First playoff season over, Hart eager for more
Carter Hart is no different than any other professional athlete, learning how to cope with a virtual world while playing sports in the coronavirus age.
Daunting task, that.
For Hart, however, it was all the more difficult, since the pandemic interrupted his sophomore season and played a starring role in his first foray into the postseason.
“Obviously playoff hockey is different,” Hart said Wednesday on a Zoom session. “You are playing almost every second day. I think it was a little different in the sense that we were in the bubble. I think the NHL was trying to get things done quicker so we had a couple back-to-backs.
“There was always a lot of those ups and downs. I think we just have to find a way to stay even-keeled and try to stay consistent as possible.”
Hart was as consistent as he could be through two rounds of the playoffs. But it was far from enough primarily because the offense in front of him mostly played below par, the power play was non-existent and the defense eventually broke down from taking too many chances in a desperate effort to create scoring chances.
Yet Hart won nine of 14 starts (include two roundrobin games), posting a 2.23 goals-against average and .926 save percentage.
Score at least once on a given power-play day and those kind of numbers will win a lot of games in the playoffs. As it happened, it was good enough to get through a six-game first round against the Montreal Canadiens and somehow take the New York
Islanders seven games deep in an Eastern semifinal.
All the Flyers wins in that series came in overtime, with Hart in net.
“I think obviously in the season, there’s ups and downs. You really just have to find a way to find that consistency,” Hart said. “You find that through practice and all your off-ice habits. In the playoffs, I felt good. I think we did a good job here this season. Obviously we had some adversity as well and we battled through it.
“Obviously you’re going to run into some speed bumps in the regular season and the playoffs. The Isles were just the better team. Going forward, I made a lot of right steps. I think we have the right group here that can really do some damage.”
Overall, despite his club’s inconsistent offense, and the fact that this first playoff chance was the weirdest of all time — playoff series literally played in a “bubble” in Toronto? — Hart thinks he and his team fared pretty well.
“I think this experience that we just had in the bubble, in the playoffs and in the season is only going to help our group moving forward into next year,” Hart said.
Not that thoughts of the virus can go away so easily, like magic. The virus doesn’t do that, nor do thoughts of it.
Training camp for an alleged full 2020-21 season isn’t as yet planned. No one knows when or even if a normal training camp will happen.
But Hart will prepare nonetheless.
“I took a week off from training and started back up (Tuesday), because I just felt so lazy sitting around the house the whole time,” Hart said. “I needed to be doing something.”
When the time to return comes for real, Hart is hoping that his supportive veteran backup goalie comes with it. But Brian Elliott is 35. He again is an unrestricted free agent, and the Flyers have a bit of a goaltending backup in the organizational ranks.
“Me and Moose (Elliott), we get along really well. I love playing with him,” Hart said. “He’s been a great mentor to me. He’s obviously a veteran goalie in the NHL and has a lot of experience. He’s taught me a lot. We have a lot of fun playing together.
“I really hope he’s back. I think he definitely wants to come back as well.”