Vegas had gotten ‘a little stale’ ahead of Tortorella hiring, Stone says

LAS VEGAS -- John Tortorella has seen plenty in his 25 years behind an NHL bench. Now, he's been handed eight games to help get the Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and beyond.

Tortorella was named coach of the Golden Knights on Sunday after Bruce Cassidy was fired. 

The players said it was a wake-up call on how their level of play wasn’t meeting the organization’s standard.

“It always falls on the players at the end of the day, we’re the ones that go out there and perform every night,” Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel said. “We’re all grown men and should be able to go out there and do your job now. It just seemed like our energy and some of our spirit had been lost a little bit recently.”

The Golden Knights are 1-2-2 in their past five games and 4-10-2 since the NHL returned from the 2026 Winter Olympics. Starts have been an issue, with Vegas allowing the first goal in 43 of its 74 games this season. They play their first game under Tortorella at home against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday (10 p.m. ET; SCRIPPS, SNP). 

Golden Knights captain Mark Stone said the team lacked emotion in the early part of games and that the message from Cassidy and the room had gone “a little stale.” He anticipates that Tortorella can ignite the team enough to go on a run.

“We weren’t playing with that same emotion that we normally do,” Stone said. “Early on, we’re not starting with that emotion. That’s probably the mindset going forward is to start the game cleanly with that kind of emotion.” 

But that’s not to say the decision didn’t catch him or the team off guard.

“It’s different. I’ve never been through this time of the year, but it’s a new energy,” Stone said. “It’s a new voice. ... We have a good team. We have good players. So I think he’s excited to see what he can do with us.”

Tortorella is with his sixth team in his 25-year career, which included leading the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup in 2004. He last coached with the Philadelphia Flyers, where his stint ended with nine games left last season. 

Tortorella has prior experiences with a few members of the Golden Knights. He coached goalie Carter Hart with the Flyers, who remains out recovering from a lower-body injury, as well as William Karlsson and Brandon Saad with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

He recently coached Eichel and defenseman Noah Hanifin at the Olympics as a member of Team USA’s gold-winning team.

“That was a great experience, obviously, going over there. Winning a gold medal with him was an amazing experience,” Hanifin said. “He was more soft-spoken over there, but he observes a lot. He’s obviously got a great mind for the game and tons of experience being around high-level hockey. In those big moments over in the Olympics, he would come in and kind of get our team on the right page. His voice carries a lot of weight.”

Tortorella reiterated that he doesn’t plan on changing a lot, given the condensed time frame. For Eichel, it wasn’t to be expected 74 games into the season, but added Tortorella’s voice can carry value this late.

“You’re not going to have some new identity here after one meeting,” Eichel said. “We’re going to just try to make minor adjustments or tweaks to some of the systems that we’ve been playing. Hopefully that’ll allow guys to thrive and flourish a little more. Play a little more aggressive in situations and allow our team to get that back a little bit more.” 

The Golden Knights are third in the Pacific Division, ahead of the Los Angeles Kings by four points and are ahead of the Nashville Predators by three points for the second wild card.

Tortorella put the emphasis on the game against the Canucks being the first step and they’ll worry about everything else after the fact. Stone shared similar thoughts regarding the challenge ahead.

“It’s a new day. Excited to get going. Still feel like we’re in a pretty good spot in the standings,” he said. “So, we have eight games to get dialed in and have a push for the playoffs.”