He has not for a second lost faith. Not for a second didn’t believe in their ability. Not for a second doubted them.
John Tortorella speaks of it often.
After wins. After losses. After practice.
The coach has totally bought into the team he inherited with eight games remaining in the regular season. Totally embraced the idea that whether things are running smoothly or difficult on the ice, the Vegas Golden Knights have it within them to get the job done.
And that has to be comforting for a player.
Winning is hard enough. Winning in the playoffs is tenfold. The last thing you want is skepticism sneaking into the mind of the guy in charge. But that hasn’t happened. Not in the least.
“They’ve been through so much as a team, gone through all the processes, all the things you go through in a playoff series,” Tortorella said. “They’re experienced at it.
“We coach them when we need to coach them. We’re coaches and just try to keep them on the right road. I know everybody talks about adjustments, this, that and the other, but we know how we’re going to play.”
A big one
They will do so again — or at least hope to — against Anaheim in Game 5 of a best-of-seven series at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday night.
The series is tied 2-2. You don’t get much bigger than this one.
It’s an easy locker room for Tortorella to support, filled with veteran leadership and some who have skated around a sheet of ice holding aloft the Stanley Cup. It’s a mature room. One that in the face of adversity has a sense of calmness to it.
It’s not just the team as a whole. Tortorella will publicly back individual players, including those who have been struggling to produce. He has done so often with Tomas Hertl, who in a 4-3 loss to the Ducks on Sunday night scored for the first time since March 4.
But the metrics suggest Hertl has played far better than what has shown up on a scoresheet. He has had plenty of high danger chances. The puck just hasn’t found net.
“When a goal scorer doesn’t score, he works away from the net, and Tommy certainly does that,” Tortorella said. “Hopefully, with the goal (Sunday) night, it will release him a little bit and see if he can help us offensively. But it’s not an effort thing with Tommy at all.”
He was just as supportive of Mitch Marner when questions arose about the star’s lack of playoff success when with Toronto. Just as confident in the player. Just as quick to point out how flawed he believed the narrative was.
Tortorella knows as much as anyone the coach’s role, especially with a team as seasoned as Vegas. That this, he says, is a players’ game. The coaches are there to guide them in certain areas and instill in them some level of gameplan.
And then, it’s up to them.
“We do this together,” he said. “A game is such that so many different things happen, you’re not able to coach or think about them within the game. You just have to play hockey. Big plays and big saves are made. That’s what determines whether you win or lose.”
Not complicated
The Knights’ game has grown during the course of a series but needs to continue doing so. Anaheim has had an upper hand for most of the time, save a 6-2 Vegas victory in Game 3 on the road.
But now it’s a best-of-three and the intensity only becomes more magnified. It’s one of the better things about this time of year in the NHL — witnessing how players deal with pressure as more and more of it lands on their shoulders.
“It’s not complicated,” Tortorella said. “It’s about guys stepping up at certain times. The stakes are high now when you start getting to the short strokes of a series.”
He believes they will step up. He believes in them unconditionally. He trusts them.
Not a bad thing for players.
Winning is hard enough.
Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.
