Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - John Tortorella SAVED The Vegas Golden Knights 👀 | BB Clips

Episode Date: May 25, 2026

Boomer, Pinder and Rhett get into a conversation about how John Tortorella completely changed the Vegas Golden Knights after taking over late in the season following the shocking firing of Bruce Cassidy. What looked like a team sleepwalking into the playoffs suddenly found a new level of structure, intensity and belief under Tortorella, and now Vegas sits just one win away from the Stanley Cup Final. The guys discuss Tortorella’s incredible 18-4-1 run behind the bench, why the move somehow worked immediately, and whether a team like the Edmonton Oilers should’ve been far more aggressive in trying to make a bold coaching change of their own.Video Link: https://youtu.be/BPwfcvqEUvM#nhl #nhlshorts #nhlplayoffs #nhlpredictions #nhlhockey #nhlpicks #stanleycup #stanleycupfinal #vegasgoldenknights CHECK OUT OUR STUFF ⬇️BARN BURNER MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/shirts/FlamesnationBARN BURNER SHORTS https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9&si=jo8iNGxT4ImhS2Y8📲 Follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnbarnburner/X (Twitter): https://x.com/barnburnerfn?lang=en🎧 Listen on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/barn-burner-boomer-pinder-with-rhett-warrener/id1648562889Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mc6Qd5U22R2zbMlQ7RxIiProducer: Jack Haverstock Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vegas had 39 wins in the regular season, 95 points. And you talked a lot about where these teams would be in the east. It would have missed last year in the West, too. Calgary had more points than missed. I think more importantly, it's what you said. Torts comes in and they're different squad. Yeah, they had 95 points playing for a guy they didn't want to play for, clearly. Well, and they went 7-0-1 or 7-1-1 down the stretch with the new guy.

Like, they were on pace for 90 or less. That's miserable. And they were uninspiring to watch. When you've watched them, you're like, Jesus, what's wrong? Emotions. This is terrible. Going through the motions. I see a lot of oiler fans say.

This is what the oilers should have done. You should have gonged gonged gnaw block while you still had time. They should have gonged. It was as obvious for Vegas as it was for the Oilers. They were a step slow. They just didn't have something. They weren't responding. Even the players had come out.

Remember Leon? Yeah, Dreighton. Before the... The last game before the Olympic break was in Calgary. And in his post-game presser, he went out of his way to say, we need to be better. The coaches need to be better. And there was some talk.

Like, they've got a two-week window here. If you are going to make a change, this is the window where you can install someone, and you've got a little practice window before you return to games, and you only had two superstars of the Olympics. I think it was just dry, siddle McDavid. Everyone else was there. Like, that was your window to do it.

DeBore was available, who was exactly the time. type of coach they're trying to hire right now veteran defensive structure uh now that we're we're obviously 2020 in this looking backwards but it sounded like it was something they thought long and hard about and then they thought well he's got an extension kick again we can't fire just signed him a couple of an extension that would be a lot of egg on our face we look fire this guy no we can't be doing that it's it in a copycat league you know we're going to see it it may not happen next year but you're going to see teams less afraid to pull the trigger on a coaching move right

like the Islanders really late but I think that was more because they didn't want to fight for DeBoer in the off season. It's another reason to do it. For a playoff bound team because that's what Vegas was we're going to the playoffs but we're just not playing we need to change this. But he should have

done it earlier. Probably like if you look at the Olympic break for Vegas that would have made sense for them too. You know what I mean? And I don't I agree with you. And it hinges on who's available. You're not just going to install any towards this kind of a special case there for sure. I would say that there's always a change of voice and someone capable of coaching a team.

Marty St. Louis did not come in to be the 10-year coach and he's going to be. It might be there forever. Yeah, I wonder about teams like Winnipeg and New Jersey. Winnipeg's got to move off too. Oh, well, we'll start the year. We're going to, you know what's going to happen.

Exactly. And that's what I would say to GMs and stuff. And these coaches might be painting themselves into a quarter. Is that what you do? You do. Yeah. Well, you hope not too.

Yeah, but they might because they're going to, they want lots of money and then they don't want to be lame to coaches, but then a lot of them are getting their asses handed to them during, and then the teams aren't going to want to pay coaches to go away for years. It's, and I think you're going to see coach GMs,

because there's no way McCrit didn't know. God, I'm going to make a change. Yeah. There's no way Bowman would, you said, I'm sure they talked about it. They made the wrong decision.

There's other teams. out there. Winnipeg's a perfect example. If you're watching that is shoveled day off, you're going we're better than this. We have a better lineup than what these guys are showing. Something's not right. And then the owner's going, well, I don't give a shit. You hired the coach. I'm not paying another guy. This is

might be the diciest spot for coaches and GMs. And we already are seeing teams more comfortable with lame duck years. Like it's not everywhere all the time. I don't understand. The pendulum has a come all the way back, but it used to be the kiss of death. We can't, oh, we can't even bring them. We can't bring them back. You're seeing it now. And then even like GMs, like Verbeek was in the last year, was you leading an extension to the new year.

I can understand a GM, not wanting to be lame duck, but if you're, because if you don't have faith in that GM, you're going to extend them, then you should be canning him before it Fs up your franchise. Right. Yeah. Don't look together. I can see that. But the coach, show me what you got. Yeah, the GM is more of a macro thing. It's going to take some time for me to put the pieces in place that I think build the team that I want to have out there. Well, and I don't want to have a guy. The coach is like, you got a game tonight. Here's the lineup.

You do what coaches do. And I don't want my GM ruining my squad by chasing it, right? Like there's lots of examples of that. One in this city, you go chasing after it. You make moves and you leave the, all of a sudden, wow, that didn't work. And I'm out of here. So good luck. Holy Christ.

And the other, it was the coach got an extension here when, in his last year, you would have seen it was not a fit between him and the players. It was clear that group of players and that coach were not going to work well together and say, shit, if we just waited three, four months, it would be clear that an extension was not the right move. And instead, you paid two head coaches for two years. There's been lots of interesting stuff, I think, at the end of this year. Torts, Edmonton, Bones in Columbus going.

Yeah, I'm not sticking around for these dusters. These guys packed it in and they don't show up, but we need them. And I won't stay. And then the next day, I like this guy. Yeah. Right. And I do too. But there's been some interesting dynamics and changes.

Even what the Islanders did with Pat Roy, they had a heck of a year. They're on the cusp of making the playoffs. It's like if not for a really high threshold to get into the playoffs. And, you know, the wheels coming off a bit the last couple months. Like, that's, that's a pretty darn good year on the island, all things considered. the rookie, just a phenomenal year on the back. And no, no, we're going to go get our coach of the next half decade.

We want to do it now. We don't want to lose him in the summer. Go be a coach. Maybe Noodles is right. I remember when we're talking about how many teams out there are only paying one coach? Like I wonder how many teams in the league have the coach behind the bench

plus someone somewhere still drawing a page. We can go through the league. We don't need to. It's probably a third. It's probably a third. The problem is that these contracts are never formalized or made public, but we kind of get hints at term. Like it was suggested that Darrell had a two-year extension here,

which means this year was the first year. They weren't paying him, despite not working for the team for three years. Yeah. So, but yeah, like Vancouver's going to be paying two next year. Vegas is going to be paying two next year. This is just the one division I'm thinking of. Edmonton's going to be paying two next year.

Like, that's one division three teams. Yeah.