Photo Courtesy of, John E. Sokolowski/USA TODAY SPORTS
It’s still early in the season for the Philadelphia Flyers and with 7 games played one positive outlook going forward throughout the remainder of the 2021-2022 season has been the play of Carter Hart. After an abysmal season in 2020-2021, the young netminder looks to have turned the corner as his performances to date have either kept the Flyers in games or have been adequate enough to pull off victories.
Hart has looked like a completely different goalie compared to last season. As the goaltender seems to have returned to his previous form when looking at his technique and overall game. For instance, in the past season, Hart was not very technically sound. Oftentimes he was out of position in relation to his angles, not square to the shooter, and playing very deep in his net. Typically these are tendencies plaguing a goaltender when they are lacking confidence. The netminder tries to overcompensate for certain deficiencies in their game instead of sticking to their technique. For a goalie like Hart who is not the biggest in the NHL especially when taking his other peers into consideration cheating off of his angles and not trusting in his technique was a big part of his struggles from 2020-2021. See the photo below from last season:
(Photo Courtesy of Getty Images)
Comparatively, this season so far Hart has looked much closer to the goalie who was very hard to beat for the Flyers from 2018 to 2020. First off, one thing that shows Hart is very confident in his abilities at the moment is the aggressiveness in his game when challenging shooters. The goaltender has been on the top of the blue paint of his crease far more regularly with shooters bearing down on him through the first 6 games. This was something we did not see very much of last season (see the photo of Hart on top of his crease below against the Oilers a few games ago).
(Photo Courtesy of Jason Franson/ Associated Press)
Another sign identifying that Hart is returning to his previous form is the goaltender’s angling work. More often than not this season Hart has been square to shooters. Additionally, in situations where cross-ice passes have been made for one-time chances against he’s been anticipating these plays and beating the pass across the ice leaving himself square to shooters even before they are able to launch these one-time chances. Hart beating the pass across on these plays shows the trust in his overall game and technique as a whole.
One other facet of Hart’s game indicating he’s over the struggles that affected him last season is his bounce-back ability from a shot to shot and goal to goal basis. In 2020-2021 once the young netminder let in an easy goal things spiraled on him. Essentially, when one bad thing happened these mistakes in the net continued to compound and the goalie would begin to let in fairly routine stops he usually would have made. What may have caused this is a lack of confidence and with the goaltending position confidence is basically everything. If you have the mentality you aren’t going to stop that next shot the chances are it’s going to go right in past you. However, if the mindset is there in which a goaltender is self-assured in his ability to stop the puck, typically the netminder is likelier to make the stop. It’s easily recognized that confidence was severely lacking regarding Hart’s game last season as the goaltender did not look like himself in the net and did not have the ability to battle controversy as he did in prior seasons. The good news for the Flyers and Hart is that so far this season the goaltender has shown the capability to battle in the net and still play well even if a bad goal or an unlucky goal against was scored. Evidently, it’s been easy to see Hart is on his game because after these goals have been allowed the netminder still seems to be playing with the same technique when making saves. Starting with his aggressiveness and challenging shooters blasting away at him. Ultimately, Hart’s save percentage and goals-against average in the early season speak to his improved play as opposed to 2020-2021 (see the stats below).
Overall, the Flyers have a competitive team this season and one of the hardest competitors on the ice has been Carter Hart. The young goaltender has kept the club in games they likely would have lost if he was not in the net. It’s also encouraging to see the netminder has eliminated such negative habits from his game that were present in 2020-2021. Considering this it should be interesting to see how Hart continues to improve as the season progresses.
Check out our Flyers Nitty Gritty Team Store!
