Carter Hart: The Ultimate Equalizer
It’s no secret that the Philadelphia Flyers are struggling to score goals right now.
The team ranked 14th in the NHL on the power play in the regular season but are a miserable 1 for 25 since the start of the Round Robin / Playoffs.
That’s something that will have to change if they want to have any hope of raising Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Add to that the fact that Giroux, Couturier, JVR, and Konecny have yet to score a goal after 6 total games makes it remarkable that they won the top seed in the Eastern Conference and are currently leading their series against the Montreal Canadiens 2 games to 1.
What’s even more impressive, is that in their 3 games against the Canadiens, the Flyers lead the series 2-1, while having only scored 3 goals…TOTAL!
How are they doing it? Two words: CARTER HART!
Hart has been unbelievably good so far in these playoffs. He allowed 2 goals in 2 games played in the Round Robin and in the two Flyers wins against the Canadiens in their series, Hart has allowed 1 goal COMBINED!
Carey Price has been good for the Canadiens, very good, but the just-turned 22-year-old Hart has been that much better. The Canadiens have had the better scoring chances and just a ton of odd-man rushes.
During game 3, Hart became the youngest goalie in Flyers’ history to record a shutout in a playoff game, beating the previous record held by Pete Peters.
Here is the updated list:
- Carter Hart: 22 years 3 days
- Pete Peeters: 22 years 246 days
- Ron Hextall: 22 years 343 days
- Ron Hextall: 22 years 348 days
- Brian Boucher: 23 years 105 days
Let’s take game 3 of this series against the Canadiens for example: The Canadiens come on a 2 on 1 early in the first period, but Hart stood tall making the save. That pretty much set the tone for the game, giving the Flyers all they needed. The Canadiens hit 5 goalposts in the game. I’ve seen tweets saying it’s because they don’t know how to score. Don’t be ridiculous. These are NHL players for a reason. It’s simply because that’s all Carter Hart gave them. Just like Carey Price on the other side, Hart is so positionally sound that he always seems to be at the right place at the right time.
The Canadiens have to thread the needle to get a puck past Hart, and when he is positioned so perfectly all that’s left is missing the net or hitting the post. After that, he lets his defensemen do their job of clearing rebound. When the team sees what Hart is doing in nets, the team plays it’s hearts out (no pun intended) for Carter Hart. They blocked a whopping 24 shots in that game 3, ensuring that their young superstar goaltender recorded his first career shutout.
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Hart is so mature for his age. After a game 2 in which the ENTIRE team performed really poorly, the Flyers rebounded in game 3 with a really good team effort, something that Hart generated early by making that big save.
Make no mistake, Hart was the catalyst for that team win. He basically said early on in the game: “Guys, hop on my shoulders, I’ll win you this game” and that is EXACTLY what he did. As far as I’m concerned, Hart should have gotten the 1st, 2nd, and the 3rd Stars all to himself in this series so far.
Boy, is he fun to watch.
Hart is exactly what this franchise needed, and we look forward to him winning multiple Cups as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Featured Image: Philadelphia Flyers
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