Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire
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 18 games of the 2021-22 season.
However, Hart is putting up some worthy Vezina caliber numbers, and this cannot be forgotten. He is 5-4-3 with a 2.40 GAA, a .928 Save Percentage, and one shutout. Hart is enduring 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 out shot 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, to which the Flyers dug themselves early holes, 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. Jones has made timely save after timely save, with the lone exception for the Dallas Stars game about a week ago, but Jones has posted a 3-2-1 record with a 2.67 GAA, and a .927 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 they do come out flat-footed to start.
a prime example of a flat-footed start was last niggt against the Florida panthers. The Panthers dominated the flyers for 50 minutes of the game, so what did Jones do? Well he stopped 44 shots on 46 shots faced, and gave his team a chance to win in overtime. He stole the orange and black a point, a very valuable point that the Flyers shouldn’t have had in the first place.
One thing is for certain, if it were not for the exceptional goaltending the Flyers have received through the first 18 games, who knows how bad they would be right now. As it stands, they still have an opportunity to right the ship and hopefully become a playoff team this season. The Flyers should be thankful for Carter Hart and Martin Jones this Thanksgiving for giving them an opportunity to succeed right out of the gate.
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