Tortorella vows Golden Knights will force Game 7 in Stanley Cup Final

RALEIGH, N.C. -- John Tortorella vows there will be a Game 7 in the 2026 Stanley Cup Final.

“We’ll be back here,” the Vegas Golden Knights coach boldly predicted after his team suffered a 4-2 defeat against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 at Lenovo Center on Thursday.

Tortorella then doubled down on his statement.

“I’m going to leave my clothes here, that’s for sure. In the hotel,” he said.

That’s fine for Tortorella to talk the talk.

But with his team now down 3-2 and facing elimination in the best-of-7 series, the only way for his prediction to come true is if his team walks the walk and wins Game 6 at Las Vegas on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Unless the Golden Knights are able to do that, all the bravado in the world won’t keep the Hurricanes from parading around T-Mobile Arena with the Stanley Cup over their heads.

It’s fitting that Tortorella’s statement came after a game that Hall of Famer Mark Messier broadcast as part of ABC’s/ESPN’s coverage of the Final. Messier was in the building for the Golden Knights loss and saw firsthand the warts in Vegas’s game.

It was Messier, of course, who made arguably the boldest prediction in NHL history, that coming prior to Game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Final between his New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils. The Rangers trailed 3-2 in the best-of-7 series and needed to win back-to-back games to stave off elimination, much in the same way the Golden Knights must do now.

“I know we're going to go in and win Game 6 and bring it back here for Game 7," Messier said on May 24, 1994 according to the New York Daily News. "We have enough talent and experience to turn the tide. That's exactly what we're going to do in Game 6.”

Messier then went out and practiced what he preached, scoring a hat trick in New York’s 4-2 win in Game 6, setting the stage for the Rangers 2-1 victory in Game 7 two days later on Stephane Matteau's double-overtime goal. They’d go on to end a 54-year Stanley Cup drought by defeating the Vancouver Canucks in a seven-game Final.

Obviously a player has much more direct effect on the outcome than a coach. Nevertheless, if the Golden Knights want to see Tortorella’s words come to fruition, there are a number of aspects they’ll have to clean up.

Let’s start with discipline.

With the score tied 1-1 midway through the second period Thursday, the Golden Knights took back-to-back minors that resulted in the go-ahead goal. Just one second after they’d managed to kill off Jeremy Lauzon’s roughing infraction, Brayden McNabb went to the penalty box for cross-checking. This time they wouldn’t come out unscathed as Andrei Svechnikov converted on the power play at 11:58 to give Carolina its first lead of the game.

Then, in the third period, while attempting to come back from a 3-1 deficit, they took two needless offensive zone penalties: a tripping minor by Jack Eichel, then a double high-sticking minor by Mark Stone. The latter resulted in Svechnikov’s second power-play goal of the game, putting Carolina up 4-1 and pretty much squashing the Golden Knights’ comeback hopes.

In Tortorella’s mind, all those penalties combined to siphon the good vibes Vegas had built in the first 25 minutes of the game when they controlled the play and were the more dangerous team.

“I thought we had a good start,” he said. “We lost momentum when we went back-to-back in penalties.”

All in all, the Golden Knights took 10 consecutive minutes in penalties in less than 20 minutes of game time, a span in which they went from being tied to trailing by three goals.

“You know, they scored (to go up 2-1) so, yea, they were able to get some momentum off it,” Eichel said. “Special teams is a big part of the game, especially this time of year. You’ve got to be on the right side of it. 

“Unfortunately we weren’t.”

To Eichel’s point, the Hurricanes finished 2-for-5 on the power play. The Golden Knights were 1-for-3.

Then there’s the combined team defense and goaltending issue, which needs to be solved. 

And fast.

Starting with goalie Carter Hart.

The 27-year-old is the first goalie in Final history to allow four goals in each of the first five games in a series. He’s now 2-3 in this matchup against the Hurricanes with an .856 save percentage and 3.70 goals-against average.

When asked if he’d consider a goaltending change and bring in Adin Hill in Game 6, Tortorella snapped at the inquiring reporter.

“That could be the stupidest question I’ve heard,” Tortorella said.

For the record, Hill went 11-4 with a 2.17 GAA and .932 save percentage during the 2023 postseason en route to helping the Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup. On the other hand, the 30-year-old has not played since a 4-3 shootout loss against the Seattle Kraken on April 9, more than two months ago.

Either way, no matter who starts for Vegas, allowing four-plus goals per game isn’t the path for a team to win a title, especially one that needs to win the next two games to do it.

One final note on Tortorella’s latest vow.

In the 2019 Eastern Conference Second Round, the same Tortorella, then the coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets, said, “We’ll be back here for Game 7” after watching his team lose 4-3 to the host Boston Bruins in Game 5, putting them in a 3-2 deficit in the best-of-7 series.

In the end, they didn’t return to Boston.

Instead, they were eliminated after a 3-0 loss in Columbus in Game 6.

Tortorella and the Golden Knights had better hope history doesn’t repeat itself.

Otherwise this series will be over. 

Just like their Stanley Cup aspirations.