The Vegas Golden Knights have lost momentum in the series following consecutive wins by the Carolina Hurricanes. The script needs to be flipped, and there is an opportunity to do so by turning to Adin Hill over Carter Hart, but John Tortorella refuses to entertain it.
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.
Bussi, of course, had relieved Frederik Andersen mid-game for the Hurricanes, and it’s been Bussi who has ruled the Carolina crease ever since. Despite going almost two months between game action, Bussi recovered from a weird Shea Theodore bank-shot for the Game 3 winner and has led Carolina to two straight wins.
Hart, on the other hand, has gotten worse as the series has progressed. He’s given up four goals in every game, which clearly is not a recipe for success, no matter how gifted Vegas’ forwards are.
Even more troubling is that Carolina’s attack is now clicking on all cylinders: Jordan Staal has memorably scored in every game of the series so far, the Taylor Hall line is still humming along, and now Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov are heating up. At 6-foot-2, Hart has decent NHL size, but the Canes have made a point of getting in front of him, and it’s working.
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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