Quick Hits: May 28, 2021
1) Flyers goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh was Thursday's guest on Jason Myrtetus's Flyers Daily Podcast for the Flyers Broadcast Network. He discussed Carter Hart's extremely rough season, what Hart needs to do to bounce back in 2021-22 and why Dillabaugh feels very confident that Hart will do. He also discussed Brian Elliott.
"The start for Brian and Carter was good. Obviously not perfect, by any stretch, but if you look at their bodies of work up until [March onward], there were many very good performances with a few that were obviously not up to par. So, from a consistency standpoint, there was a little bit lack from that point of view," Dillabaugh said.
"But honestly, you would expect that from the situation [very brief training camp, no exhibition games, irregular practice days and then very few at all after the COVID-19 outbreak and four game postponements]. Normally, you work out some kinks and then build and progress throughout the season. With the start we had, I liked where they were at in terms of how they were trending in working at the things they needed to get their games to the level where we needed them to."
Of course, with the exception of back-to-back shutouts by Elliott and Hart at the end of February in Buffalo, the Flyers season turned into a disaster from the Lake Tahoe game onward. That was especially true in the month of March. Hart in particular had a brutal month of March. He started turning things around -- not getting all the way back -- but at least back within striking distance in April and then had an MCL sprain that ended his season. Elliott's season performance, meanwhile, dropped dramatically as he went from carefully preselected and metered starts to having to start three or four games in a row when Hart faltered and then got injured.
During the discussion with Myrtetus, Dillabaugh spoke about both the physical and mental aspects of Hart dealing with the first significant adversity of his career -- at either the pro or even the junior hockey level -- and trying to make adjustments with few opportunities to work through it and regain confidence in practice.
I personally do not know how much of Hart's home/road discrepancy in 2019-20 -- when he broke a franchise home save percentage record previously held by Bernie Parent and otherwise had Parent-like stats at the Wells Fargo Center yet had quite pedestrian, even below league-average numbers on the road until the last few weeks prior to the pause -- had to do with the limited nature of practices on the road. Before Hart, Steve Mason had a huge discrepancy between his home and road splits, and Mason admitted that the ability to get regular practice time during home stands and scattered/limited practices during road trips was a factor he had to contend with a little better. But Hart, by nature, has generally been a more unflappable type than Mason, at least heading into 2020-21.
During his postseason Exit Day interview, Hart spoke candidly that he was having a hard time in his day-to-day life, feeling isolated. Additionally, the very limited nature of practices (at home as well as on the road) were absolutely a factor in things such as making glove-side adjustments. Overall, Hart looked small in his net at times, off his angles far more often than he ever was before, faster to commit and easier to beat. In April, when there were actually were a few days where he able to get a semblance of a full practice, he looked better in the games that followed.
Moving forward, Hart is going to have to better deal with stretches where there's less-than-ideal practice time. He'll have to come up with a significantly higher percentage of the "not easy but not unstoppable" scoring chances that all goalies face than he did as 2020-21 moved along. He cannot have nearly as many starts where the game goes sideways to the point that crooked numbers on the board for the period and he's either pulled from the game or ends up with ugly-looking stat lines.
Dillabaugh told Myrtetus that he is one hundred percent confident that Hart will do all of these things; that what the goalie experienced this season where the normal ups and downs of a young goalie but magnified and exacerbated by the circumstances of the pandemic-affected season. The goalie coach said that the foundation Hart built up through his first two pro seasons are much closer to what he actually can and will become as an NHL goalie.
One thing is for certain: There's a whole lot riding on a bounceback season from Carter Hart in 2021-22 no matter what else that the organization does in the offseason including identifying a goalie partner/ competitor on the roster for next season.
Next week, we'll have a deep dive on both the Flyers' goaltending situation and the power play on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com
2) For Memorial Day weekend, Jason and I recorded a two-part episode where we tackled a slew of fan questions about the team, covering many different angles, that were submitted this week on Twitter. Part One is now available for download. I'll post the link to Part Two when it's available.
3) May 28 Flyers Alumni birthdays: Mark Howe (1955), Terry Crisp (1943), Gary Inness (1949- 2021), Reid Bailey (1956).