{"id":700719,"date":"2026-06-13T00:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T00:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/700719\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T00:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T00:35:09","slug":"tortorella-could-replicate-feat-of-robinson-with-cup-champ-devils-in-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/700719\/","title":{"rendered":"Tortorella could replicate feat of Robinson with Cup champ Devils in 2000"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Jersey had also strengthened the roster during the season by reacquiring forward Claude Lemieux<\/a>, the 1995 Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the most valuable player in the playoffs, from the Colorado Avalanche and adding forward Alexander Mogilny<\/a>\u00a0in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks and defenseman\u00a0Vladimir\u00a0Malakhov<\/a> in a trade with the Canadiens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had all the ingredients to win,\u201d Brodeur said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Robinson made some minor tweaks to the Devils defensive-zone coverage, but his most significant changes were with his approach to the players. One was eliminating the harder standard with which Ftorek treated young players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he did it on purpose to get the rookies to work harder and so on and so forth,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cI treated everybody as equal. I don’t care if you\u2019re a first-year player or second-year player or you’ve been around for 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second change was empowering Stevens as captain after there had been some questions from outsiders about New Jersey’s locker room leadership in the seasons since winning the Cup in 1995. Emboldened by Robinson, Stevens set the tone with his physical play throughout the 2000 playoffs and won the Conn Smythe Trophy, voted as most valuable player in the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made sure that, ‘You know that Scotty is the captain and there\u2019s a reason that he\u2019s the captain,’ \u201d Robinson said. \u201cHe’s our leader, and he made guys accountable in practice, he made guys accountable in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tortorella, who coached the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup in 2004, also has talked about not changing much when he took over for Cassidy. Robinson can see Tortorella\u2019s influence, though, with how he has related to the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cBruce had a pretty solid way of playing,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cI think all that \u2018Torts\u2019 had to do was just to maybe to change probably a little bit of the atmosphere maybe in the dressing room and the way that guys felt about each other. From hearing the conversations, it’s more how he talked to the players and how he offered advice and helped them get their confidence back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change to Tortorella immediately sparked the Golden Knights, who went 7-0-1 in their final eight regular-season games under him to finish first in the Pacific Division. In contrast, the Devils continued to sputter and went 4-4-0 in their final eight regular-season games under Robinson to fall to second in the Atlantic Division behind the Philadelphia Flyers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing everyone forgets is that it\u2019s not like we just turned it on,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cWe went .500 and Larry said it right away when he took the job. He said, \u2018Hey, if you think this is just going to change, you\u2019re fooling yourselves. It\u2019s up to you guys.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then the matchup was perfect and we got on a roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Jersey swept the overmatched Florida Panthers in four games in the first round to regain its confidence before outlasting the Toronto Maple Leafs, who had finished first in the Northeast Division, in six games in the second round.<\/p>\n

Just when it appeared the Devils had figured it out, though, they lost their way again. After defeating Philadelphia 4-1 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final, some of New Jersey\u2019s bad habits returned and it lost three in a row, putting it on the brink of elimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we have success and then we think we can maybe cut a corner or do something different,\u201d Holik said. \u201cWe were a veteran team and experienced, most of us, and we started believing in ourselves instead of the team. That’s a big difference. We\u2019re only as good as that team and that\u2019s what drives you to win championships.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it all came down to (Robinson) teaching well, us believing what he’s asking us to do, and then him having confidence in us to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson, who is more laid back, and Tortorella, who is known for being fiery and emotional, are almost opposite in their personalities. In a way, Tortorella seems to have taken a page from Robinson\u2019s book with his calmer approach with Vegas.<\/p>\n

Following a 3-1 home loss in Game 4 that put the Devils in a 3-1 series hole in the conference final, Robinson stepped out of character and tapped into his fiery, emotional side in a locker room tirade.<\/p>\n

Or as Robinson put it, \u201cMy \u2018Torts\u2019 came out at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most common version of the story begins with Robinson kicking a trash can across the room. Daneyko says it was a Gatorade bottle.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Robinson\u2019s raw passion in that moment added weight to his message.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not the yelling,\u201d Brodeur said. \u201cIt\u2019s how emotional he was about it. He really just spoke from his heart to us, and it hit everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson said the gist of his speech, \u201cif you leave out the expletive words,\u201d was: \u201cYou only get so many kicks at the can and the position that we were in. Don’t say tomorrow, \u2018I woulda, shoulda, coulda.\u2019 Now is the time to look around the room and realize that, ‘Hey, we\u2019ve shown we’re a good hockey team and if we play the right way and do the right things, 3-1 is not going to defeat us. We can come back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming from Robinson, the words struck home and instilled the necessary belief that New Jersey could still win the series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had such a genuine, such a sincere quote-unquote \u2018breakdown\u2019 as a coach, we were like, \u2018Oh, (shoot), he means it. He knows it,\u2019\u201d Holik said. \u201cSo, we were just like, \u2018OK, we can’t deviate from this.\u2019 And the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Devils won the next three games, including a 2-1 victory in Philadelphia in Game 7, to become the only team in NHL history to overcome a 3-1 series deficit in a conference final. New Jersey then defeated the Dallas Stars in six games in the Stanley Cup Final to win its second championship in six seasons.<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights need to pull off their own comeback now after dropping the past two games to the Hurricanes. Tortorella appears to be sticking with his calmer demeanor with the players, opting instead to project confidence through the media by stating after Game 5, \u201cWe\u2019ll be back here,\u201d meaning for a potential Game 7 at Carolina on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think \u2018Torts\u2019 had to be a little more balanced,\u201d Daneyko said. \u201cHe had to be a little kinder, gentler and understanding, especially in today’s game with the different players\u2019 mindsets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, Larry put a little old school \u2018Torts\u2019, the \u2018past Torts,\u2019 in us, and I think \u2018Torts\u2019 has grabbed a little bit of Larry’s balanced attack.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Jersey had also strengthened the roster during the season by reacquiring forward Claude Lemieux, the 1995 Conn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-700719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}