Obviously the first star for tonight’s game has to be Carter Hart who stood on his head for the cracking (but not breaking) team in front of him. Other notable additions to the roster were Michael Raffl and Robert Hagg in place of Joel Farabee and Shayne Gostisbehere respectively.
CARTER HART 79
He showed up for his team today after getting pulled in game two, and he looked strong and composed and as always: calm. I was freaking out over some of the close calls early on, but he seemed completely unaffected and he deserved the shutout. Its still foreign to me to think the Flyers’ best player is consistently the goalie, but I’m really starting to enjoy being able to put faith in Hart to bail us out. He took a crash the net, somewhat ugly goal from Voracek and gifted this team a win. Simply incredible!
MICHEAL RAFFL 12
He was definitely not a liability, but with a one goal game there was obviously not much to be said for him being a major impact player as a forward. Still it was nice to have Raff back after a scary looking injury against the boards. He brings more seasoning and just more grit as opposed to Farabee which works well on our bottom 6 pairs. Having Farabee in our back pocket to jolt the scoring lines in any future series (here’s hoping) is a potent weapon for sure. Right now I still think its too early to be worried about the lines now though and keeping him in that back pocket is the right move just to put more effort in having more two-way forwards in the lineup.
ROBERT HAGG 8
I missed Hagg. As one of the first people to defend him this season its nice to see he has a group of fans who have his back now. The intensity of the Ghost v Hagg debate seems kinda dumb considering we’re talking about who should be our 6th d-man. You know, ideally the defender who sees the least amount of ice time in a game. Hagg is a better fit for these playoffs, or at least for this playoff round. Montreal is playing physical hockey and seeing Hagg come in and throw the body around and keep the Habs in check was a good thing in my eyes. It definitely played a role in keeping them scoreless tonight.
Tonight was, as any hockey game is, a team effort; and there were plenty of Flyers to step up and make key plays. However, Carter Hart did seem to shoulder much of the burden tonight. His skaters limited Montreal’s shot attempts to a meager 23, but those 23 attempts seemed extremely close to going in almost every time. Hart stayed poised and nothing rattled him. This was a better showing for the team compared to last game, but they really need to start getting their skates under them in these games that matter.
LETS GO FLYERS!!
Delayed Call 