Vegas head coach John Tortorella keeps his lips sealed about massive fine, loss of draft pick
Usually, if an NHL team is heading into the conference final on a cloudy note, it’s because of a player who is out of the lineup due to injury or perhaps suspension.
There’s rarely such a cloud because the team had its second-round pick just a month later, got called out on them, and the coach was fined $100,000.
But that’s what happened to the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Vegas Golden Knights declined to comment on the $100,000 fine and loss of the team’s second-round draft pick after he refused to speak to the media after clinching the team’s winning streak against the Anaheim Ducks. (Photo: David Becker/NHLI via Getty Images)
And head coach John Tortorella doesn’t want to talk about it… which is how it all started.
Tortorella usually gets in trouble for what he says, but in this case, it was for what he didn’t say, which was important to the media after Vegas’ Game 6 against the Anaheim Ducks.
This led to a penalty from the league, which stated that the club had been given numerous warnings.
Vegas responded by saying it would not comment on the matter, and on Saturday Tortorella followed suit, toeing the company line.
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This is also rare.
Tortorella talked about this while she was a mother and discussed the upcoming series with the Colorado Avalanche.
It’s still unclear why Tortorella skipped media obligations and the post-series handshake line, but Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the coach was upset that defenseman Brayden McNabb was suspended for an incident in Game 6 after keeping him out of Game 6.
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Vegas head coach John Tortorella’s refusal to speak to the media after Game 6 against the Anaheim Ducks probably cost him and the team more than they expected. (Rob Gray-Imagn Images)
Of course, we still don’t know for sure since neither the Golden Knights nor Tortorella want to talk about it.
It also seems unusual that the team doesn’t mention whether it plans to appeal the decision. The original statement Tortorella alluded to on Saturday was as “no comment” as it gets.
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It’s hard to imagine that this topic will leave everyone’s mind or disappear before the Western Conference Finals even begin.
So we’ll have to see if both the Golden Knights and Tortorella can continue to move past the issue.
