Carter Has Been The Hart of the Flyers
Carter Hart made his debut for the Flyers on December 18, 2018. He made 20 saves on 22 shots, backstopping the team to a 3-2 win. He was just 20-years-old at the time. That made him the youngest Flyers goaltender to win in his NHL debut.
Hart appeared in 31 games that season, going 16-13-1. He posted a 2.83 GAA and a .917 SV%. Not otherworldly numbers, but pretty good for a young goaltender in his first season.
He became a permanent fixture on the roster from there, jumping to 43 games the following season. He posted a 24-13-3 record, lowering his GAA to 2.42 while his SV% slightly dipped to .914. Hart also recorded his first NHL shutout that season as well. He was proving that he could be the franchise goaltender the Flyers were looking for.
And then the pandemic shortened season happened. Hart admitted that the mental side of his game took a toll as players were mostly isolated from their teammates, especially when on the road. He also dealt with an MCL sprain in his knee. His GAA skyrocketed to 3.67 while his GAA nosedived to .877. Both were, both at the time and now, the worst of his career.
He showed improvement the following year, though would end up having another MCL sprain that would end his season. He appeared in the most games of his career (45) and jumped back up to a .905 SV% while his GAA rebounded a bit to 3.16. It wasn’t close to the numbers he was putting up in his first two seasons, but it was a sign that he was finding his game again. It also didn’t help having a defense in front of him that forced him to have to be at his best.
That brings us to the current season. New head coach John Tortorella spoke about how the team needed to be better defensively in front of Hart. They were giving up too many chances which put the young goaltender under siege most nights.
If you want to find one reason for the Flyers 5-2-2 start, look no further than the play of Carter Hart. He has been in the net for all five of the team’s wins and didn’t lose his first game of the season until his sixth start of the year. Even then, the team has gotten at least a point in his next two starts.
So to start the season, Hart has earned the team a point in every game he has played in. And a lot of them are directly because of his play in net. Take the Flyers 4-3 win against the Panthers. Hart faced a total of 51 shots in that game and saved a career high 48 of them. 21 of those shots came in the third period alone. In comparison, Philadelphia posted a total of 22 shots with just five coming in the third.
Hart sits ninth in the league with a 2.10 GAA and fourth with a .943 SV%. According to Natural Stat Trick, he is saving 9.96 goals above average in all situations. That is the best among all goaltenders. To put that into perspective, during Hart’s worst season he posted a -22.68 GAA. Now that’s comparing 27 games then to seven now, but unless things go very poorly for him, he won’t be anywhere close to those numbers this season.
Among goaltenders who have appeared in the same amount of games, Hart is third with only eight goals given up at even strength this season. Only Logan Thompson (7) and Jake Oettinger (6) have given up less in a similar amount of minutes.
Hart has also faced the third most shots in the league at 262. There are actually eight goaltenders who have appeared in more games than Hart below him on that list. Based on the amount of shots that Hart faces, he is expected to have given up almost 27 goals but has actually given up 15 altogether. Hence his GSAA mentioned above. That makes what he is doing all the more impressive. His workload has been heavy to start the season, facing an average of 37 shots per game.
Now these aren’t numbers that Hart is likely to sustain as the season goes on. While the Flyers may not be giving up as many high danger opportunities as before, they are still allowing way too many shots to go in on Hart. It’s not to say that he will all of a sudden break, but it is going to be hard to be able to make save after save all season if his workload continues to be as heavy as it has been.
For now, the Flyers can ride the impressive start to the season that Hart is having. But they need to be a lot better in front of his. He has earned that much with his play.