The Vegas Golden Knights’ coaching change fired up the Vancouver Canucks.

With one-time Vancouver coach John Tortorella standing behind the Knights’ bench Monday for the first time since Vegas’ surprise firing of 2023 Stanley Cup winner Bruce Cassidy, the Canucks played with more edge and urgency than they have in most games since the Olympic break.

They still lost their sixth straight, 4-2, but forced the Knights to rally from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits as the Canucks bounced back from a 7-3 loss Saturday to the Calgary Flames.

In his 1,000th National Hockey League game, Evander Kane opened scoring for Vancouver with a pretty finish from Jake DeBrusk on a two-on-one, and Brock Boeser’s deft second-period deflection again put the visitors ahead.

But Shea Theodore and Reilly Smith scored goals for Vegas 1:17 apart late in the middle frame, and the Knights clinched just their second win in eight games on Cole Smith’s empty-netter with 70 seconds remaining in the third. Coaching his sixth NHL team — and his third since Tortorella’s one-and-done season with the Canucks in 2013-14 — the 67-year-old maintained the Knights’ franchise streak of each coach winning his debut. (They’ve had four).

Especially after the opening period, the Knights elevated their abrasiveness and intensity for their new coach and outshot the Canucks 33-24. Shot attempts, however, were 67-33 and Vancouver goalie Kevin Lankinen had to be outstanding to keep his team within a goal until the 59th minute.

The second half of the Canuck road trip gets much harder, as Vancouver visits the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday and Minnesota Wild on Thursday.

Canucks coach Adam Foote to reporters in Las Vegas: “They were fighting. We knew they were going to come out hard and they were finishing their checks trying to play that hard game, and they did throughout the 60 minutes. And we matched it. We competed. We didn’t back down, that’s for sure.”

The number of times this season that Foote has mentioned the inexperience of the team’s young defencemen risks creating an impression that Zeev Buium, Tom Willander, Elias Pettersson (Junior) and, lately, Victor Mancini are the main reason the team is heading to its worst finish in franchise history. 

Problems and deficiencies on the Canucks, of........

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