John Tortorella era officially kicks off against Canucks

It is now unfamiliar territory for both the Vegas Golden Knights and John Tortorella, but their first test is against a team they are both familiar with.

On Monday, the Golden Knights are hoping that the coaching change provides a much-needed spark when they face the Vancouver Canucks.

Venue: T-Mobile Arena, Paradise, NV

Date: Monday, March 30

Time: 7:00 pm PST

How To Watch: SCRIPPS, ESPN+

Radio: 1340 AM, 94.7 FM

The Golden Knights sent shockwaves through the NHL world when they made the decision to move on from Bruce Cassidy on Sunday, then immediately hiring Tortorella. While the news received a polarizing reaction, the Golden Knights viewed it as their best option to get the team back to their expectations.

“We waited as long as we could on this. We see lots of positive signs in spurts in our game, but we just felt we needed to bring a different person in to lead our team,” said Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon in a press conference prior to morning skate.

“In John Tortorella, when we’re at our best, we play hard, we play fast, we get on teams early. I think that lines up with John’s philosophy as a coach. Defensively, we’re very much aligned with how his teams play.”

Here is what Tortorella and the Golden Knights are hoping to see in order to get a crucial two points.

On the fly

It is certainly going to be an interesting experience for Tortorella, who is being thrown right into the fire early on.

While Tortorella is the new face behind the bench, the rest of the coaching staff remains the same. That should give the veteran head coach some much-needed familiarity with the team, who Tortorella admitted during his press conference that he did not have time for one-on-one conversations with all of the players just yet. Assistant coach John Stevens was leading the Golden Knights during morning skate, and it is likely Tortorella will lean on his assistants at the beginning to get a baseline of his new team.

“Tactically, we’ve already gone over just a couple things. We’re not going to change much, but just a couple things that I wanted to see if they feel good doing that,” said Tortorella during his press conference.

“I really leaned on the coaching staff. They basically have put the lineup in for tonight’s game for me based on how the team’s been playing the past few games.”

Bring the feeling back

One of the major points of emphasis surrounding the sudden coaching change was how the Golden Knights had lost their spark.

The challenging stretch since the Olympics apparently lead to a sense that the locker room lost its energy. The idea is now that Tortorella can help renew the Golden Knights as they continue to push for the playoffs, and both general manager Kelly McCrimmon and the team seemed to echo that sentiment.

“I think the locker room had gone a little stale,” said Golden Knights forward and captain Mark Stone during his media availability after morning skate.

“We didn't play with the same emotion we normally do. You saw when we played Edmonton, our rival team, there's energy, the game's rough but we haven't been bringing ourselves into the fight. That has to be the mindset going forward is to start the game with that kind of emotion."

Play hard

While Tortorella is the new man in Vegas, there is more than a large enough sample size to identify his coaching style.

Tortorella has garnered a reputation over his nearly two and a half decades as a NHL head coach for playing hard and getting results. While this does mean sometimes being brutally honest with players, that aspect is not entirely different from Cassidy. With that in mind, the players still know what to expect, and having familiarity with members of the roster already such as Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin and Carter Hart will help.

“I just want to see a hardness,” said Tortorella about the mindset he wanted the Golden Knights to adopt.

“When you talk about hardness, that’s not body checking. That’s not fighting…and it comes through mindset. That’s what I want to coach, because they’ve been a pretty successful team for years. I know it’s been a struggle this year, but we still have a lot of faith we can find our way.”