Hart Dismisses 'No Means No' Chants as 'Just Noise' Before Game 6
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- Carter Hart addressed the "no means no!" chants from Hurricanes fans for the first time on Saturday, calling them "just noise" and adding that both arenas have been "really loud and just a lot of fun to play in."
- Hart was one of five players on Canada's 2018 under-20 world junior team accused of sexual assault; he was formally charged on Jan. 30, 2024, and acquitted last summer after a judge ruled prosecutors did not meet the onus to convict.
- The NHL reinstated Hart and the other four players on Oct. 15, 2025, making them eligible to play beginning Dec. 1; Hart subsequently signed a two-year, $4 million contract with the Golden Knights.
- Hart has started all 21 games in the Golden Knights' playoff run but has struggled against Carolina, posting an .856 save percentage and 3.70 goals-against average while becoming just the third goalie in NHL history to allow four-plus goals in each of the first five games of a Stanley Cup Final.
- Coach John Tortorella offered an "emphatic endorsement" of Hart as his Game 6 starter, snapping at a reporter who asked about benching him in favor of 2023 Cup-winning backup Adin Hill after a 4-2 loss in Game 5.
- Defenseman Rasmus Andersson backed Hart, saying the team has "all the belief in the world" in him and that the locker room is tuning out external noise ahead of Sunday's elimination game.
Why it matters: Hart's public dismissal of the chants comes with his team facing elimination and his individual performance in the series historically poor — a .856 save percentage and 3.70 GAA mark him as one of the worst-performing goalies to ever start five games of a Stanley Cup Final. Carolina needs just one more win to claim the franchise's first Cup, meaning Sunday's game could simultaneously be Hart's last start of the season and the final flashpoint in a controversy that has followed him since his 2018 acquittal.