Golden Knights – Vegas built a reputation for dramatic third-period comebacks in the regular season, then lurched after the Olympics—firing Bruce Cassidy and installing John Tortorella. Tortorella steadied the team late, but the Cup Final loss still stings, players say, after
For a team that could explode in the third period, the Golden Knights’ season ended in a familiar, brutal way: after the bounce, there was the fall.
During the regular season, Vegas outscored its opponents 108-61 in the final 20 minutes of games. It was a stat fans leaned on. But it was only one piece of a year that refused to settle. The Golden Knights hovered around .500 for most of their early stretch—posting a record of 25-13-12 through their first 50 games—before dropping their next five games.
They regrouped by winning their final two games before the Olympic Break, and defenseman Noah Hanifin tried to capture what it felt like to live with constant pivots.
“Each year is unique in its own way. This year, I think just the ups and downs we dealt with as a group,” Hanifin said. “When you go on runs like this, you learn a lot about your group and yourself.”
After the break, the pattern turned into something darker. Vegas went 5-10-2 immediately after the Olympics. That included a 1-4-2 run from March 17-29 that ultimately pushed the organization to change course.
The Golden Knights fired coach Bruce Cassidy and brought in John Tortorella for the final eight games of the season.
Tortorella didn’t just stop the bleeding—he shifted the numbers. Under him, the Golden Knights averaged 4.13 goals per game and allowed 1.88. It was a full goal better than the first 74 games of the season, when Vegas averaged 3.12 goals per game and allowed 3.07.
The turnaround turned into momentum fast. Vegas won seven of its final eight games, climbing from a position where they were potentially headed to miss the postseason to winning the Pacific Division.
But momentum didn’t carry them all the way. When the Cup Final ended in defeat, the reaction came through the same language this season used over and over—pride wrapped around pain.
“Coach came in and did a great job, hell of a job,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “We battled our (butts) off this whole playoff, and we came up short, and it’s going to sting. It’s going to haunt us. but we’re proud of how we got here and how we played. and unfortunately. it just wasn’t good enough.”.
The story of this season was never just about whether the Golden Knights could come back. It was about how quickly everything could swing—how a group could hover around .500. collapse after the Olympics. then find something again under Tortorella. Then. after all of it. the final result still landed the same way for Vegas: one more step than they wanted. and still not the trophy they built toward.
In a season defined by runs and reversals, the sting wasn’t only the loss. It was that the team’s best version showed up in bursts—often when it mattered most—but it wasn’t enough to finish the ride the right way.
Golden Knights Vegas Golden Knights Stanley Cup Final Bruce Cassidy John Tortorella Noah Hanifin Brayden McNabb Olympic Break Pacific Division