NHL sends message loud and clear with punishment to John Tortorella, Golden Knights

“That’s on John,” said a blunt Kelly McCrimmon , the club’s successful general manager, noting Tuesday that interim coach John Tortorella violated media access guidelines on the night Vegas eliminated Anaheim and advanced to the Western Conference finals vs. Colorado. In that sense, should we expect the Golden Knights, the resident NHL franchise in the desert, to be any different? Well, yes, we should and we have, at least until events of the last few weeks, including what the league ruled a “flagrant” violation of its media regulations that led to the forfeiture of a Round 2 draft pick this year. It takes a mere 10-minute stroll down the city’s infamous Strip, or its orphaned and far less glitzy downtown district, to realize Las Vegas ain’t like the rest of the world. The bizarre is the everyday in LV, part of an earned ethos that long ago led to its “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” marketing campaign. McCrimmon poignantly added that, by virtue of his job title, he shared in the blame. “We missed a great opportunity that night to connect with our fans,” stated McCrimmon. “I’ve always felt in a playoff series that when you win a series you galvanize the bond with your fan base. We missed that opportunity by not having John available to do postgame — that’s on John for failing to do that. And that’s on me as the general manager.” The oft-churlish, stroppy, petty Tortorella did not make himself available to the media after the Round 2 series win, for which the league slapped him with a $100,000 fine. He also did not open the club’s dressing room to the media, which led to NHL headquarters taking away that valued draft pick. NHL first- and second-round picks are considered true coin of the realm in the bouncing puck industry. Poor judgement all around by the impulsive Tortorella and his boss, and it was a bold, severe, refreshingly surprising response by the league. Granted, most fans care little about media travails, because fans fill up arenas and tune in TVs first and foremost for fun and entertainment. In fact, the next time Torts yet again gets the media’s nose out of joint, a portion of the fan base undoubtedly will cheer that with a zeal equal to their team clinching the Stanley Cup with a Game 7 overtime winner. As someone who has been in the day-to-day churn of this dynamic since the typewriter-and-carbon-paper era, I get it. No one needs to hear if a reporter had a bad night at the arena, what it took to make deadline. I may not like how I’m treated, or the hardships that came with getting the job done. But if I wouldn’t want to read it, what would be the point in writing it? But the league, obviously, has to care about its image, along with 31 other rules-abiding franchises. It cares about that image mainly in a marketing sense, and most of all, and here is the key point, in how it presents itself as a viable, trustworthy TV product amid the massive revenue it generates via broadcast rights. That’s the message here, folks, in Gary Bettman & Bros. Co. Inc. delivering that Round 2 draft-pick gut punch. The Golden Knights’ communications team scrambled that night and admirably took care of some of the club’s media obligations — an exercise made all the harder when a dressing room remains locked and reporters and photographers are carping about lack of player access and unforgiving deadlines … and peeved bosses/editors. The league, when negotiating billions of dollars worth of broadcast rights, has to guarantee player/coach access to rights holders. It has to guarantee and then deliver on the promise. That’s why the NHL hammered the Golden Knights. Make no mistake, it wasn’t about taking care of or looking after the diminishing number of print/digital reporters who show up from say, the Boston Globe, New York Post, Las Vegas Review-Journal, or The Athletic. Those entities, remember, are not the league’s partners, and often not its friends. The league’s action was about the prospect of Bettman, or his top lieutenant, Bill Daly, perhaps one day having to explain to ESPN or TNT or Hockey Night in Canada why a selfish, tempestuous, egocentric coach killed their postgame programming, leading to dead air, on-site reporters sweating in front of camera lenses, and studio anchors shuffling feet and tapping ear pieces. Broadcasts take a village, and it takes but one village idiot to queer the deal, particularly in the live TV sports industry. Print/digital reporters can fall back, if necessary, on creativity, detail, analysis, critical thinking. TV reporters and analysts, both on site and in studio, typically have their raison d’etre tethered postgame to what’s being said in the room, in the hallway outside the room, or at the podium. Players and coaches as individuals are broadcast partners and performers. “We were wrong,” said McCrimmon, brother of the late defenseman Brad McCrimmon, long ago a Bruins first-round draft pick. “We assure you it won’t happen again.” McCrimmon, in the same press conference, only briefly addressed part deux of the Golden Knights straying from league norms by refusing requests by at least three clubs to talk to Bruce Cassidy about becoming their coach. McCrimmon abruptly sacked Cassidy, the former Bruins coach, with a little more than two weeks (eight games) remaining in the regular season. Cassidy, who directed Vegas to its first Cup win in his rookie season (2022-23) there, remains out of work for, though still under contract with Vegas for next season (at some $4.5 million). As the weekend approached, the following clubs were reported to have contacted Vegas about Cassidy: Edmonton, Toronto, and Los Angeles. Vancouver, which on Tuesday dismissed Adam Foote after only one season behind the bench, could become at least the fourth team (the list grows almost daily). Per McCrimmon, he has told all interested clubs, as well as Cassidy, that his “focus is on the Stanley Cup playoffs and they have respected that.” “I’ve spoken to Bruce,” added McCrimmon, “he understands this as well.” Facetiously, we noted here a week ago that it only makes sense for Vegas to block access to Cassidy if it’s reserving the right to reinstall him as bench boss. Ridiculous, right? I mean, crazy, like denying access to your dressing room after you’ve just clinched a playoff series. Now that he has subsequently lost that Round 2 draft pick, McCrimmon could try to get it back by attaching a second-rounder as the price clubs pay to negotiate a deal successfully with Cassidy to become their coach. No telling how the league would view that demand. The guess here: with the same disfavor it expressed over the flagrant violation of media access regulations. The Golden Knights, under the leadership of George McPhee and McCrimmon, have run a highly successful and hugely profitable franchise since entering the NHL as the first of the four major North American pro leagues to set up shop in Sin City. This is the club’s fifth trip to the Western Conference finals in their nine years of existence. If the VGK operated with such success at the blackjack table, they’d be tossed out on suspicion of counting cards. McCrimmon, in particular, has been among the league’s shrewdest rainmakers, with high-end acquisitions such as Jack Eichel, Alex Pietrangelo, Noah Hanifin, Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, Tomas Hertl, and Ivan Barbashev. Playing cutesy with Cassidy’s livelihood and thumbing their nose at NHL media regulations won’t unravel that. In fact, if they clinch the Cup for a second time next month, the transgressions barely shows up as a footnote to the season. But it does lead to questions as to why an otherwise model franchise suddenly has chosen to color so blatantly outside the lines. Now with the NHL Draft (June 26-27) barely a month in the offing, the Bruins won’t have long trusted hand Jamie Langenbrunner as part of the select-and-development process. In an extremely terse news release May 14, the club announced that it “agreed to allow” Langenbrunner, 50, to pursue other opportunities in the NHL. Per the release, “the organization” wished Langenbrunner and his family “all the best moving forward.” Notably, the release did not include GM Don Sweeney’s name, which ran contrary to the vast majority of similar releases related to personnel moves during his tenure. One of his first moves in 2015 was to bring Langenbrunner aboard as a development coach. He served as Sweeney’s assistant GM the last four years and held a key role in player development for much of his 10-plus years on Causeway Street. Langenbrunner’s name has surfaced in rumors as a GM candidate around the league the last couple of seasons, including this spring in New Jersey, where he won a Cup in 2003 as a 27-year-old right winger. The Devils dismissed GM Tom Fitzgerald and subsequently hired Sunny Mehta as their new man in the corner office. The Bruins will stage their traditional development camp June 29-July 2, in Brighton. Langenbrunner in recent years usually oversaw the camp and typically acted as the point person for media updates after each on-ice session. Adam McQuaid, named director of player development more than a year ago, now most likely takes on that role in full. The Bruins hold five picks, including a first-rounder, in next month’s draft. They haven’t had a truly impactful draft pick since 2017 when they filched their franchise goalie, Jeremy Swayman, with pick No. 111. In the subsequent five drafts, 2018-22, their lone pick to land regular varsity work has been defenseman Mason Lohrei (No. 58/2020). That’s five drafts, a total of 27 picks, and thus far a meaningful yield of one. The last of those drafts, 2022, still holds promise in the bodies of Matt Poitras, Dans Locmelis, and Frederic Brunet. But thus far, one looks like a very lonely number … Jakub Lauko, who had a brief run with the Bruins after being selected No. 77 in the ‘18 draft, last month won his first championship as a pro, working the wing for Dynamo Pardubice in the Czech Extraliga. Lauko signed there as a free agent last summer, joining fellow ex-Bruin forward Vladimir Sobotka (No. 106/2005). About to turn 39 years old, Sobotka also pocketed his first title in the pro ranks … Former Boston College forward Ryan Leonard (Capitals) connected for the shootout winner Wednesday, leading Team USA to a 4-3 win over Germany in the IIHF World Championship in Zurich. The Americans, who won World gold a year ago with Swayman in net, carried a 2-2-0 mark into Saturday’s matchup vs. Latvia. Next up: Hungary and Austria, which should be an easy path to the playoff round for Uncle Sam’s stick carriers. Top Bruins prospect James Hagens, playing in the Worlds for the first time, suited up for three of the first four games and did not record a point. Oilers prospect Isaac Howard, formerly of Michigan State, entered weekend play as the Yanks’ top point producer (3-1–4) … Some five weeks since the end of the regular season, Charlie Coyle (Blue Jackets) and Dylan Holloway (Blues) have been the only two free agents signed to pricey/substantial extensions by their teams. Coyle, the ex-Bruin, rang the bell with a six-year/$36 million deal to stick with the Cannon Blasters, while Holloway, originally an Oilers first-round pick, cashed in with the Blues for five years at a whopping $7.75 million annual average. Still can’t fathom what the Oilers front office was thinking in allowing Holloway to walk and then sign Trent Frederic to the ridiculous UFA deal (eight years/$3.85 million AAV) last July 1. Holloway has produced just shy of a point per game in his two years wearing the Note. Frederic’s first season with the Oilers was downright abysmal (4-3–7 in the regular season and then 0-0-0 in four playoff appearances) ... Stop the search immediately if you’re looking for a playoff matchup in which both benches are directed by coaches who were top-of-the-chart workout beasts in their playing days. That would be Rod Brind’Amour (Carolina) and Martin St. Louis (Montreal), now opposing one another in the Eastern Conference finals. Both forwards early on tapped into strength-and-conditioning drills that ultimately fueled their extraordinary on-ice success. St. Louis eight years ago was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, his candidacy framed by the fact that he was a small player (5 feet 8 inches/176 pounds) whose work ethic turned him into an elite performer (391 goals, 1,033 points, one Stanley Cup title). Meanwhile, Brind’Amour (452 goals, 1,184 points, one Cup title) did precisely the same, albeit as a bigger body (6-1/200). Now age 55 and 16 years removed from his playing days, Brind’Amour’s call to the Hall is painfully overdue … Man, it’s fun to watch Brent Burns, age 41 and still with decent wheels, tool around on that Avalanche backline. Long ago a winger, dating to his early years with the Wild, the aged Burns still has an uncanny ability — due to a combination of quick release and keen play reads — for getting shots on net from distance. Equally enjoyable to witness is that he seems to enjoy every shift like he’s some starry-eyed kid just called up from juniors. Burns ranks No. 14 all-time for regular-season games played (1,579), which also is most among active NHLers who have yet to win a Cup … The phenomenal Cale Makar, formerly of UMass, was injured and out of the Colorado lineup for Game 1 vs. Vegas. Watching the subsequent dip in the Avalanche’s play that night (a 4-2 Knights win) was reminiscent of how the Bruins of old would take a severe mojo hit whenever Bobby Orr was forced to exit the action … By the way, filling in that night for Makar: none other than Jack Ahcan, the diminutive defender out of St. Cloud State who once logged nine games for the Bruins (2020-22). He skated only 7:34 in Game 1, with Avalanche coach Jared Bednar ostensibly choosing to roll five defensemen rather than risk dropping Ahcan too often into the playoff autobahn … Nearly 11 years later, Bruins fans still lament that the front office chose Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk, and Zach Senyshyn as consecutive picks in the talent-laden ‘15 draft. Meanwhile, the Golden Knights, who didn’t make their first draft pick until 2017, stand as the clearcut winners of that ‘15 draft. Six of their roster regulars, including stars Eichel (No. 2/Buffalo), Marner (4/Toronto) and Hanifin (5/Carolina) are products of the ‘15 draft. The others: Jeremy Lauzon (52/Boston), Rasmus Andersson (53/Calgary) and Keegan Kolesar (69/Columbus). “We didn’t have a team in 2015,” McCrimmon noted in his pre-West finals presser. “And right out of the chute we have No. 2 Jack Eichel, No. 4 Mitch Marner, and No. 5 Noah Hanifin. We’ve done pretty well by that draft.” Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.