Today we welcome Carter Hart to the Pro Reads team with what will be the first of many after the Philadelphia Flyers Phenom spent a full hour breaking down saves and going over video from his second NHL season with Kevin Woodley. As you’ll learn quickly throughout these video sessions, Hart is always looking for ways to get better, something our members already know extends into his off-ice and mental training habits, and that’s certainly the case with our first example, a backdoor save off an Artemi Panarin one-timer that he shook his head at as soon as the clip started because he remembers it went off the paddle of his stick. So, follow along as Hart breaks down the sequence, and what he wishes he’d did different at the end.

The Sequence

This highlight actually contains several elements before we even get to the save itself.

It starts with what appears to be a somewhat innocuous point shot. Of course, in the NHL, even the simplest shots usually involve a traffic element for the goalie to contend, and Hart shares some thoughts on his depth below, but before you hear them, what do you think?

From there, Hart transitions into reverse-VH to deal with the rebound threat from close range, only to see that puck passed back up into the slot for looks to be a pretty good one-time opportunity in a prime scoring position. Hart pushes out to the middle, only to have that player instead make a pretty remarkable blind backhand pass to Panarin on the other side.

Summary

Hart talks about wanting to go into a “spread” more on that final save to get his blocker down more and sealed over his right pad, something he mentions working on with Flyers goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh for desperation situations, cross-ice feeds and rebound plays to make sure the lower half of the net is taken away without leaving any holes. It’s a theme that resurfaces in some of the other saves that Hart reviewed with us for the rest of that hour.

We also heard Hart talking about being counter-rotated, leaving his hands behind his body before his final push, and that too is something the young Flyers goalie is good at, breaking down his body mechanics and some of the keys to the tracking habits and movement efficiency that have led many observers to compare him to his boyhood idol, Carey Price.

So be sure to keep an eye out for future Hart Pro Reads and a lot more as more goalies join us online for video review sessions while the NHL season is paused because of the Coronavirus.

We’ve already had Hart, Jake Allen and Cal Petersen, as well as in-person sessions with Price, Frederik Andersen, James Reimer, Martin Jones, Mike Condon and Craig Anderson, and promise we have a lot more exciting names and breakdowns coming soon!

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