RALEIGH, N.C. — Tearing a page out of Mark Messier’s playbook, John Tortorella made a bold proclamation after a Game 5 loss Thursday put his team on the brink of Stanley Cup elimination.
“We’ll be back here,” said the Golden Knights coach, essentially guaranteeing his team will win Game 6 Sunday in Vegas (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+ at 8 p.m. ET).
“We’re just going to do it in a different order.
“I’m gonna leave my clothes here, that’s for sure. They’ll be in the hotel.”
The bravado was admirable.
Because after watching his team cough up a pivotal 4-2 setback in Raleigh, Tortorella had little choice but to project confidence.
The problem for Vegas is that confidence alone won’t solve the issues that have transformed a series they once appeared in control of, into one that now has them staring at the possibility the Carolina Hurricanes will hoist the Cup in The Fortress.
Prior to the pivotal matchup at Lenovo Center, the Golden Knights addressed in meetings, and discussed publicly, the importance of ensuring Jordan Staal — he with the hottest hand in hockey — does not go uncontested in the slot.
Sure enough, early in a game the Golden Knights led, there was Staal in his office, kickstarting the onslaught.
The play started with Staal finishing off a check on Brayden McNabb in the corner before darting into the very area Tortorella and his players had spent two days discussing. As Nikolaj Ehlers delivered the puck toward the net, McNabb’s recovery lacked the urgency required, allowing Staal an easy redirect that tied the game.
It was exactly the scenario Vegas had vowed to prevent, given how damaging Staal’s two goals were in Vegas for Game 4.
The ’Canes’ captain has now scored in all five games of a series the Hurricanes lead 3-2, thanks to a win Thursday.
One thing Vegas didn’t discuss publicly was the equally obvious need to stay out of the penalty box.
McNabb was guilty there too, and his gaffe proved costly again.
His unnecessary crosscheck on a prone Jackson Blake highlighted a disastrous stretch midway through the second period in which William Karlsson exited with a wrist injury and Vegas took two avoidable penalties that completely shifted momentum.
The Hurricanes needed no invitation.
Andrei Svechnikov converted on the first of his two power-play goals to give Carolina a 2-1 lead.
By the end of the period it was 3-1.
“We had a really good start,” said Tortorella, trying to stay upbeat.
“We lost momentum when we went back-to-back penalties. It’s about the same time that we lost Bill. We gotta find a way.”
Finding a way becomes exponentially harder if Karlsson is indeed finished for the series.
“He’s important piece to us up the middle of the ice — penalty killer, power-play guy, he’s a winner,” he said of the centre on his most productive line this series.
“He’s not going to be with us, probably. We’ve got to find a way to fill that void, not with just one guy, but as a team.”
That void could be enormous, because Carolina’s conditioning, defensive structure, confidence and goaltending have steadily tilted the series.
Taylor Hall predicted Thursday morning that whichever team finally figured out how to consistently limit its opponent to one or two goals would seize control of the Final.
The Hurricanes have done exactly that.
This time it didn’t require a tarps-off challenge to the fan base to ignite a comeback.
Instead, a heaping helping of Golden Knights’ self-destruction set the stage.
Ever since Shea Theodore’s ill-fated giveaway led to the Game 4 winner Tortorella lamented “wasn’t earned,” the series has shifted dramatically.
Vegas has spent too much time beating itself.
Carolina has been more than happy to capitalize with a power play that was supposed to be their Achilles heel.
A Mark Stone double-minor for high-sticking Jalen Chatfield with 11 minutes remaining all but sealed it. Svechnikov’s second power-play marker was little more than a tap-in after Ehlers produced a dazzling no-look spin-o-rama pass that left the Vegas penalty killers frozen.
Carter Hart has now surrendered at least four goals in every game of the series. Asked if he considered pulling him in favour of Adin Hill, Tortorella snapped.
“That could be the stupidest question I’ve heard.”
With Freddy Andersen’s replacement, Brandon Bussi, stealing the show the last seven periods, the Hurricanes own the goaltending edge too.
Asked afterward whether there was a sense some of the damage was self-inflicted, McNabb didn’t hesitate.
“Yeah, a little bit of it for sure,” he said.
“Last couple games, a little bit of self-inflicted. We know what we’ve got to do to beat this team, and it’s a matter of going home, winning one game, that’s all it is. And hopefully we’re back here for Game 7.”
That’s the challenge now.
Tortorella has guaranteed they’ll return to Raleigh.
Messier famously backed up his prediction by lifting his team to a Game 6 win over New Jersey in the 1994 Eastern Conference Final.
Vegas now has 60 minutes to prove its coach isn’t simply leaving a suitcase behind.
“We’ve done it the hard way all year,” shrugged McNabb.
“So why not do it again?”
