Carter Hart to match up against Price in goal
With postseason expectations higher for the Flyers than they have been in a decade, their first actual 2020 playoff step this week could come down to a rather interesting goaltending subplot.
Montreal’s highly decorated Carey Price vs. super sophomore Carter Hart: The old man and the C?
“Definitely really cool, he was my favorite goalie growing up,” Hart said of Price after the Flyers had dispatched their third consecutive higher-seeded Eastern Conference rival, the Tampa Bay Lightning, to the tune of 4-1 Saturday. “Just had the chance to meet him the other week and talk with him for the first time. That was something pretty cool. For your first playoff series, playing against Carey Price will definitely be a lot of fun. I look forward to it.”
Price’s Canadiens, 31-31-9 during the real (and paused) season, would not have made the playoffs in normal times. With 11 games remaining to play they were fifth in the Atlantic Division, 12th in the Eastern Conference. They had been long buried.
But then along came the NHL’s bright return to play idea of 24 playoff teams, which landed Montreal just under the cut, and in a “qualifying round” matchup with a Pittsburgh Penguins club that hadn’t been playing like itself pre-pause.
Voila, le upset ... if only because effective team defense in front of the 32-year-old, 13-year veteran crease master Price is always a good game plan.
“He’s obviously a really good goalie and they got some really good players on their team,” Hart said of the Habs. “We’ll just prepare and be ready.”
“We know we backed in and nobody gave us a chance, but we took that with a grain of salt and proved them wrong,” Price told reporters Friday after a clinching, 2-0 shutout of the Penguins at Scotiabank Arena in the Toronto bubble.
So it’s on to the best-of-7 first round series against the Flyers, who by winning a three-game, round-robin “seeding tournament” can rightly (if not really) claim to be the top seeded team in the East. Game 1 between the teams will be Wednesday at 8 p.m. back in that bubble.
The Flyers are younger than they were in prepause March, now that Nic Aube-Kubel (two goals in the win over the Lightning) and Phil Myers are developing into stars with the big club.
Oh, and despite solid work from veteran goalie Brian Elliott, it is Hart who in the seeding dance earned the right to carry the golden goalie standard essentially from start to finish in this modified playoff season. He can count on a whole lot of help. “Honestly, our (defensive) core has been really solid,” Hart said. “Our special teams has been really good on the (penalty kill). We’re just doing a really good job around both ends of the net, in the offensive zone on loose pucks and then in our zone, making sure we’re coming back to get all five guys back in the zone. (We’re) collapsing in the house, on loose pucks, and just competing. I think that’s the biggest thing, we are outworking the other guy on the race to loose pucks.” The starting day and time for the series was still being haggled out late Sunday night, pending the finish of the last qualifying round game between Toronto and Columbus. “They just played a big series; (got) a big win,” defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere said of the Habs. “They were underdogs there. They’re a good team. You can’t take anyone lightly in this league. You got to be ready at the drop of the puck. For us, it’s a good matchup.”