LAS VEGAS \u2014 Like or not, here he comes.<\/p>\n
Carter Hart is ready to return to the NHL after missing nearly two years following being embroiled in a legal battle in Canada where he and four other players from that country\u2019s 2018\u00a0World Junior Championships team were charged with sexual assault of an Ontario woman.<\/p>\n
The five were acquitted of the charges in July\u00a0and the NHL has permitted them to resume their careers. Of the five, only Hart has returned and he is doing so as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights, who can use the 27-year-old veteran goaltender\u2019s experience while Adin Hill remains out with a groin injury suffered in late October.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel good,\u201d Hart said after participating the entire practice Monday with the Golden Knights at City National Arena following a three-game conditioning stint in the American Hockey League with the Henderson Silver Knights. \u201cIt was nice to go down to Henderson and get some game action. I\u2019ve just been practicing for the last year and a half so it was nice to get into a real game and see different scenarios that you can\u2019t replicate in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
It appears Hart will be in net Tuesday when the Knights close out their four-game homestand at T-Mobile Arena against the Chicago Blackhawks. Coach Bruce Cassidy wouldn\u2019t commit to that on Monday, saying he\u2019ll make his decision Tuesday when the team has its morning skate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want him to be ready physically,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a while since he\u2019s played in an NHL game so we have to take that into account.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal for him in Henderson was to get some of the rust off his game and you do that by playing. The reports from Henderson were good. He didn\u2019t see a lot of shots the first game, there was a little more work for him in the next one and the other night, there were a couple of late goals scored on him. But he\u2019s trying to get back into playing in games so that was the focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following Tuesday\u2019s game, Vegas hits the road for a five-game stretch beginning Friday night in New Jersey against the Devils, Akira Schmid\u2019s old team. Schmid, who has seen the bulk of the action since Hill\u2019s injury, doesn\u2019t figure to be sitting long-term.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be able to keep Akira sharp,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cFortunately the schedule works out that there\u2019ll be opportunities for both of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
To make room for Hart on the roster, the Golden Knights as expected, assigned Carl Lindbom to Henderson after Lindbom got his first NHL win Saturday, 4-3 over San Jose.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hart, who signed a two-year, $4 million deal with Vegas in October, said he\u2019s glad to be back in the NHL though there are those who aren’t so thrilled, such as some women’s rights groups and sexual assault victims. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to be back in the mix with the boys,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel a lot better. Most of my work was done before October so to be able to have any own net and get some practice time and now to be here and get into a normal routine, it\u2019s huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, he\u2019ll be playing against better players as he returns to life in the NHL. But he\u2019ll also have a better group in front of him in Vegas than he had in Henderson.<\/p>\n
For me, preparation is everything,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve worked my ass off to get back to this point. For me, I\u2019ve done everything I can to be prepared if I get the call (Tuesday).<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a few things we\u2019ve worked on, both back home (in Edmonton) with my coaches and here (in Vegas) The foundation of my game hasn\u2019t changed but there\u2019s been a few things, some little details we\u2019ve worked on and some things that we\u2019ve tightened up. We would do this every offseason but this has been an extended off-season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hart said physically, he\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt great in those games. I thought I might be a little leg-weary but I put a lot of work in with my trainer back home and I\u2019m in great shape. I\u2019m happy with where I\u2019m at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Like or not, here he comes. Carter Hart is ready to return to the NHL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[1042,2831,762,88,149,5317,5,40,4,4972,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-333205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-adin-hill","9":"tag-akira-schmid","10":"tag-bruce-cassidy","11":"tag-carter-hart","12":"tag-golden-knights","13":"tag-goldenknights","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-tst-las-vegas","18":"tag-vegas","19":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","20":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115647637331954484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}