LAS VEGAS – From the moment John Tortorella walked into the building, he could see the Vegas Golden Knights’ potential.It was late March, and Vegas had just relieved Bruce Cassidy of his duties, less than three years after he coached the team to a Stanley Cup championship. The Golden Knights had lost nine of their last 12 games to fall dangerously close to the playoff cut line, and they turned to Tortorella with only eight games remaining in the regular season.On his first day at the team’s practice facility, Tortorella stepped up to a podium, in front of a throng of cameras and reporters. The first words out of his mouth were, “We’re not going to make many changes.”It was a bit of a stunner. If Tortorella didn’t intend to make drastic, sweeping changes, why was he here? After talking to his new players, Tortorella had a feeling he didn’t need to make a splash. He didn’t need to scratch players to send a message, or turn the team’s strategy on its head. He left the systems that Cassidy had installed mostly untouched, and planned to turn around the team through a psychological change with small points of emphasis on the ice.He was correct. Less than two months later, that floundering Vegas squad has transformed into a wagon. The Golden Knights went 7-0-1 to end the regular season under Tortorella to finish atop the Pacific Division, then rolled through the Western Conference playoff bracket, including a sweep of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche, to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final.What changed in less than two months? Tortorella will tell you it’s much more about self-belief than it is about any coaching strategy.“You look at these athletes and they’re strong, they’re athletic, they’re at the top of their game, but they have confidence problems sometimes,” he explained midway through the first-round series against Utah. “You would never think they would, but they do. I think they regained their confidence and I think they realized how good they can be.”Before he came to Las Vegas, Tortorella’s last few stops were behind the benches of rebuilding teams. There, he was asked to be more of a teacher, to shape young players into professionals and teach them how to win. He knew that approach wouldn’t work with Vegas’ veteran-laden roster.“I think coaches over-coach,” he said. “I think we get in the way sometimes. This group here especially, after being with younger teams prior to this, I learned to have some listening skills when you’re dealing with veteran players. In the short time I’ve been with them, I watch them and listen to them. I’ve learned a ton from them.”That attitude didn’t stop with Vegas’ players. In an attempt to get a talented team back on track, and with only a short time to do it, Tortorella leaned on the assistant coaches he inherited. Those in the Golden Knights’ building say Tortorella magnified the voices and impact of his staff, each of whom knew the players more intricately than he possibly could have at that stage. His “all together” approach to coaching has been credited with bringing the best out of everyone involved.“We’re just kind of guidance counselors,” Tortorella said. “That’s the way I look at us as coaches, especially with this group. When we need to bring them back in, and put them on the tracks the right way, we’ll nudge them there, and try to get them there, but they’re the ones that play. They’re the ones that handle the situations. We got a damn good group here, doing that.”Entering a dressing room full of new faces, without much runway before the playoffs, Tortorella relied heavily on Vegas’ exceptional staff of assistant coaches to, as he said, “lead the way.”“They’ve helped me so much,” Tortorella said, “and helped the team so much, in a really kind of different transition, as it happened at the end of the year. Good group, smart people, and I am certainly leaning on them.”The defensemen are handled by John Stevens, whose impressive career resume includes head coaching stints in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. He has won three Stanley Cup championships as an assistant, two with the Kings and one with the Golden Knights, and is known for his attention to detail.“I think there are a lot of things in video that you don’t really see, and he’s really good at catching those little things and little details,” Vegas defenseman Dylan Coghlan said. “Obviously, everyone wants to improve their game, and he definitely does that.”Dominique Ducharme and Joel Ward coach the forwards. Ducharme is coming off a stint as head coach in Montreal, and he led the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021 as an interim coach. Recently retired from his playing days, Ward was promoted from the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights to the Vegas staff and immediately commanded respect from the players.“During the games there’s a lot of little stuff, whether we’re tweaking things here or there, they’re always helping us when we need it and guiding us,” forward Brett Howden said. “Then in practice, too. You see after practice, they’re always doing little drills with us. Having a relationship with them the last few years has been great, and I think we’ve just gotten better together over the years.”Sean Burke is one of the most respected goalie coaches in the league and has consistently helped his netminders find another level upon arriving in Vegas. It happened with Adin Hill in 2023, when he caught fire and backstopped a championship run. It’s happening now with Carter Hart, whose postseason run has somehow been even more stellar.So perhaps Tortorella’s greatest accomplishment was knowing what not to do. He didn’t overwhelm the Golden Knights with changes, and didn’t try to mold his new players and assistants in his own image. He simply tried to get everyone to reach their potential. As the team has progressed through the playoffs, Tortorella has only leaned further into that mindset.“I think in the regular season, sometimes you coach at them, but during the playoffs you coach with them,” he said of his players. “I think they’re joining together at the right time here, and they have a strong belief.”There has always been, to put it a certain way, a shelf life with Tortorella. He had five previous full-time NHL head coaching gigs, and none lasted longer than six full seasons. No doubt, some of his former players might scoff at any characterization of Tortorella as a hands-off, almost calming mentor-like figure. But coaches, especially successful ones, can be chameleons, adapting to whatever the situation requires, particularly in the short term.At all of his previous stops, Tortorella has been known as an ace motivational speaker with a unique ability to rally his troops. His wealth of experience gives him credibility among players, and when he joined the struggling Golden Knights, he used it to convince them that they were better than their record indicated. Then, in his words, he got out of the way.“I think it’s just the way that he communicates with us on a day-to-day basis,” center Jack Eichel said. “His message, his demeanor. It’s definitely felt like a group effort. He’s constantly coming to us for feedback. I think his message has been received really well because of that, and the way it’s been delivered. I think the guys have a lot of confidence in him, and really believe in what he’s saying.”Tortorella demanded aggression upon arrival. He coached the team to rely on instinct and asked that any mistakes be made through assertiveness rather than because of tentativeness.More than anything, the change behind the bench gave the players reason to believe the season was finally turning around. After Tortorella took over, Vegas rattled off four straight wins, though the competition wasn’t inspiring: a hapless Calgary Flames squad, an Edmonton Oilers team ravaged by injuries and two meetings with the last-place Vancouver Canucks. Without the coaching change, that stretch might have felt like just another temporary high in a season defined by wild swings. Under Tortorella, however, it felt as though the Golden Knights had finally turned the page.“This team activated themselves. Let’s get that straight,” Tortorella said. “Our job is to get rid of the obstacles in front of them, so they can play, but this team activated itself. It’s a group that just understands. They’ve won. They know what it takes.”There’s no lack of experience or championship pedigree in the Vegas dressing room. Much of the core from the 2023 championship remains, and most of the recent additions are savvy vets. The result is an ultra-talented roster playing up to its potential and finding its stride at the perfect time. The Golden Knights’ best asset is their strength up the middle of the ice and how their forwards defend. Tortorella calls Eichel “the best 200-foot player in the world,” and he’s certainly in the discussion. Mitch Marner is playing Selke-level hockey on the wing, and William Karlsson has returned from a lengthy injury to play his shutdown role. Mark Stone has always been one of the best defensive forwards, and was excellent in Vegas’ suffocating performance to close the Avalanche out in Game 4.“We checked our a– off,” Tortorella said after that game. “That’s what stands out to me, and that’s how you win in this league, is by checking. Being above the puck, winning the battles, gaps, I could go on. Checking is a heading and there’s probably 30 things you could talk about underneath that heading. It was by far our best game.”The Golden Knights play a zone defense that restricts players from chasing the puck around the outside of the zones and builds containment around the slot and net front. It does an exceptional job of limiting shots from dangerous areas, but its weakness is the passivity can lead to extended stretches of defending. Under Tortorella, Vegas has displayed more aggression at the points, with more urgency to end plays quicker.“At our blue line, whether it was good sticks or taking away time and space, I thought we did a really good job of that,” Stone said after Game 4. “When they get swinging in our end, and getting us out of position, that’s when it gets tough. I thought we did a really good job of closing and shutting down plays right away. “Of course, none of that matters if the goaltending isn’t playing its part, and Tortorella had his hand in that as well.The Golden Knights had strong underlying metrics during the regular season, but were sometimes undone by their goaltending. Hill got off to a slow start, then suffered a lower-body injury, and never looked quite himself. Cassidy obviously had loyalty to Hill for his heroics in 2023, but Tortorella came in with a different perspective. Having coached Hart for two seasons in Philadelphia, he didn’t hesitate to anoint him the starter almost immediately.It has worked out brilliantly, as Hart has been arguably Vegas’ most valuable player through three playoff rounds.Tortorella says it all the time: coaches get too much credit when they win, and too much blame when they lose. If the Golden Knights win four more games, and he hoists the Stanley Cup again, 22 years after doing it with the Tampa Bay Lightning, he’s going to get plenty of it.The credit doesn’t interest him. The Cup does.“You’re always thinking about it, right? That’s all we talk about, as players and coaches,” he said. “That’s why we stay in the business, is to get that opportunity to compete, and to go through it. The coolest part about it is the attrition of it all. Now we’ve gone through three (series). We’ve got one more. I marvel at the athletes.”Given the opportunity, he will promptly redirect the praise to his players.“Coaches, especially the assistant coaches, they do a ton of work, but I marvel at the athletes and what they go through, as far as playing each and every day,” Tortorella said. “So to be up close and personal on a bench behind them, and watch what they do, that’s why we’re in it. I don’t have the words to explain what these athletes are about. We have great athletes in this league, and to be with them going through this, I feel very fortunate.”