Darkness crawls across the land / The midnight hour is close at hand.
This Vegas Golden Knights team is practically unrecognizable from the one that lost to the Edmonton Oilers in five games last postseason.
It all started over the summer, when they acquired Mitch Marner in a sign-and-trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs and brought in Colton Sissons and Jeremy Lauzon. The roster turnover continued during the regular season— in October, they signed goaltender Carter Hart. In January, they swapped Zach Whitecloud for Rasmus Andersson; they brought in forwards Cole Smith and Nic Dowd at the trade deadline.
Of course, the facelift didn’t stop with roster reconstruction. The Golden Knights took the hockey world by surprise when they announced a coaching change with just eight games remaining in the regular season. Despite being less than three weeks out from the postseason, they relieved Bruce Cassidy of his duties as head coach and brought in John Tortorella to take his place.
It clearly worked. Now, just 71 days after the coaching change, the Golden Knights have a 2-1 lead over the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Final… But that’s another story.
Throughout the season, despite the roster turnover and the coaching change, the Golden Knights have been remarkably consistent in one aspect: they simply refuse to die. The score of the game doesn’t matter– they play the same way whether they’re up one or down three. And, even when they’re down three, you can’t count them out.
The Golden Knights could have starred as extras in the Thriller music video. The second you think they’re dead and buried, they stick their hands up from the earth, claw their way out of their graves, and reel you right back in.
Ever since John Tortorella took over as head coach, he’s stressed the importance of having the right mindset. But even before he took over, the Golden Knights were a team with exceptional mental toughness.
“I think [mental toughness] has been our foundation,” said Tortorella following practice on Monday. “And I know, prior to me coming here, it was going on during the regular season too. They just know how to handle themselves.”
You could see it from the first game of the regular season, a 6-5 shootout loss to the Los Angeles Kings that featured an early two-goal comeback and a late blown two-goal lead. You could see it in Game 3 against the Colorado Avalanche, when they rallied to overcome a three-goal deficit.
It’s possible that Game 3 against the Carolina Hurricanes featured the greatest test for the Golden Knights’ mental toughness yet. They entered the third period with a 4-0 lead, only to watch the Hurricanes strike three times in just 39 seconds, and again with the goalie pulled to force overtime.
“I haven’t been involved in many games, especially playoff games, where a team scores three goals within 40 seconds,” Tortorella admitted. “That can set you back a little bit. But it didn’t affect us; there was no panic. I actually thought we were playing really well up to that point, and thought we played really well after that point.”
Blowing a four-goal lead would devastate most teams. The Hurricanes had all the momentum, and they knew it. It would have been very easy for the Golden Knights to fold.
Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, the Golden Knights have never once taken the easy route.
“ Again, they get it,” continued Tortorella. “The only way I can explain it is that they get it. They’ve been there. A lot of this team has won and gone through the process of going through the playoffs, and they rely on that. I think they challenge themselves.
“And it isn’t a physical skill,” Tortrella finished. “It’s not a physical skill; it’s a mental skill. And we have that. I don’t know if we will win the series, but I know we have that in this organization.”
Grisly ghouls from every tomb / Are closing in to seal your doom.
And though you fight to stay alive / Your body starts to shiver.
For no mere mortal can resist / The evil of the thriller.