Knights rally for win after Hart KO'd by leg injury

LAS VEGAS — Somehow, despite all the injuries, all the squandered overtime and shootout points left on the table, the slumps and other unfortunate circumstances, the Golden Knights began the second half of the 2025-26 NHL season in first place.

The challenge now? Find a way to stay there until the roster can return to full strength.

There’s a good chance that doesn’t happen. But if it does come to pass, the team general manager Kelly McCrimmon put together over the summer may very well be good enough to compete for the Stanley Cup and put to rest social media squawking about Bruce Cassidy losing his job.

Thursday, they dealt with yet another injury to a goaltender as Carter Hurt injured his left leg in the first period against the Columbus Blue Jackets and had to be helped off the ice and down the tunnel to the Vegas dressing room.

The Knights would find themselves in a 2-0 hole, but would battle back with four unanswered goals and ultimately defeated Columbus 5-3 at T-Mobile Arena.

“We’re not a team that rolls over,” Cassidy said. “When you lose someone, you gotta go play. Our guys are good at that. When a guy leaves the lineup, we’ve got to be a little bit better collectively. Our guys have it built into them that you can’t sit around and worry about it. You just have to go out there and play.”

Is it a turning point? Mitch Marner, who has stepped up his game while moving from right wing to center and had two assists Thursday, said it’s a collective effort.

“We just have to stick with our details,” he said. “Our first periods the last couple of games haven’t been great but I think our second and third (periods), we’re on the gas, we’re making plays, we’ve got five guys all connected and maybe just bring it a little more in the first.”

The Olympics are just over a month away and while concerns remain over the rink in Milan, Italy that will be the main venue officially called “Hockey 1” (How’s that for creativity?), if you’re a Golden Knights fan, your concern should be your participating players surviving the tournament.

I’ll leave you with two words — “John Tavares.”

In 2014, Tavares, then the captain of the New York Islanders, suffered a knee injury at the Sochi Olympics that KO’d him for the remainder of the season. The Isles, who were battling for a playoff berth before the pause for the Olympics, never recovered and missed the postseason.

So given the injury history of Mark Stone, and Shea Theodore along with Jack Eichel and Tomas Hertl having missed time in the past, how confident are you that the eight VGK representatives (I’ll include Henderson forward Jonas Rondjberg for the purposes of this column) will get through the Olympics unscathed?

If I’m GMKM, I’m not going to church on Sundays, I’m going every day of the Olympic hockey tournament to ask for some divine intervention against the injury bug biting my players.

The Knights began the second half Thursday tied for first place with Edmonton in the Pacific Division, that despite an 18-11-12 record. If Vegas could’ve won just half of those OT/Shootout losses accumulated during the first half, they’d have a somewhat comfortable lead in the division.

Instead, they’re going to have to battle tooth-and-nail in the coming weeks to remain atop the division. And they’re likely going to have to do it without Hart, who was injured in the first period while trying to make a save and collided with Boone Jenner, landing awkwardly on his left leg while losing his stick in the process. He managed to get to his feet somewhat gingerly but still was minus his stick. Ironically, it was Jenner who scored moments later as Hart was helped off the ice to the Vegas locker room.

Cassidy didn’t have an update after the game but said the team should know something Friday, Saturday at the latest, as to the extent of Hart’s injury and his availability going forward.

Akira Schmid took over and after he gave up a goal to Kent Johnson, the Knights found themselves in an all-too-familiar position this season — chasing the game from a multiple-goal deficit.

Reilly Smith quickly got one back to cut it to 2-1. Smith would tie the game 2-2 in the second period during a delayed penalty to Columbus.

Eichel would give Vegas the lead as he snapped a shot over Jet Greaves’ glove to make it 3-2. Then Stone followed with a power-play goal, his sixth game in a row that he has scored, to make it 4-2.

Schmid, who will represent Switzerland at the Olympics next month, settled in and stopped 20 of the 22 shots he faced to get the win in relief as he improved to 12-4-5.

But with two goaltenders now hurt — though Adin Hill is skating again — the top defensive pair of Theodore and Brayden McNabb are still out — however Theodore is skating with a non-contact jersey — and the return of center William Karlsson still unknown (perhaps after the Olympics), Cassidy is going to be forced to continue to juggle things around.

He did just that against Columbus, moving Stone up to Eichel’s line, having Smith and Brandon Saad skate with Marner on the second line while dropping Pavel Dorofeyev, who was tied for the team lead in goals with 16, down to the fourth line with Colton Sissons and Braeden Bowman. He also had Dylan Coghlan in the lineup for the first time this year on the blue line with Ben Hutton.

But with Hart likely on the shelf for a lengthy period, the return of Hill becomes critical. Perhaps even more so is keeping him healthy enough to stay on the ice. And an imminent return of Theodore might help mitigate things in the defensive end. Still, missing McNabb is a concern, especially if he’s out for any significant length of time.

Yet this team is finding ways to compete. Brett Howden, who has played up and down the lineup this season, at both center and wing, said when you’re a veteran group like the Knights, you can adjust quicker and easier.

“I think we’re trending in the right direction and we’re creating our identity in playing the right way and pucks are starting to go in,” said Howden, who capped the scoring with 3:46 remaining. “We know we’re a veteran group and it goes a long way, especially when you’re going through adversity, which we’ve been going through a little bit. We lean on each other to pull ourselves out of those situations we count on each other.”