Knights find their footing under Torts and win the Pacific Division

Vegas Golden Knights F Reilly Smith (19) celebrates with his teammate D Rasmus Andersson (4) after scoring a goal in the third period of an NHL game against the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. LAS VEGAS — So far, part 1 was a success for Kelly McCrimmon and the Vegas Golden Knights. McCrimmon’s decision to replace Bruce Cassidy with John Tortorella late in the season with eight games remaining was the wakeup call he hoped would happen.

The Knights not only awoke from their late-season slumber, they head to the Stanley Cup Playoffs an excited and confident team after clinching the Pacific Division title Wednesday with a 4-1 win over Seattle at T-Mobile Arena. “It’s been a kinda weird year,” said defenseman Brayden McNabb. “A lot of ups and downs.

We were on top for a while, then we were in third flirting with the wild card then we found our game any the right time and win the division. That’s what we wanted to do, and we did. ” Tortorella admits his plan wasn’t to turn everything upside down and shake it.

Rather, just tweak here and there, get the players to believe in themselves, get some freedom into the way they play and raise the compete level by playing faster and playing to their strengths. The result? A 7-0-1 run as Vegas won the division with 95 points, a number which had it been in the Eastern Conference, wouldn’t have been good enough to make the postseason.