Carter Hart’s career night leads Flyers past Vegas

Welcoming in the Vegas Golden Knights, the Flyers were looking to win their second game in a row. It was the Carter Hart show all evening long as his tremendous played allowed Philadelphia to eek out the 2-1 victory.

THE GOOD

RELEASE THE BRAUNER: Justin Braun has arguably been one of the Flyers best and most consistent defensemen this season. That might not be saying a whole lot for a team that has struggled across the board for most of the season. But Braun has certainly been a bright spot.

After taking a puck off the hand on the penalty kill, Braun was clearly in some pain on the bench. But like the warrior that he has been, he came out for his next shift and gave the Flyers the lead. Travis Konecny sent a pass through the center of the zone as Braun did a nice job to keep it in the zone. He fired a shot through some traffic, though Robin Lehner appeared to have a clean look at it. But nonetheless, the veteran defenseman grabbed his fifth goal of the season, tying a career high in that area.

HART STOPPER: How many times have we talked about Carter Hart being a key factor for the Flyers? After a season to forget, Hart has easily been the MVP of an otherwise forgetful season. Too often he has had to keep the Flyers in games that they don’t necessarily deserve to be in. It felt exactly like that as Philadelphia welcomed in the Golden Knights.

A career-high 47 saves, Hart had to be big almost all night. Some of his best work came during a Vegas power-play in the second period when he went about a minute without his stick. He was still able to make huge saves on Max Pacioretty and Jack Eichel. Philadelphia was outshot 48-21 as Hart was the biggest reason they came out with the two points.

BACK TO BACK: The Flyers came into this evening having not won consecutive games since January 29th and February 1st. In fact, they had only two wins total since then. At this point in the season, it’s all about playing for pride and each other. The hill is all but impossible to climb, but there’s no throwing in the towel.

Ending this home-stand on a high note is something the Flyers can take into the road trip to keep their confidence up. Things could look a lot different in a few weeks so take the wins where you can.

THE BAD

DECLINE THE PENALTY: The Flyers had a few different chances to increase their slim lead over the Knights. They’ve tried to make some changes on their man advantage units, one being using Rasmus Ristolainen as a net front presence. Why not try to stick a 6’4”, 221 pound defenseman to block the eyes of the goaltender?

Well, it would if you were able to get chances or even get into the zone for that matter. The Flyers power play is running at about 10.7% since the calendar turned to 2022. That doesn’t seem good, now does it? It didn’t end up costing them in this game. But it wouldn’t have been the first time if it had played a factor. The Flyers can once again thank Hart for being able to bail them out when they couldn’t take advantage of their opportunities.

The Flyers will head on the road for a few games as they take on the Florida Panthers on Thursday. A trip to Carolina to take on the Hurricanes will follow as Philadelphia will then return home on Sunday to take on the Canadiens.