"I took a week off here from training and started back up [on Tuesday] because I just felt so lazy sitting around the house the whole time. I needed to be doing something," Hart said during a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. "I haven't really lifted a lot during the playoffs. More so mobility. Getting my body accustomed to working out every day. We were playing hockey every second day. It can be hard to get your off ice training in and get your weight lifting in. I think it's important that you ease yourself back into things and go from there."
During the Flyers postseason run from Aug. 2 to Sept. 5 -- which saw the Flyers play 16 games in 35 days, including a pair of overtime games plus a double-OT game against the Islanders -- Hart made 14 starts and logged 860 minutes in goal. He posted a 2.23 GAA., a .926 save percentage and notched back-to-back shutouts in Games 3 and 4 of the First Round series against the Montreal Canadiens. Hart prevailed in two potential elimination games in the Islanders series before the Flyers collectively fell flat in Game 7.
In the process, the 22-year-old Hart passed two major tests that all NHL goalies must face on their road to being recognized among the upper-echelon players at their position:
Prior to the start of the playoffs, Hart had only played in games held on back-to-back nights twice in his NHL career and had only done a three-in-four gauntlet once. He'd done it at the junior hockey level, of course, with the WHL's Everett Silvertips but the Stanley Cup playoffs were a different matter. At one juncture, Hart made five starts in nine nights. He was given a one-night rest when Brian Elliott got the start in Game 4 of the series against New York.
Play gets very physical around the net in the postseason, and goalies get bumped around. Twice in the New York series, Hart had goals scored against him on plays where an Islanders player made contact with him in the crease. He said on Wednesday that he held up fine, both physically and mentally, throughout the postseason. While disappointed in the outcome of the New York series, he felt the season as a whole was a success both for the team and for his continued growth as an NHL goaltender.
"I felt good in the net. I think obviously in the season, there's ups and downs. You really just have to find a way to find that consistency. You find that through practice and all your off-ice habits. In the playoffs, I felt good. I think we did a good job here this season. Obviously, we had some adversity as well and we battled through it. Came on really hot at the end as a group there. Took that over to the playoffs there with the round-robin and the first round there. Obviously, you're going to run into some speed bumps there in the regular season and the playoffs. The Isles were just the better team," he said.
The 2020 offseason is going to be an unusual one, and not just because it's taking place in late summer and the autumn. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty about the timetable for the availability of all NHL venues and the return of fans to the stands, there are no finalized dates yet for training camp and the start of the 2020-21 regular season. Target dates were named -- training camps by Nov. 17 and the season opening on Dec. 1 -- but the timetable is fluid.
For Hart's part, he said on Wednesday that he's trying to approach his preparations for 2020-21 "just like a normal offseason."
"We'll see with ice and stuff. Probably will take a little bit of time off the ice here to give my body some rest. Just kind of got to wait and see,"he said.
