Stanley Cup Final coaching matchup: Vegas' John Tortorella vs. Carolina's Rod Brind'Amour

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A big smile filled Rod Brind'Amour's face after he and the Carolina Hurricanes finally reached the Stanley Cup Final, busting through the roadblock that stopped them so many times in his first eight seasons as coach.

“Oh really? That’s surprising,” captain Jordan Staal said. “Just kidding.”

Across the country hours earlier, John Tortorella refused to answer a question about what he was like 22 years ago when he coached Tampa Bay to the Cup. The following day, he was in no mood to compare himself to Brind'Amour.

“No nostalgia, and I’m not talking about the other team,” Tortorella said.

Gruff in that setting, Tortorella is more understanding with Vegas Golden Knights players as their coach, and while he and Brind'Amour differ in age and experience levels, their similarities run far deeper. They are demanding and believe in a lot of the old-school elements of hockey that lead to success in the playoffs.

“John Tortorella, you have to block shots: If you’re not blocking the shot, you will not play,” said Mike Rupp, who played for Tortorella with the New York Rangers from 2011-13. “He doesn’t care who you are. You will not play. It’s the first thing he’ll tell you. I guarantee that the first thing Torts said is ‘You will block shots.’ I’m sure Rod would say the same thing.”

Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin has been around for Brind'Amour's entire tenure and won Olympic gold with Tortorella on the U.S. coaching staff. That experience gave him a small glimpse of why players he talks to rave about Tortorella.

“Torts was an assistant coach there, so he was fairly quiet, so I don’t know his fully coaching style,” Slavin said Sunday. “But I do know he’s passionate about the game. He loves his players.”

Two decades ago, Brind'Amour captained Carolina to the Stanley Cup. He played there four more seasons before hanging up his skates in 2010 and worked seven years as an assistant before getting promoted to head coach in 2018.

The Hurricanes have made the playoffs all eight seasons with Brind'Amour in charge and won at least a round every time. This is the furthest they've gotten since the '06 Cup run.

“Roddy’s been unbelievable,” Staal said. “Talk about a guy that will never give up and will always stay with it. It’s been such a pleasure to play in front of him.”

It is not always a pleasure to play Brind'Amour's style, which relies on being relentless, predictable and pressuring opponents. Not everyone fits the mold, which resembles the way the now 55-year-old conducted himself on the ice over 1,600 NHL games as a two-way center with faceoff prowess.

“Carolina plays to Rod Brind’Amour’s identity,” said retired goaltender Cory Schneider, who like Rupp is now at NHL Network. “He’s got their attention. It’s easy to tune a guy out. Playing that way is not fun all the time. It’s not easy. And these guys still do it for him, so I think that’s a great sign that his message isn’t growing stale and that they still buy in to what he’s preaching.”

Tortorella is 67 and running a bench for a sixth NHL team. He is only two months into coaching the Golden Knights after the abrupt firing of Bruce Cassidy in late March.

They reeled off seven of eight wins to finish the regular season, with players saying Tortorella helped get their swagger back. Tortorella is enjoying working under general manager Kelly McCrimmon and for owner Bill Foley.

“How lucky am I?” Tortorella said. “Came to know the players better now, found a way to get through the three rounds and now playing for the Stanley Cup, just, I shake myself sometime. I’ve certainly pinched myself. When I wasn’t coaching when the season started to what the second half of the year has brought, I can’t thank the people enough that has given me an opportunity.”

Ray Ferraro, now an ESPN analyst after playing more than 1,300 games from 1984-2002, likened Tortorella's evolution to parenting. Tortorella has adapted to modern players and what they need.

“I don’t know why anybody would think John would coach the same way as he did in Tampa,” Ferraro said. "The players today, the younger people want to know why. They just told us, ‘Go stand there,’ and you’d be like, ‘I don’t even really know what I’m doing here.’ But that’s what you would do because that’s what you were told. And now there’s so much more detail in the way that the game is coached, and part of that detail is the why.”

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AP Sports Writers Mark Anderson in Las Vegas and Aaron Beard in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed.

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