Cooper Krigbaum
Vegas Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella has picked up plenty of nicknames over the years — Torts, old-school, even “Grumpa.”
“My mom calls me John,” Tortorella said. “My wife calls me John sometimes — sometimes she uses other names. But Torts is fine.”
At 67, Tortorella has been around the NHL longer than most, building a resume that includes a Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004 and a Jack Adams Award that same year, given to the league’s top coach.
The accolades help set the stage. Tortorella is no stranger to the moment or the spotlight and while this stint in Vegas could be his last, he’s already making an impact.
With the firing of Bruce Cassidy late in the season and replacing him with Tortorella. Early returns have been strong, with Vegas opening 2-0-0 under its new coach.
The question now: Can it last? Will it last?
A look at Tortorella’s past stops shows a pattern of fast starts or slow starts. Here’s how his teams have performed early in his tenure.
What Does History Tell Us?
If there was one single take away from Tortorella’s career, it’s that there’s no singular way to winning hockey games. He has had starts of all different kinds as the table below shows:
| Team coached | Record in first 10 games |
| New York Rangers (1999-00) | 0-3-1 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning (2000-08) | 1-9-0 |
| New York Rangers (2009-13) | 6-3-1 |
| Vancouver Canucks (2013-14) | 5-4-1 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets (2015-21) | 2-8-0 |
| Philadelphia Flyers (2022-24) | 5-5-0 |
| Vegas Golden Knights* | 2-0-0 |
In his first NHL head coaching job with the Rangers in 1999-00, Tortorella stumbled out of the gate, going 0-3-1 in his first four games after taking over midseason.
That trend carried into his early days with the Lightning, where his first 10 games produced a 1-9-0 record. Despite that slow start, Tortorella eventually built Tampa Bay into a Stanley Cup champion.
Some of his other stints followed a similar pattern. His second tenure with the Rangers got off to a stronger start, while his time with the Canucks began more in line with expectations.
His time with the Blue Jackets, however, was one of the roughest starts of his career, outside of his opening stint with Tampa Bay. But the Blue Jackets reached the playoffs four times during Tortorella’s six seasons behind the bench, showing success even after early struggles.
Now with the Golden Knights, Tortorella is off to a 2-0-0 start — a small sample size that may not tell the full story.
With only eight games remaining when Tortorella was brought in, the sample size will be too small to fully evaluate his impact in the regular season.
What matters more is how the Golden Knights carry that momentum forward. If they can close the season strong, secure their footing heading into the playoffs and translate that into a deep postseason run, it would go a long way in validating the late coaching change.
Anything short of that leaves more questions than answers. In a market with high expectations and a win-now roster, Tortorella’s success won’t be defined by a handful of regular-season games, but by whether he can win beyond April. It usually isn’t that simple elsewhere, but in a results-driven environment like that of the Golden Knights, it’s the only thing that will matter when all is said and done.
Loose Pucks:
- The Golden Knights embark on a four-game road trip that will have playoff implications. They will play the Edmonton Oilers, Canucks, Seattle Kraken and the Colorado Avalanche. How they fare remains to be seen, but winning three of four would be ideal.
- Mitch Marner’s hat trick and five-point game Thursday against the Calgary Flames moved him to more than a point per game. His 76 points are the second most on the team, behind only Jack Eichel.
- Last season, the Golden Knights had five skaters with 20 or more goals. Right now, they have six. That number is likely to remain unchanged unless Reilly Smith, who has 13 goals, goes on a scoring tear to close the season.
- Not Golden Knights-related, but how about them San Jose Sharks? As of now, they sit in the second wild-card spot — a position few expected them to be in this early in April. It’s been a strong storyline, highlighted by the play of Macklin Celebrini, who has helped drive their surprising success this season.
