John Tortorella was behind the bench for his first game as Vegas Golden Knights head coach on Monday night.
Hired to replace the fired Bruce Cassidy for the final eight games of the regular season and a potential playoff run, Tortorella made his Golden Knights coaching debut in a 4-2 comeback victory over the Vancouver Canucks.
While the Golden Knights outshot (34-24) and out-attempted (62-27 at 5v5) Vancouver by a wide margin, Tortorella admitted that his coaching performance was far from flawless while speaking to reporters postgame, revealing he didn’t completely know who former Washington Capitals forward Nic Dowd was.
“There was some rust,” Tortorella said. “I think for half the game and the boys let me do it, I was calling Dowd by a different name, and I didn’t even realize I was doing it. I’m sure you’ll hear about that eventually from these guys.”
Dowd’s comrades on the checking line, Cole Smith and Keegan Kolesar, confirmed the story to The Hockey News’ Hannah Kirkell on Wednesday after the team’s practice. Apparently, Tortorella confused Dowd’s nickname with that of assistant coach Joel Ward.
“It was funny,” Smith told Kirkell. “He was calling Dowder ‘Wardo’ for a bit. He must’ve had the assistant coach in his head when he was calling out lines.”
“Yeah. Yeah, he kept saying ‘Wardo’ on the bench,” Kolesar added. “I don’t know [why]. I don’t know, I think we’re all asking ourselves that. We’re all trying to figure that one out.”
The lineys admitted that the name confusion left them unsure whether they were going onto the ice at times. While Tortorella eventually caught wind of the mistake and corrected it, Dowd’s new unintentional nickname will remain with the players, at least for the time being, as a reverse chirp to Torts.
“We’ll see how long we can play it out for before it isn’t funny,” Kolesar said.
While Dowd is unfamiliar to Torts, his teammates in Vegas are still getting to know him better as well. The Golden Knights acquired the centerman ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline in early March for draft picks and depth goaltender Jesper Vikman. Dowd, who had spent the previous eight seasons in Washington, has three points (1g, 2a) in 13 games for his new team, scoring his first goal, a shorty, against the Capitals on March 28.
At his previous NHL stop, Dowd went by both “Dowder” and “Judy” — a nickname he received from Alex Ovechkin in reference to the popular TV judge. Meanwhile, Ward’s former Capitals teammates called him both “Wardo” and “The Big Cheese.”
Hopefully, Tortorella doesn’t read this story, get confused again, and start calling Dowd “Cheesey.”
