The Vegas Golden Knights head coach, John Tortorella, gave his thoughts on Brett Howden leaving their defense shorthanded in the postgame press conference. It happened in the third period in Game 1 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, NC.

Howden had rushed to the bench to get a new stick after PK’ing without one, allowing the Canes forward, Seth Jarvis, to create a definite chance in the third period. Tortorella was asked by Daily Faceoff reporter Jonny Lazarus to break down Howden’s decision on the ice, which could have massively impacted the result.

“That’s what we tell them to do,” said the Knights HC, as per Lazarus' X update. “We got to take a chance — you stay on the ice without a stick, and they have full control. We tell them to pick a spot and run to the bench as quickly as possible. We’ll be down another guy for those few seconds, but that’s what they’re told to do — we’ll take our chances that way.”

Notably, during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, Vegas went 2-0 down after Nikolaj Ehlers scored a brace early in the first period. Shortly after, Tortorella had his players gathered on the bench during a media timeout with 7:52 left on the clock.

“We have thoughts on how to play this team, and we’re down 2-0,” Tortorella said, as per the NHL website. “I don’t think we were playing that way, so we just discussed that.”

Some of the Golden Knights players revealed in the postgame what Tortorella told them when the timeout was going on. Brett Howden mentioned that the coach tried to calm the team down and help them settle into the game.

Meanwhile, Brayden McNabb alluded to how Tortorella wanted them to stay patient and stick with their game plan.

The Vegas Golden Knights clinched Game 1 with a late winner from Tomas Hertl

Following the early setback of going 2-0 down in the first period, the Vegas Golden Knights rallied immediately after the media timeout with a goal from Shea Theodore.

At the start of the second period, Ivan Barbashev and William Karlsson scored in quick succession to put Vegas in a 3-2 lead.

After that, captain Jordan Staal brought the Carolina Hurricanes back on level terms, to end the second period 3-3. The Golden Knights retook the lead through Brett Howden in the initial stages of the third period before Shayne Gostisbehere made it 4-4 with 8:41 left on the clock.

Ultimately, Vegas took the victory with a goal from Tomas Hertl at 16:36, completing an impressive comeback after finding themselves in a tough spot.

The late winner came just 21 seconds after their goaltender, Carter Hart, made a stunning save off the Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis.

While Tortorella’s Vegas Golden Knights managed to clinch a victory in Game 1, do you think they'll be able to win the next one as well?

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Written by

Arjun Sharma

Edited by

Souvik Roy