Flyers may want to find a way to send Carter Hart’s bed anywhere and whenever they’re on the road this season.
The 22-year-old goalkeeper was not the biggest fan of his sleep at the team’s hotel in Boston last week, when the Flyers made a two-game trip to forget against the Bruins. Hart must have liked to sleep in his own bed before taking on the Devils at the Prudential Center, as he was asked to raise the Flyers for a 3-1 win on Thursday night.
The Flyers were far from perfect and often beaten by New Jersey, but they will worry about that later. Hart returned to form and the team won a sweep of their two-game road against the Devils.
Although the Flyers came out of a 5-3 victory on Tuesday, coach Alain Vigneault made some changes to the rear. He ended up pressing the right buttons when inserting Erik Gustafsson and Nate Prosser into the lineup.
The Flyers (5-2-1) had two goals in the third period from Michael Raffl and Claude Giroux after the Devils (3-3-1) beat them 24-8 in the first two stanzas.
• Hart has not played since last Saturday. He came from a stretch where he had allowed four or more goals in three consecutive matches for the first time in his career. He allowed seven goals in the third period in two games in Boston.
He was happy that the Flyers traveled to Newark, New Jersey, on the day of the two games against Devils.
“It’s good that we’re only a short bus ride from Jersey, we can sleep in our own beds – I think that’s huge,” said Hart on Wednesday. “I know that for the first two nights on the road back in Boston, it’s hard to sleep well in your hotel bed when you haven’t slept in a bed that hasn’t been yours for a long time.”
On Thursday, Hart’s 60-minute shot (34.8) was the second highest in the NHL among goalkeepers with five or more games played. He converted 33 saves into 34 shots against Devils.
New Jersey’s # 1 goalkeeper, Mackenzie Blackwood, was eliminated again because of the COVID protocol. Scott Wedgewood, who has only 25 matches in his career, had to make only 14 stops.
• To no surprise, Prosser entered the squad for his first NHL game in over two years and scored the Flyers’ first goal.
OK, I’m kidding. Both stories were not expected.
The 34-year-old defender scored his first goal in the NHL since April 5, 2018, drawing the Flyers 1-1 in the first game. Give a lot of credit to Prosser, who had a really solid game, was firm and played four minutes on the penalty spot.
Gustafsson has moments when he will fight defensively, but he can really impact the games with his legs and passing ability. He gave two assists on his return to the team after a healthy scratch on Tuesday. His second assistant was an excellent source of power for Giroux’s 3-1 goal.
• Raffl, Connor Bunnaman and Nicolas Aube-Kubel’s fourth line was huge in setting the tone in the final frame. This group produced the winner of the 2:10 game in the third period.
• The Flyers were defeated in seven of their eight games, with five of them by double-digit margins.
In no disrespect to Prosser, if the Flyers knew that for two periods, Thursday, Prosser would be the only scorer and they would have eight shots, they would not have loved their chances.
The Flyers have yet to come close to playing a full game.
• Vigneault said before the game that Philippe Myers (fractured rib) skated again on Thursday and “felt good”. Vigneault will meet with Myers and Flyers sports medicine director Jim McCrossin on Friday to better assess the 24-year-old defender’s status on this weekend’s consecutive set (more about Myers here).
Vigneault estimated that Sean Couturier, who is recovering from a costochondral separation suffered on January 15, “is still a few weeks” from returning (more about Couturier here).
• The Flyers face the Islanders this weekend for the first time since their defeat in Game 7 in the second round to New York in the playoffs of the Stanley Cup 2020.
Islanders visit the Wells Fargo Center for games on Saturday (19h ET / NBCSP) and Sunday (19h ET / NBCSP). New York won the Flyers nine of the 12 times in 2019-20, including the preseason, regular season and postseason. In all 12 games, the Islanders have scored three or more goals.
Sign up and rate Flyers Talk
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | Youtube