Flyers Fan Reaction (FFR5) Gm 5: PHI 3, NSH 1 – From The Hart
So, this happened — again. The Philadelphia Flyers WIN, 3-1, over the Nashville Predators. They are now 4-1-0 on the season and returning home Sunday night. A Flyers season that easily could have come and gone without any period of believing the team could do something good this year already has one. They’ve beaten two teams that made the playoffs last year and another that just missed. Their one loss was to the reigning President’s Trophy winners in the second half of a back-to-back with their backup goaltender in the net.
A huge reason the Flyers have been so successful to start this season lies between the pipes. Carter Hart‘s .949 save percentage is second in the NHL. He’s saved 6.2 goals above expected per Moneypuck.com, the most in the league. The likeliest path towards the Flyers winning games this year was always Hart standing on his head. Despite some struggles in the last two seasons, Hart is still just 24 and full of potential. He was one of the most decorated goaltenders in recent CHL memory and had a tremendous start to his NHL career.
Hart won’t be able to carry the Flyers forever — just ask Nashville. The Predators relied heavily on Juuse Saros last year, but he missed their first-round series against Colorado and the team was promptly swept. Goaltending wasn’t Nashville’s only issue in that series. But as Jake Oettinger reminded everyone at the start of last year’s playoffs, a good goaltender can keep a team in a series for a long, long time. Maybe even long enough to win it.
However, those teams do not have a very high ceiling. The Flyers probably don’t, either. But right now, they’re doing their best to see how high it is. For the Flyers to keep their winning ways up, they need to provide more support to their rising netminder. And while Philadelphia has been one of the league’s worst play-driving teams out of the gate, they did show some progress in Bridgestone Arena. After adjusting for score and venue effects, to account for the Flyers being on the road and leading for the game’s final 56 minutes after a perfectly placed one-timer from Kevin Hayes put them on top, the Flyers were almost breakeven in Corsi For (47.8%) and expected goals (48.66%) marks.
To illustrate how far the Flyers came on Saturday, entering the game they were last and third to last in those marks entering the contest. Nashville entered the game 15th and 16th in those departments, so it’s not like the Flyers were beating up on a bad team. Hanging with a solid team may not seem like anything special. But given where they were coming into this season, every bit of progress is worth celebrating. The Flyers made some more Saturday. And in doing so, they offered a hint that they might be able to keep achieving some more.
Lindies
If you have tickets to today’s Flyers game, you enter the Wells Fargo Center at 2 PM (aka right now) and watch the Phillies try to advance to the World Series.
3 Stars
3rd – Kevin Hayes (PHI) – Goal (1), Assist (7)
2nd – Carter Hart (PHI) – .969 SV% (31 Saves/32 Shots), 1 GA on 3.05 Expected Goals Against
1st – Joel Farabee (PHI) – Goal (1), 2 Assists (1, 2), 3 SOG
Next
PHI: 10/23, 7 PM vs. SJ (1-6-0)
NSH: 10/27, 8 PM vs. STL (3-0-0)
All Advanced Stats are 5v5 and via Natural Stat Trick unless otherwise stated
