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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — After the Vegas Golden Knights lost, 5-4, in a shootout to the Washington Capitals last night, LVSportsBiz.com asked Bruce Cassidy about the challenges of coaching a team that is so hot-and-cold and whether he has anything in his bag to spark a slumping team in the stretch drive of the 2025-26 season.
Cassidy responded by saying he cannot make any drastic changes at this point of the season and it would help if goalie Adin Hill could make more timely saves.
Well, it turned out that perhaps Cassidy didn’t plan on making any drastic changes, but Golden Knights General Manager Kelly McCrimmon sure did.
McCrimmon has fired Cassidy, 60, and installed veteran NHL coach John Tortorella, 67, as the Knights’ new man behind the bench. Tortorella is known for his sometimes fiery style — something that perhaps McCrimmon believes is needed to help light a fire under an underachieving hockey club so far this season.
The Golden Knights are sitting in a playoff spot in third place in their division, but the team has been mediocre since the Olympic break, including suffering back-to-back shutouts on home ice this month. The Knights won three of their last ten games under Cassidy and lost the last three in a row.
Cassidy was the franchise’s third coach following Gerard Gallant and Pete DeBoer. He followed DeBoer after Season 5 and coached Seasons 6, 7, 8 and most of 9, compiling a record of 178 wins, 99 regulation losses and 43 overtime/shootout losses and guiding the VGK to the Stanley Cup title in his first Vegas campaign.
With Cassidy’s winning record with VGK, firing Cassidy/hiring Tortorella has to be one of McCrimmon’s biggest gambles in a city built on gambling.
LVSportsBiz.com covered Tortorella in Tampa for the Tampa Tribune in 2004 when the man known as “Torts” guided the Tampa Bay Lightning to a Stanley Cup championship.
Tortorella has quite the lengthy resume.
Tortorella has coached in 1,620 NHL games, which ranks sixth all-time and first among coaches born in the United States. His 770 wins are second-most for U.S. coaches and ninth among all NHL coaches.
In all, Tortorella worked as an NHL head coach for 23 seasons, most recently with the Philadelphia Flyers (2022-25). LVSportsBiz.com photographer J. Tyge O’Donnell took this photo of Tortorella when his Flyers were playing the Golden Knights in October 2023.
Before Philly, Torts spent six seasons as the head man of the Columbus Blue Jackets (2015-21). Tortorella was also head coach of the Vancouver Canucks (2013-14), New York Rangers (1999-00, 2008-13), and the Lightning (2000-08). Tortorella last coached in the NHL playoffs with Columbus in 2020. He made the postseason 12 times out of his 23 seasons.
The expressive, candid Tortorella is also not shy about sharing his thoughts with the media — and even mixing things up with the media as well. When I was working at the Tampa Tribune in 2004 and helping with the Tampa Bay Lightning playoff coverage, I recall Tortorella was ticked off at former Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock in the conference final. He said Hitchcock “should shut his yap” after the former Flyers coach was barking at a Lightning player during a playoff game.
As for the Golden Knights, you can make an argument the nine-year-old team under owner Bill Foley has underachieved this season
After 74 games, the Golden Knights had won only 32, lost 26 in regulation and lost another 16 in either overtime or a shootout. The VGK has 80 points, seen as an underachieving point total given the talent on the roster. Vegas was in third place in its division, which is good enough to claim a playoff spot. But the VGK were only four points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings and enduring a slump since the Olympic break.
McCrimmon was quoted in a press release saying this: “Under Bruce’s leadership, we reached our ultimate goal in 2023 by bringing a Stanley Cup to Vegas. Bruce will forever be remembered with the utmost regard by our organization for what was accomplished here.
“With the stretch run of the 2025-26 regular season upon us, we believe that a change is necessary for us to return to the level of play that is expected of our club,” McCrimmon said. “With John Tortorella, we bring in a Stanley Cup Champion as well as one of the most experienced and respected coaches in the NHL. His guidance will be a great asset to our team at the pivotal point in the season we currently face.”
McCrimmon has not shied away from cutting loose Golden Knights coaches. He shocked the Las Vegas fan base when he fired the VGK’s first coach, Gallant, Jan. 15, 2020 and replaced him with DeBoer, who had been the previous coach of Vegas’ chief division rival at the time, the San Jose Sharks.
Then on May 16, 2022, McCrimmon fired DeBoer after the Knights failed to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
Tortorella’s first VGK game as head coach is Monday when the Vancouver Canucks play the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. He will be the fourth head coach in Vegas’ nine-year history.
As for Cassidy, he won in Boston and he won in Vegas and expect an NHL team to reach out to this very respected hockey coach to offer him a job after this season ends. Cassidy is signed with Vegas through 2027, the final year of a five-year cotract.
PSA