It’s not stupid to question Carter Hart’s performance in Stanley Cup Final
Vegas Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella is no stranger to confrontations with members of the media, and he had another one of them following his team’s 4-2 loss in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Daily Faceoff digital reporter Jonny Lazarus asked Tortorella if he had put any thought into replacing starting goalie Carter Hart with backup goaltender Adin Hill to afford Hart some extra time to rest while getting Hill’s feet wet with some game action after months of sitting out.
“Christ, that could be the stupidest question I’ve ever heard,” Tortorella answered.
A badge of honor 🫡
I asked John Tortorella if he had considered going to Adin Hill in the 3rd period: “Christ, that could be the stupidest question I’ve heard.”
While Tortorella has made it clear that Hart is his choice between the pipes, and he will seemingly not be deviating from that plan unless forced to by injury, that level of commitment has quite possibly cost the Golden Knights in this series.
With his performance on Thursday, Hart is now the first goalie in NHL history to allow at least four goals in five consecutive games to start a Stanley Cup Final, and his save percentage for the series sits at an abysmal .856 while stopping 5.26 goals below expected.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk was joined by Jonny Lazarus to discuss Hart’s continued poor performance as well as Tortorella’s defense of his goalie in his postgame comments.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s talk the flip side of goaltending, Jonny. Media people don’t like to be trending on Twitter because it usually is for bad reasons. I will say, you were trending or a great reason. We’ve got your back. It’s not a dumb question at all… Jonny, it’s not stupid because Carter Hart’s allowed four or more goals in every single game of this series. The idea that they were down 4-1 and should have maybe rested their guy ahead of a must-win Game 6, and also I think an interesting part with Hart that we aren’t really talking about, is he hasn’t played hockey in two years. The idea that he could be sitting here at the end of a long run and kind of be gassed. Giving him a period I don’t think was an insane idea.
Jonny Lazarus: So that’s where my thought process was, and granted, I didn’t ask the question as clearly as I had hoped to. I did want to make it specific that I was talking about after the fourth goal when they were down 4-1. You’re down 3-1 going into the third, you’re still in the game, but that fourth goal felt like it was the goal that put the game away. To your point, Ty, yeah, Carter Hart does look pretty tired. I was having some conversations between the second and third in the press box, and that was kind of the theme of the conversation. If Carolina gets the next one, do you consider giving Carter Hart just a little bit of extra rest, like why keep him in there?
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…