Photo Credit: Katelynn Reiss
Chuck Fletcher refaced the Flyers organization by adding more leadership, to create more chemistry within the team. He also refaced the organization in hopes of creating faster starts, and making timely saves:
“We just can’t keep bringing the same players back, and expect different results. We had to make changes this year. The players we added I would call high energy, competitive people. How often have we talked about our slow starts over the past two or three years? We need some juice, we need some energy. We need to change the mood in the room. It’s nothing against the players we had here before, it’s about trying to create a new group, a new leadership group. New chemistry. All these guys, besides being good hockey players, bring a lot of those qualities, bring experience and professionalism to our roster.’’ – Chuck Fletcher
Kudos to Fletcher, as Carter Hart and Martin Jones have provided the Flyers with some stellar goaltending through the first 14 games of the 2021-22 season. Yes, the defense has been much more stable and consistent this season, even without the services of Ryan Ellis primarily. Nick Seeler, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Justin Braun have become valuable assets on the backend for the orange and black.
However, Hart is putting up some worthy Vezina caliber numbers, and this cannot be forgotten. He is 5-3-2 with a 2.19 GAA, a .935 Save Percentage, and one shutout. Hart is enduirng one heck of a rebound season, and MAKING, yes making, timely saves. For instance, the Flyers were on their heels throughout the first period of Tuesday night’s game against the Calgary Flames. The Flyers were outshot 12-10, but also were 0-2 with the man advantage in the first period alone. The Flyers also blocked five shots in the first period, so the shot total appears to be closer than what it actually was. The fact of the matter is the Flyers were flat-footed to start the game, and the Flames pounced on that to an early 1-0 lead.
Hart made 10 big saves and prevented the Flames from leading 2-0 or even 3-0 just in the first period. Fortunately, the Flyers bounced back in the second and third periods, and outplayed the Flames en route to an eventual 2-1 victory in overtime. Without the services of Hart making timely saves this game would have been out of hand early, and the Flyers could have lost this game 4-1.
Last season was a debacle, and the Tuesday’s game against Calgary is just yet another point that this 2021-22 Flyers team is very different from last year. Last year, the Flyers would have lost that game to Calgary 4-1 on Hall of Fame night, as Rick Tocchet and Paul Holmgren were inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame earlier that night. The Flyers dug themselves early holes last season, and mainly that was due to the subpar goaltending at best. Was it just Hart and Brian Elliot’s fault? Well no, the defense was a mess, but the Flyers goaltenders did not make timely saves to allow the players to get their feet underneath them.
The buck doesn’t just stop with Hart, as Martin Jones has been lights out primarily in the early going of the season. Jones has made timely save after timely save, with the lone exception for the Dallas Stars game this past Saturday night, but Jones has posted a 3-1 record with a 2.27 GAA, and a .931 Save Percentage. This just helps for one to give Hart a much needed rest, but also it helps the team to have faith in Jones to fill in when called upon to have their backs in case th2ey do come out flat-footed to start.
One thing is for certain, if it were not for timely saves in the early going, the penalty kill wouldn’t be the 12th best in the league at a rate of 83.3%, nor would their record be favorable in third place in the Metropolitan Division with a record 8-4-2. In fact they would be one of the worst teams in a tough Metro Division, especially when the Flyers are only scoring goals at a rate of 1.5 per game recently.
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