Tortorella returns to Stanley Cup Final for 1st time in 22 years as Golden Knights sweep Avalanche

LAS VEGAS — It was June 7, 2004, when John Tortorella stood at center ice of what is now Benchmark International Arena in Tampa and hoisted the Stanley Cup over his head.

Tortorella, then the coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, had just watched his team defeat the Calgary Flames 2-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. It was a feeling of euphoria that comes with playing for hockey’s holy grail, one he figured he’d soon have the chance to experience again.

He was wrong.

It wasn’t to be soon at all.

It was, in the end, a 22-year wait.

Tortorella, now the coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, had a front row seat as his current team punched its ticket to the 2026 Stanley Cup Final by completing a four-game sweep of the Colorado Avalanche with a 2-1 victory in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final in front of a boisterous capacity crowd at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.

With that, Tortorella will be back coaching in a Stanley Cup Final for the first time since that memorable night in Tampa.

To be specific, it has been 8,023 days since he last coached in a Final. Now, he’s getting that opportunity again.

Those were the emotions that he was overcome with as he stood composed behind the bench, soaking in the sight of his Golden Knights players celebrating in front of him.

“You’re always thinking about it, right?” the 67-year-old said afterward. “That’s all we talk about as players and coaches. That’s why we stay in the business, is to get that opportunity to compete and go through.”

Now he’s getting that opportunity again, more than two decades after his first one.

“I consider the first three rounds to be playoffs,” he said. “The last round, that’s when you play for the Stanley Cup. We have an opportunity to play for the Stanley Cup now.

“Proud of the guys.”​

In between the two trips to the Stanley Cup Final, Tortorella’s journey has been successful, combustible, bombastic, record-breaking, insightful, educational, snarky, all of it in one wild, never-boring ride.

He was the first American-born coach to reach 500 regular-season career wins, a number that has ballooned to 777. He’s won the Jack Adams Award twice as the NHL’s top coach: in 2003-04 with the Lightning, then in 2016-17 with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

After being fired by the Lightning after the 2007-08 season, he had stints coaching the New York Rangers (2009-13), Vancouver Canucks (2013-14), Blue Jackets (2015-21) and Philadelphia Flyers (2022-25). He led teams to eight playoff appearances in that time but never took any one of them to final.

Until now.

Under the most unlikely of circumstances.

On March 29, Tortorella was named as the replacement for the fired Bruce Cassidy, raising more than a few eyebrows around the hockey world. 

A coaching change that late in the season? How would the fiery Tortorella be received by a veteran Golden Knights team that had been frustratingly inconsistent and hadn’t played anywhere near its potential?

Two months later, we have our answer.

Because the Tortorella-led Golden Knights are now waiting to face the winner of the Eastern Conference Final between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Montreal Canadiens for the chance to win their second Stanley Cup in four seasons.

You can’t make this stuff up.

And as he sat at the podium for his postgame press conference, this one featuring a thoughtful Torts instead of the often sharp-tongued one, he thanked Golden Knights owner Bill Foley, president of hockey operations George McPhee and general manager Kelly McCrimmon for giving him this chance to win another Cup.

“After spending a couple of weeks with the team, you could tell it’s a really good group,” he said. “I’m thrilled for the opportunity to be along for the ride with them.”

One thing Tortorella quickly noted upon joining the Golden Knights: this team was different than some of the younger ones he’d coached in the past. It was a veteran group led by the likes of captain Mark Stone and fellow forward Jack Eichel, two alpha players who’d won the Cup with the Golden Knights in 2023 and understood what it would take to do it again.

This was, according to Tortorella, not a team you told what to do. It was instead one that you listened to.

So that’s what he’s done, often picking the brains of his players to get their ideas for success instead of forcefully telling them his.

“I think that’s the way he communicates with us on a day-to-day basis,” Eichel said. “It’s his message, his demeanor. It’s definitely felt like a group effort. 

“He’s constantly coming to us for feedback.”

Together, players and coach agreed: the recipe for success in Game 4, with the opportunity to eliminate the mighty Avalanche, was to check them into submission.

Which is exactly what they did.

Admittedly, Colorado’s top two stars, forward Nathan MacKinnon (lower body) and defenseman Cale Makar (upper body), were banged up. That does not take away from the fact that Vegas defensively suffocated the Avalanche to the point that they had just one shot on goal during a 25-minute stint in the game.

In the end, the Avalanche, who led the NHL in goals in the regular season with 298, scored just seven in the four games against Vegas.

As Avalanche coach Jared Bednar so aptly put it when describing the Golden Knights: “We ran into a buzz saw.”

A John Tortorella-led buzz saw.

Of course, even with all the feel-good vibes around the Vegas team right now, Tortorella couldn’t leave the press conference without reverting to one last peek at his opinionated self.

“Get off ‘Bedsie’s’ (butt),” he told reporters, fully cognizant that Bednar would be criticized after his team was swept by Vegas.

It was vintage Torts.

Now let’s see if the 2004 version of him -- at least in terms of team success -- emerges with him being back in the Stanley Cup Final.

Win or lose, it won’t be boring.

At least he won’t be, anyway.