Rookie Goalie Carter Hart Sparking Philadelphia Flyers Turnaround

Back in mid December, the Philadelphia Flyers were staggering along at 12-15-4. One reason for this was a lack of production from the Philly goalies. Multiple goalies had been tried and generally found lacking; it didn’t help when veteran Brian Elliott went down with an injury in November. So Philadelphia decided to give 20 year old Carter Hart, the organization’s top goalie prospect, a shot at it.

Hart made his NHL debut with a victory over the Detroit Red Wings on December 18th, and followed that with a 31 save performance in a 2-1 win over the Nashville Predators. But then Hart lost six of seven contests, although some of that was due to a lack of scoring by the Flyers (losses of 2-1, 3-1, 3-0, and 3-2). But then, Hart reeled off eight straight wins including a 6-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks on February 9th.

The win over the Ducks boosted Hart’s record to 11-5-1, with a 2.45 goals against average and .926 save percentage. The Flyers, 9-0-1 in their last 10 games, improved to 25-23-7 on the season (57 points) and still have a shot at the playoffs. Anaheim is in freefall; the loss was the seventh straight for the Ducks, who are 2-15-4 in their last 21 games and 21-26-9 on the season. With 51 points, they are tied with the Los Angeles Kings for last in the Western Conference. After the game with the Flyers, Anaheim fired coach Randy Carlyle, replacing him with general manager Bob Murray for the remainder of this lost season.