John Tortorella Might Not Entertain The Question, But Should The Golden Knights Turn To Adin Hill Over Carter Hart?
RALEIGH, N.C. – For a guy who was hired with only eight games left in the season, John Tortorella sure lacks imagination.
The Vegas Golden Knights coach shot down a perfectly reasonable question about his goalie situation in the wake of a Game 5 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, but it's far from an open-and-shut case.
Yes, Carter Hart was solid and sometimes great for Vegas in the first three rounds of the playoffs. But he has looked rattled since surrendering three goals in 39 seconds in Game 3. Luckily, Vegas won that contest in double overtime, and, ironically, it was Brandon Bussi in net for Carolina at the time.
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The sun hasn't yet set on the season for the Vegas Golden Knights, but it's getting to be very late in the afternoon.
So what do you do if you're Tortorella? You do have a Stanley Cup-winning netminder on your bench in Adin Hill. But ‘Torts' has backed himself into a corner with his antics. His outburst was obviously telegraphed: He's not going to throw his starter under the bus, especially when Hart is clearly struggling.
Tortorella protects his players and loves spitting venom at the media. No doubt he wanted the story to be about himself and not Hart, because Tortorella is perfectly comfortable taking on that load for his controversial goaltender (the chants of ‘No Means No' from Carolina fans were loudest in Game 5 after previous taunts in Games 1 and 2).
The only question now is: will it pay off? Vegas needs Hart to steal Game 6, particularly since center William Karlsson's injury sounds serious enough to rule him out of the lineup.
Carolina has ridden their backup to consecutive wins and has the Golden Knights on the ropes. Hill could easily change the momentum if he gets the opportunity, but it's looking like a pretty remote one at this point.
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This story was originally published June 13, 2026 at 6:58 AM.