The Philadelphia flyers have been on a roll lately. Winning 9 out if their last 10 contest and are riding high on an 8-game win streak. Including a big OT win in the Stadium Series against the rival Pittsburgh Penguins. Thanks to late game surges and excellent net-minding by rookie goaltender Carter Hart, who has a minor injury and missed the past few games. “He’s been on fire lately, making the key plays when they are needed to help his team prevail” said Bucks student Cole Rand. Hart has been on fire since he was called up from and minor leagues and made his first start on the 18 of December. Since then hart has gone 10-5-1 in 16 games he started with 2.48 goals against average to go with a .925 save percentage. Throwing himself into a potential rookie of the year award, it should be interesting to see how Hart plays down the stretch for a shot at a wildcard spot in the playoffs. It’s rare you see a young goaltender this composed, Hart has taken flyers fans by surprise and are very happy with his recently play and the team as a whole. “The players that are making the biggest difference right now are the young guys on the team, Carter Hart has been playing amazing in goal giving the team the confidence they needed” Bucks student Danielle Conner on the current flyers season. This exact flyer team had a big lack of confidence a couple months ago.
After a sluggish and ugly start to the season, they managed to get everything back on track. After firing former General Manager Ron Hextall and former Coach Dave Hakstol, Interim head coach Scott Gordon help to turn things around and put stuff in perspective. Since he was hired on December 17 the flyers have a record of 11-8-2. Not too shabby for an interim head coach. Their latest move was trading long time winger Wayne Simmonds to his former coach Peter Laviolette in Nashville. Someone Flyers fans will appreciate forever, but atleast the team is trending in the right direction. Bucks student Kaci Karte has noticed the turnaround as well stating “they started off the season not very good but as of recently been doing a lot better and have put themselves on an 8-game win streak”. With only 29 games to go in this season the flyers have positioned themselves greatly in the current playoff race. Only 5 points out of a wild card spot anything is possible with this flyers team. Luke Pomper of Bucks said “with the way they have been playing lately and how close the playoff race is, if the flyers can somehow make playoffs they are sure to make some noise there”. With all their remaining games left, all are crucial. Every point has an impact on the standings and positioning for a possible playoff spot. For them to even have a chance they have to have rookie Carter Hart continue his dominance in goal that he displayed in the past 7 games during the win streak. If that happens and captain Claude Giroux helps lead this team with his veteran leadership and presence there is a growing sense of playoffs in the Philadelphia area for this flyers team.