Home Town Tour Bookends Flyers Current Road Trip for Goalie

The first stop on the trip was in Seattle. Technically, Seattle served as a "rival" city for Hart during his junior playing career in Everett, Washington for the Everett Silvertips. The two cities are roughly a half hour apart, but Seattle still served as the closest "big city" to where Hart spent much of his teen years while playing in the WHL's for Everett. He built relationships there that he still maintains to this day, and that doesn't even mention the fanbase he built throughout the entire state while building his dominant reputation in the WHL.

Before the game, right after the prior day's practice session ended, Hart got to hang out with some friends.

Last year, in the Kraken's first season in the NHL, many Seattle fans expected and hoped to see Hart back on the ice manning the blue paint in person for first the first time in 4 years. Unfortunately, it was thwarted by a certain virus that ripped through the Flyers locker room around Christmas time. Hart was one of the players it effected causing him to miss the post-Christmas road trip that had the Flyers in Seattle for their first and only trip of the season.

Now, at the 5 year mark of the last time Hart played on ice in the state of Washington, the goalie finally got the chance to play in his makeshift "home town" against the Seattle Kraken when the Flyers took on the surprising Western Conference team Thursday night. Unfortunately, his teammates didn't come out of the locker room with him ready to go and through no fault of his own it was a game that got ugly fairly quickly.

Despite the disappointment in Seattle to start the trip, his home town tour doesn't end here for the young goalie. The 24-year-old was born and raised in Sherwood Park, Alberta; a suburb of Edmonton, which will serve as the fourth and final stop on this road trip for the Flyers as they visit the Oilers. In the off-season Hart trains in Edmonton, at the Oilers training facility, and works with the Oilers in-season goalie coach, Dustin Schwartz.

Hart will have plenty of friends and family in attendance when the Flyers take on Connor McDavid and the Oilers this coming Tuesday night. Unlike Seattle though, this is not his first trip back to Edmonton. Due to the pandemic he has only played there a limited amount of times, holding a current record of 1-1-0 for his career while playing in Edmonton against the Oilers thus far.

Much like Seattle, his first trip back was a bit of a disaster. Oddly enough, the stats on that night were extremely similar his stat line from last night. He allowed 4 goals on 18 shots in Edmonton back in 2019; last night in Seattle he allowed 4 goals on 19 shots, and didn't finish either game as he was pulled in favor of the backup goalie.(The biggest difference between the two performances was in 2019 against Edmonton it was a Hart struggling problem; last night against Seattle it was a 'nobody wants to help' problem.)

The pandemic hit the following season before the Flyers could make the trip to Edmonton, thwarting a "revenge" start. Hart got it back in the early part of last season when the Flyers returned to Edmonton and defeated the Oilers behind a 37/40 save performance from Hart.

Perhaps the biggest question with the Oilers game may be will Hart even play? It will be the back half of a back-to-back game set in which the Flyers play in Calgary on Monday afternoon 2PM MT(their local time); 4PM EST. If Hart plays in Calgary chances are he won't play in Edmonton.

After being recalled from the Phantoms, it appears based off of last night in Seattle that Samuel Ersson will serve as the backup goalie for this entire trip, barring something unforeseen; Felix Sandström has fallen so far out of John Tortorella's good graces that he served as the third goalie in Seattle and didn't even dress. It looks to stay that way barring anything unforeseen at least until the Flyers return from this current road trip. Which would indicate that of the Calgary/Edmonton game set, Ersson figures to play whichever game Hart does not.

After the disaster that was Seattle, it'll be interesting to see which direction Tortorella leans. Will Hart will play in his hometown, or get the night off?