
Knaak's late strike edges Man City closer to WSL title
Knaak's late goal secures victory for Man City, edging them closer to the WSL title.
John Tortorella is expected to continue coaching the Vegas Golden Knights next season, regardless of their playoff outcome. Known for enhancing established teams, Tortorella's coaching style focuses on demanding structure and accountability.
Mentioned in this story

A coach built for the moment: John Tortorella and the Golden Knightsâ playoff rise originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
No matter how the Vegas Golden Knights fare in these Stanley Cup Playoffs, John Tortorella is likely to be back behind the bench next seasonâand, truthfully, that arrangement probably works for everyone involved.
Itâs not difficult to understand why. Tortorella has never really been a ârebuildâ coach. Thatâs not his world, and itâs never really been his approach. His strength has always come from taking a team that already has a foundation and squeezing more out of itâtightening the edges, raising the standard, and making everything just a little more uncomfortable in the best possible way. The Philadelphia Flyers experienced that firsthand, for better and for worse.
None of that is meant as criticism. Tortorella remains one of the most recognizable and forceful coaching voices in the sport. But coaching, at its core, is never one-size-fits-all. Some coaches are buildersâpatient, developmental, willing to endure the slow burn of shaping a roster from scratch. Others are acceleratorsâfigures who walk into an established room and immediately raise the temperature, demanding structure, urgency, and accountability from day one.
Tortorella has always lived in the second category.
John Tortorella is known for being an 'accelerator' coach, focusing on demanding structure, urgency, and accountability from established teams.
Tortorella has helped raise the team's performance standards, squeezing more out of the existing roster and enhancing their competitive edge.
Yes, John Tortorella is likely to be back coaching the Golden Knights next season, regardless of their playoff results.
Tortorella has previously coached the Philadelphia Flyers and has a reputation for working with teams that already have a solid foundation.

Knaak's late goal secures victory for Man City, edging them closer to the WSL title.
F1 Miami Grand Prix rescheduled to 1 p.m. due to rain forecast.
Sheffield United ends season with a comeback win over Derby County!

Racing se impone 4-2 a Huesca; Villalibre brilla en el partido

ÂĄLos 'Spanish Beatles' tambiĂ©n estarĂĄn en el Mundial de PekĂn tras clasificar!
Harmanpreet Kaur calls playing a Test at Lord's a dream for cricketers.
See every story in Sports â including breaking news and analysis.
That distinction always brings me back to something more personal. My father was a Marine Corps officerâtwenty-five years of service, deeply disciplined, and the kind of man who could dissect almost anything technical with precision, especially when it came to firearms and mechanics. He started trying to coach me the moment I turned five. And to be fair, âdevelopmental pacingâ was not always his strong suit.
There were moments when people would step in and gently say, âHey⊠your son is five⊠maybe take it down just a notch?â
Looking back, it wasnât that anything was wrongâit was simply intensity meeting the wrong context. The same message, delivered with the same urgency, doesnât always land the same way depending on whoâs receiving it. Thatâs really the underlying thread here: coaching, leadership, even parenting at times, is as much about reading the room as it is about knowing the message.
Tortorella understands that better than most in the NHL. Heâs not trying to manufacture identity from nothing. Heâs trying to refine what already existsâsharpening habits, tightening structure, and pulling teams closer to a standard they may already know but donât always consistently reach.
In many ways, thatâs exactly why he fits this moment in Vegas.
The Golden Knights made a bold and widely debated decision late in the season, moving on from Bruce Cassidy with just eight games remaining. Cassidy, after all, had already delivered a Stanley Cup in 2023. But internally, something had clearly stalled. The urgency wasnât as sharp, the edge wasnât as consistent, and the team looked like it was running on familiar patterns rather than fresh conviction.
Since then, Kelly McCrimmonâs decision has started to feel less like a gamble and more like timingâimperfect, but intentional. Under Tortorella, Vegas closed the regular season with a 7â0â1 surge, snapping back into rhythm almost immediately and carrying that momentum straight into the post-season. That momentum hasnât faded. The Golden Knights have already advanced to the second round after eliminating the Utah Mammoth in six games, punctuated by a composed 5â1 finish in Game 6.
What once looked like a team searching for answers now feels like one that has rediscovered its voice.
A big part of that shift has been the way the core has started to function more like a single unit rather than a collection of talent.
Jack Eichel finished the regular season with 27 goals and 63 assists for 90 points, while Mitch Marner added 24 goals and 56 assists for 80 points in his first season in Vegas following a sign-and-trade from Toronto. On paper, the production was strong. But at different points in the year, it didnât always feel fully connectedâlike the gears were turning, but not quite locked in.
That changed quickly once Tortorella arrived.
Over the final eight regular-season games, Eichel produced 12 points (two goals and 10 assists), while Marner added nine points (four goals and five assists). The numbers matter, but what stood out more was how they arrivedâquicker decisions, cleaner transitions, less hesitation. The game looked simpler, but faster.
Thatâs the version of Vegas that has carried into the playoffs: not rebuilt, not reimaginedâjust sharpened.
It hasnât been limited to the skaters, either. Earlier in the season, goaltending was a legitimate question mark. Carter Hart, Akira Schmid, and Adin Hill all had stretches where consistency evaporated at the worst possible times, and it showed in the results.
Since Hart returned from a lower-body injury, however, the picture has started to stabilize in a way Vegas desperately needed.
Tortorella has seen Hart navigate pressure beforeânot just behind the bench in Vegas, but also in his broader career around the game, including his time as a commentator on ESPN. So when the Golden Knights found themselves trailing 2â1 in the series against the Mammoth, Tortorella was asked whether there was any consideration of pulling him.
âIf thereâs one player I have an advantage with here â Iâm still trying to figure out the guys â but if thereâs one player I do know very well, itâs him,â Tortorella said of Hart.
After watching his starter allow the first four goals of a 4â2 Game 3 loss in Salt Lake City, Tortorella said he never once considered making a change to Adin Hill, the same goaltender who helped Vegas win the Stanley Cup in 2023.
âI know Carter well enough; he wants to work through it,â Tortorella said. âI have faith in him. There was no thought of taking him out.â
That trust didnât announce itself loudly. It didnât need to. It simply settled into the room. And from there, the response came quickly: three straight wins, a series clinched, and a team that looked far more composed than it did just days earlier.
One of the first questions Tortorella faced upon taking over was what he planned to change. His answer, in essence, was nothing drastic. Let them play. Let them compete. Tighten the details, but donât reinvent the group.
That restraint matters. Because this isnât a roster in need of reinventionâitâs a roster in need of alignment.
The Golden Knights donât require a new identity. They require consistency within the one they already have. That is precisely the kind of environment where Tortorella has historically thrived.
Vegas already has elite scoring, capable goaltending, and a blend of physicality and skill that plays well in post-season hockey. Itâs not a team searching for itselfâitâs a team trying to stay locked in as the stakes rise.
This is also the kind of roster that aligns naturally with Tortorellaâs track record. His 2004 Stanley Cup run with the Tampa Bay Lightning came with a similar blendâhigh-end scoring, dependable goaltending, and a supporting cast willing to embrace structure and physicality when it mattered most.
The Golden Knights werenât widely projected to reach this point, especially given how their regular season closed. But now, like so many playoff teams before them, theyâve quietly shifted from uncertainty to something more dangerous: belief paired with execution.
Thereâs a long way to go, and nothing about the post-season is linear. But Vegas has already crossed the threshold from surviving to contending.
If this run continues, it wonât just be a story about timing or talent. It will be about fitâabout a coach who thrives when the foundation is already there, and a team that finally feels like itâs playing with clarity instead of hesitation.
Whatever happens next, one thing already feels clear: John Tortorella hasnât just landed in Vegas for a moment. Heâs landed in the kind of situation heâs spent his entire career preparing for.