LAS VEGAS (AP) – While John Tortorella has only been coaching the Vegas Golden Knights for a little over six weeks, they are his sixth different NHL team and he is coming up on his 22nd anniversary of hoisting the Stanley Cup.
Through all that, he still wonders something about playoff hockey.
“I’m not sure what’s better: experience or youth, when you have no clue what’s going on?” Tortorella said. “They don’t understand the pressures of it because they don’t know. Or the experience.”
Tortorella’s team showed the value of experience, taking a 3-2 series lead over the mostly new-to-this Anaheim Ducks by winning in overtime on Tuesday night. On the flip side, the less-seasoned Buffalo Sabres beat the Canadiens in Montreal to even up their best-of-seven series at 2-2.
Next up are two more chances to test Tortorella’s question.
Tortorella would love for experience to win out because the Golden Knights are “full of it.” And they know it.
“We’re a pretty comfortable group in there, and there’s a lot of players in there who’ve been through it and had a lot of success and won,” Vegas defenseman Rasmus Andersson said. “We’re an older team, and it’s that feeling that no moment is too big.”
Anaheim has plenty of veteran guys to rely on, including Cup winners Alex Killorn and John Carlson and players like Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba who have gone on deep runs. But the Ducks’ core is about youth, speed and not getting intimidated by the situation.
“I’m pretty excited to see what we all got,” 23-year-old center Mason McTavish said. ”It’s our first time with our backs against the wall. I’m excited for us to kind of show everybody what we got.”
Coach Joel Quenneville, who has three Cup rings from his time as head coach in Chicago, has been around long enough that Tuesday night reminded him of a similar Game 5 — 11 years ago … at Anaheim. That was when he was with the Blackhawks, who erased exactly this deficit on the way to their third championship in six years.
“(We have) a lot of younger guys that they’ve been fine the whole playoffs and nothing seems to change their demeanor or their approach,” Quenneville said. “We’ll come back home and focus on the next game and know we’re right in the thick of things.”
As for the notion that a young team needs to learn how to lose before it can win, Quenneville quipped, “I’m not ready for that.”
Vegas leads 3-2
Game 6, Thursday, 9:30 p.m. EDT (TNT, TruTV)
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