The Carter Hart controversy reached hockey’s biggest stage Thursday night when fans at Lenovo Center chanted “no means no” at Carter Hart during Game 2 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final. The chants were heard about seven minutes into the first period, with the puck in Carolina’s zone, and they carried loud enough to reach the Sportsnet broadcast.
Lenovo Center Chants
It was the second straight game in which Hart was targeted. Fans also chanted “no means no” several times in Game 1 when he played the puck, turning a playoff series into a backdrop for a controversy that has followed the Vegas Golden Knights goaltender onto the sport’s biggest stage.
Hart is 27 years old and has started all 18 of Vegas’ playoff games, winning 13 of them. He entered Game 2 with a.923 save percentage and had stopped 25 of 29 shots in the Golden Knights’ 5-4 Game 1 win, keeping his team in front while the noise around him kept growing.
Hart And The 2018 Case
The chants connect directly to Hart’s past. He was one of five players on Canada’s 2018 World Juniors team acquitted by the Ontario Superior Court on July 24, 2025, in a case tied to an alleged incident in June 2018 in a London, Ontario, hotel room. The players had been charged with sexual assault, and the NHL initially ruled them ineligible in January 2024 before later suspending all five after their reinstatement, calling the conduct at issue “deeply troubling and unacceptable” and saying it fell “woefully short of the standards and values” expected by the league and its clubs.
Hart said on Monday that “I’ve learned a lot,” “I’ve grown a lot since then,” and that the Vegas Golden Knights Foundation had helped him integrate into the community and meet people in Las Vegas. He also said he was “very fortunate to be here in Las Vegas and with this group,” but Thursday’s reaction showed the scrutiny has not stayed in the past.
