Hart cool as ever with losing streak on line
PHILADELPHIA >> For whatever it’s worth, and to the Flyers, he’s worth everything right now, Carter Hart will play right along with the reputation he’s getting.
“When you have a goalie in there that’s making big stops and has that coolness about him, you can definitely feel that on the ice,” James van Riemsdyk said Thursday night of Hart, who made 37 saves to oversee a 2-1 victory over the Dallas Stars. “He’s got ice in his veins, it seems like. In the end he just goes about his business. But I’d be curious to see what his heart rate gets to because he’s so cool under pressure and certainly has had a great track record to this point.”
That said, van Riemsdyk thought better of such praise. “Well, I don’t want to put some unnecessary expectations on him,” he said. “Just let him be himself.”
No problem, for the youthful looking unflappable kid behind the mask seems to be comfortable in that skin. He’s cool with being cool. To a degree.
“Sometimes I do get a little bit too amped up, I guess is the word to describe it,” Hart said. “But during the TV timeouts or when the puck is in the other end I try to take a couple of deep breaths and just kind of refocus, especially in the last few minutes. Just kind of play and compete.”
Despite the eight-game losing streak he masterfully snapped on this night, Hart’s on-going rookie campaign has had more than a few moments of brilliance. He had a 2-4-1 record coming in, but did have a 2.68 GAA and .909 saves percentage. It would figure that’s only going to get better as his teammates finally start playing somewhere near where they should.
“He’s been unbelieveable,” Travis Konecny said of Hart. “We feel bad for him. He’s stood on his head for us. I think every game he’s been in there he’s given us a good opportunity. We haven’t been playing our best lately and it just stands out when we play good in front of him and he makes those saves.”
Hart was only 2:51 from a shutout when Jamie Benn scored to halve the Flyers’ lead. Although he wound up with 37 saves, Hart noted he’s been busier in the crease than he was in this game.
“Dallas is a good team. They’ve got some skilled players,” Hart said. “But we really didn’t give them a lot with super-quality chances in front. We collapsed a lot in front, didn’t give them a lot of second opportunities.”
As for the lost shutout, no big deal to the cool kid in the crease. “Those are nice but at the same time it just feels good to be back in the win column,” Hart said.
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Shortly before the Benn goal, the Flyers had ample chances to put Dallas away, including three consecutive odd-man rushes against Stars goalie Anton Khudobin.
There was a shorthanded 2-on-1 with Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux that failed to cash in. Then a 3-on-1 with those same two Flyers penalty killers and Ivan Provorov. That was snuffed, too.
But they were topped by a 2-on-none with James van Riemsdyk and Konecny going in alone.
The two had been on the bench talking about the first couple of breaks, and “how this goalie seemed to be sitting on the pass,” van Riemsdyk said. “So you have to make sure you shoot. And sure enough me and him made two passes back and forth like dummies.”
No goal there, either.
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Carter Hart said Benn was chatting him up during the game as he kept crashing the attack zone.
“That’s where he was the whole night,” Hart said. “Our D did a good job boxing him out ... he just came up to me a couple of times. The first time he said, ‘good save.’ Next time he said, ‘You’re damn lucky, buddy.”
Next time, Benn scored. But the 20-yearold Hart got him back.
“He’s a good player,” Hart said of the
29-year-old-man Benn. “He’s a guy I’ve seen a lot on TV growing up.”