John Tortorella’s path to the Stanley Cup Final feels like a sports movie turned reality.
The 67-year-old was working in ESPN’s broadcast booth as recently as late March, when the slumping Vegas Golden Knights fired coach Bruce Cassidy with eight games left in the regular season. It was a shocking move considering Cassidy still had Vegas in playoff position. What came later that day was even more surprising.
Vegas hired Tortorella, with general manager Kelly McCrimmon justifying the move as a shot in the arm for a team that lost its urgency
“Somewhere along the way, we lost our spirit, and we lost our energy as a team,” McCrimmon said at the time, per NHL.com. “… We waited as long as we could on this. We see lots of positive signs in spurts in our game. But we just felt that we needed to bring a different person in to lead our team.”
And lead Tortorella has. The Golden Knights powered through tough series against the Utah Mammoth and Anaheim Ducks before stunning the top-seeded Colorado Avalanche in a sweep no one saw coming. Now, they’re in their first Stanley Cup Final since winning it all in 2023.
It only adds to the legacy and mystique of the coach lovingly referred to as “Torts.” Known for his no-nonsense, fiery coaching style, Tortorella is ninth on the NHL’s all-time win list and has a chance to add a second Stanley Cup to his resume. He captured his first Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004.
What a wild ride it’s been for Vegas and its coach.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: How Golden Knights’ John Tortorella went from broadcast booth to Stanley Cup Final