Carter Hart Earns First NHL Shutout as Philadelphia Flyers Defeat Devils

The Philadelphia Flyers hosted the New Jersey Devils in their first home game of the 2019-20 season.

Looking to start the new campaign off with a winning streak, the Philadelphia Flyers played host to a Metropolitan Divison rival in the New Jersey Devils aiming to go 2-0-0 on the year. This game marked Wayne Simmonds’ first time coming back to the Wells Fargo Center while sporting a different uniform, as he signed with the Devils over the offseason. Carter Hart got the nod in net for the Flyers and opposed Cory Schneider. Hart was coming off of a 28 save performance in the season-opening victory over the Chicago Blackhawks in Prague and was hoping to build on that showing against the Devils.

The puck dropped, and yep, Simmonds wearing a Devils jersey will always be weird to look at. Anyways, the game started rather slow, as there was an apparent feeling-out process between both sides. Philadelphia and New Jersey combined for just three shots on goal in the first seven minutes of the period, with the Devils having the advantage in that category. Play began to pick up a bit following a Flyers failed power-play opportunity, but neither team could register a goal as the score remained tied at zero after 20.

Philadelphia generated some great scoring chances early in the middle frame, including a shot from Claude Giroux that caught the post but couldn’t get one by Schneider as the period went on. It didn’t take long for the Orange and Black to change that fortune, though.

The Flyers were gifted with their second power-play of the contest about halfway through and took advantage of the extra man. Ivan Provorov beat Schneider with a blast from the left circle to give his team the 1-0 lead. This was the Flyers’ second power-play goal of the season, which have both been scored by the second unit. I know, I know, I can’t believe Philadelphia might have a capable second PP squad either.

The Flyers continued to gain momentum after killing two penalties, consistently applying pressure in the Devils zone and frustrating their players with a tenacious fore-and-backcheck. Philadelphia faced a long 5-on-3 Devils power-play following penalties from Sean Couturier and Kevin Hayes to end the stanza and were able to kill it off thanks in large part to Hart. I mean…just LOOK at this robbery.

Hart might just be a good one, folks. Even with all of the man advantage time New Jersey received, the Flyers still out-shot their Metropolitan rival 15-7 in the second and carried a 21-17 edge for the game into the final period of regulation.

The Flyers opened the third in the absolute best way possible. Philly potted two goals in a mere 24 seconds of each other, putting themselves ahead by three with a little less than 20 minutes to go. Hayes and Couturier were the recipients of both tallies, as Hayes sniped home the puck shortly after a faceoff on the PP while Coots cleaned up a rebound in front.

Things just kept getting worse for the Devils from thereon. Kyle Palmieri lost his footing near his own net, and Travis Konecny put good use to his misfortune, scoring the Flyers fourth goal of the contest and his third on the year. TK went five-hole to get the puck by Schneider, showcasing his beautiful set of hands on the tally. Eventually, the Flyers shut the door on New Jersey, winning the game by a score of 4-0.

I couldn’t think of a better performance for Hart to earn his first NHL career shutout. As you can see above, the 21-year-old netminder was absolutely outstanding this evening. This game could’ve had a completely different outcome had he not made that highlight-reel save, but Hart was as sharp as ever, saving all 25 shots he saw.

The Flyers are now 2-0-0 in 2019-20. Yay, winning streaks! Next game is Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks.