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Ex-Rangers coach continues ‘fun’ Vegas run with first-round win
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- Ex-Rangers coach continues ‘fun’ Vegas run with first-round win
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Under former New York Rangers coach John Tortorella, the Vegas Golden Knights advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, clinching their opening-round series in six games with a 5-1 win over the Utah Mammoth on Friday night.
Vegas' playoff journey is still young, but it already ranks among the most notable of Tortorella's 24-year NHL coaching career.
That is no small claim. Tortorella hoisted the Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004, when they outlasted the Calgary Flames in a seven-game Final, and pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Stanley Cup Playoff history 14 years later.
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In 2019, Tortorella's Columbus Blue Jackets snuck into the postseason with 98 points (47-31-4), the fewest of any team in the Eastern Conference. Their reward? A first-round matchup with a Lightning team that won the Presidents' Trophy with 128 points and tied the NHL single-season record with 62 wins (62-16-4).
Columbus became the first NHL team to sweep a Presidents' Trophy winner in the first round, aided by future Blueshirts forward Artemi Panarin , who finished with five points (two goals, three assists) in the four games, capping the sweep with an empty-net goal in the series clincher.
The Golden Knights' series win against the Mammoth won't go down as a historic upset, but it's a still a remarkable notch in Tortorella's coaching ledger.
The 67-year-old entered 2025-26 without an NHL job after being dismissed as coach of the Philadelphia Flyers in March 2025. It remained that way for most of the season, though Tortorella helped Team USA win gold at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics in February as an assistant on Mike Sullivan's staff.
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Vegas turned to him after firing a Stanley Cup-winning coach in Bruce Cassidy with just eight games left in the regular season. Tortorella assumed the reins on March 29 and guided the Golden Knights to a 7-0-1 finish, winning the Pacific Division with 95 points (39-26-17).
"The thing I love about it is just the desire to win," Tortorella said postgame after the series-clinching win. "It's very well pronounced throughout the League how Vegas goes about it. They want to win. It's fun to be around. I'm very fortunate to get the opportunity."
Getting out of the first round is an accomplishment in itself, given the circumstances, and the Golden Knights can add to the spectacular tale as they look to return to the Western Conference Final for the first time since 2023, when they went on to win it all.
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Tortorella will square off with another Rangers legend — one he coached in New York for 49 games between the regular season and playoffs — as the Golden Knights meet Chris Kreider and the Anaheim Ducks in the second round.
Former Rangers forward integral in Golden Knights' first-round win
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Tortorella got some help from ex-Rangers forward Brett Howden , who had five points in the six games against Utah and tied Pavel Dorofeyev for the team lead with four goals .
Howden scored in each of the final three games of the Golden Knights' opening-round series. Vegas won all three to erase a 2-1 deficit.
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A first-round pick (No. 27 overall) by the Lightning in 2016, Howden joined the Blueshirts as part of the return for captain Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller in a blockbuster 2018 trade. He spent three seasons in New York, putting up 49 points (16 goals, 33 assists) in 178 games before the Rangers traded him to Vegas on July 17. 2021.
He's enjoyed better days with the Golden Knights, helping Vegas lift the Cup for the first time in 2023 and posting career highs with 23 goals and 40 points in 2024-25. Howden, usually a bottom-six forward, was integral in the series win over Utah and centered for Mitch Marner and Mark Stone on Vegas' second line in Game 6.
Marner helped set up Howden's game-winning goal in Game 5, chipping the puck to the right circle where his linemate scooped it up and picked the corner for a shorthanded goal at 5:28 of the second overtime for a 5-4 win. That connection struck again in Game 6, as Howden opened the scoring at 15:02 of the first period, finishing the rebound of a Marner shot that missed wide and caromed off the boards.
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Howden is one goal shy of tying his playoff career-best. He scored five goals in 22 games in 2023, including a pair in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers .
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