The Latest on Carter Hart After Enduring an Apparent Injury Last Game

With the Hurricanes on the power play, Hart attempted to push from his left to his right across his crease as the Hurricanes completed a cross-ice pass, but instead of attempting to make a ten-bell save, he was colliding head-to-head with Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis. As Hart was tracking the puck, and attempting to make his next save, Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was shoving Jarvis towards his own goalie.

Jarvis was somewhat prepared for the impact and therefore able to brace himself a little bit for the contact, while Hart was completely unsuspecting, and despite leaving under his own power, appeared to be a bit dazed and confused as he left the ice after the collision.

The Flyers had no update on the goalie's injury status after the game, other than to say it was an upper-body injury and would be re-evaluated when the team returned to practice after the Holiday break.

Tuesday, at 2PM ET, when the team took the ice for their first post-holiday practice, Hart was one of the first players to hit the ice to participate.

Backup goalie Felix Sandström, who was out with an illness for the two games prior to the holiday break, has also rejoined the team for practice.

After practice, Hart was not available to speak with the media because he was doing work with the trainers; however, when asked about the 24-year-old goalie's status, head coach John Tortorella reported to the media that he spoke with his starting net minder every day over the three-in-a-half day break, and from what the head coach could tell today in practice, he should be good to go for the trip out to the west coast tomorrow.

Despite both goalies being present for practice, and head coach John Tortorella being confident Hart is fine, and will be ready to play against the Sharks on Thursday night, rookie goalie Samuel Ersson was also still on hand for the first post-holiday practice, indicating they may be waiting until right before the plane takes off for California tomorrow afternoon to officially declare Hart and Sandström both fully healthy.

Over the last several seasons the Flyers injury luck has been awful, and this year has been no exception. With Hart, according to Tortorella, they appear to have dodged a bullet. At least, on this particular occasion.