games two weeks ago. Maybe that mindset is trickling in at the right time.<\/p>\n

Teams have to start somewhere in order to get a message across. Maybe it\u2019s kicked in with four games left.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood teams win those games. Teams that don\u2019t get there in the end lose those games,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s a good sign for the hockey club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @DannyWebster21<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is this a game the Vegas Golden Knights don\u2019t win 10 days ago? The one where they dominate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,4,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-547618","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\/116369888738983642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547618","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=547618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}