DENVER — Saturday answered a lot of questions on what the Vegas Golden Knights plan to do in goal.
Carter Hart has made the case that it’s his net going forward. And it’s a strong one.
It’s hard to ignore it after Hart put together one of the best games for a Knights goaltender in recent memory. His 30 saves Saturday in the 3-2 overtime win over the Colorado Avalanche is why the Knights are back in the playoffs.
Hart has been thrown into the fire since returning to the lineup after missing three months with a lower-body injury. He’s responded with four wins in all four starts — two-thirds of the games since John Tortorella became coach.
“I’m just happy to be back with the fellas,” Hart said. “When you’re not playing, if you’re injured, you’re just trying to get back healthy and get back with the boys. It’s not fun (being hurt), but I’m just happy to be back with the group.”
What you can be sure of with Tortorella is he won’t pretend to say he understands the ins and outs of the netminder.
It starts and ends with if he played well or not, and if he made the saves to do so.
Hart has made the saves. He’s done so against the two hardest teams remaining on the schedule in the Edmonton Oilers — albeit without Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman — and the Presidents’ Trophy winners on Saturday. He has a .928 save percentage and 1.74 goals-against average since March 30.
“I feel solid,” Hart said. “I think just right now, one day at a time. We can’t get ahead of ourselves here. We got two more games to finish off here.”
Tortorella knows Hart from their time together with the Philadelphia Flyers. He’s spoken highly of him in the two weeks he’s been on the job.
He went as far as to say that before Hart had to leave the Flyers and turn himself into the police for the 2018 sexual assault scandal involving Hockey Canada, that the Flyers were on their way to making the playoffs with him as their starter.
“It was probably pretty frustrating, getting injured after coming back,” Jack Eichel said. “(He’s) playing so well for us. I know how hard he worked in his rehab to get back. So much credit to him on what he’s doing right now.”
Hart overcame two tough goals and made big saves as the game wore on. A one-timer on Valeri Nichushkin in the first period here. A shorthanded breakaway save on Brock Nelson there.
He saved the best for last in the third period, stretching his left pad on Nathan MacKinnon with 3:47 left in regulation.
“He’s been awesome,” Eichel said. “He’s made some incredible saves, some timely ones. He seems like he’s in a groove right now.”
No, Tortorella hasn’t locked in a Game 1 starter. It sounds like he still wants to give Adin Hill some runway between now and when the playoffs start next weekend.
The Knights still have home-ice advantage to play for over their final two games, starting Monday against the Winnipeg Jets.
There’s a chance Hill could get one of the games. There’s also the possibility that the Knights have to roll with the hot hand heading into the playoffs.
“They’ve both made some saves,” Tortorella said, doubling down that both Hart and Hill are still going to see time down the stretch. “Which is a good thing at this time of year. We’ll see where we go from there.”
It was one thing to see Hart get the start against the Avalanche. That alone should’ve been an indicator on who’s leading the race.
He backed up the belief from Tortorella and goaltending coach Sean Burke in a strong way.
“We’ve got such a good group here. Everybody’s been so good to me,” Hart said. “Every day is so much fun coming to the rink.”
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebter21 on X.
Up next
Who: Jets at Golden Knights
When: 7 p.m. Monday
Where: T-Mobile Arena
TV: KMCC-34
Radio: KFLG 94.7 FM/KKGK 1340 AM