In the round robin games, there was a lot of excitement around Carter Hart. The young goaltender, who just turned 22 today, came away from a stellar first full NHL season. But of course, with that lack of experience and a shaky road record, comes a cause for concern. It did not take long for Hart to silence the doubters. With his first official playoff game behind him, he can reaffirm his stature as the next big Flyers goaltender.
Kick-start my (Carter) Hart
In three games so far this postseason, Hart is still losing, winning everything in regulation with a 1.0-goal versus average, along with a 96.6% saving percentage. Against the Canadiens, however, Carter Hart was no longer in a rehearsal for dress. This was the real deal. The first of a sand game series that would spark or keep the belief in a run-up to the Stanley Cup.
Hart saved 27 of 28 shots in a game that saw Montreal slowly increase in intensity before swinging into a vital third period. Hart was cool, calm, and collected from start to finish. He hooked up a shaky Flyers defense to a win. In addition. he became the seventh goaltender in NHL history to win his first three playoff games before the age of 22 (by one day, chatting about coupling!). He was the first since Matt Murray in 2015-16 to achieve this.
The preparation
In a strange way, it is no surprise that the wonderkid has such a strong level of rest. He mentioned before the playoffs that he would prepare as if it were another game, so the ice-cold approach was a hard shock.
“Honestly, I just prepared the same thing.” Hart declared after the win. ‘When we get to the playoffs here, it’s a different situation for everyone who has a lot in common, but we all prepare the same. We make our video for games to be ready. Everyone has their own way of preparing. You just have to be more discriminating with the help you render toward other people. ”
“I met Carter.” Said head coach Alain Vigneault. I know how he sees the game and handles a situation. He has been to big games before and he has played well. He will just go out there and do what he has to do, and give us the chance to win games.
Hart encouraged the Flyers to a win and in the record books and made it easy, all the while doing so against a goalkeeper, he idolized growing up – Carey Price. Price still made life difficult for the Flyers, but shall we witness a true passage of the torch here? Time will tell. But if ever there was a game to silence the critics and really judge themselves as goaltender ready to perform under the brightest lights, then this was it.
Liam is a 24-year-old sports journalist from the United Kingdom and founder of the Philly Sports Network. In just five years, he turned a hobby into one of the fastest growing Philadelphia sports sites in the world, collecting 7,000,000 views and writing more than 3,000 articles. Draw attention to the likes of CSN, NJ.Com and Bleacher Report in the process. Liam is set on changing the way Philadelphia sports teams are reported forever.
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