As the world navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Hockey League, like everybody else, tried to figure out a way to move forward in the reality of the times. The league successfully completed the 2020 playoffs in the Toronto and Edmonton bubbles and then navigated a shortened 2020-21 season, but the degree to which day-to-day life was different for the players was rather notable.
Under the league's directives during that shortened season, players essentially got up in the morning, went to the rink, and then went home and did whatever until it was time for bed. Rinse and repeat. Contact with the outside world was discouraged, and many of the activities that players did on the road to bond as a team were outlawed.
That became an obvious struggle for some players, especially those who were young, single and living on their own. That's exactly the situation that Carter Hart faced, as he was living by himself at the age of 22. Whereas his hockey career up till that point was loaded with the camaraderie of teammates or the companionship of a billet family at the very least, now he was in an apartment that quickly became an isolation booth.
"It was terrible," Hart said. "We were told not to leave the hotel on the road and weren't supposed to hang out other guys rooms and stuff. It was just a terrible time. It was not fun."
With everything so disrupted, it's no wonder that it affected on-ice performance. And it especially applies to goaltenders, who are on an island anyway during normal times in the NHL, and who have to work harder at the mental part of the game than those at any other position.
The difference was apparent in Hart's numbers - the 2.42 GAA and 24 wins from the 2019-20 campaign, not to mention the 2.23 GAA and .926 save percentage that carried the Flyers within a game of the 2020 Eastern Conference Finals, vanished. In its place came a 3.67 GAA and .877 save percentage in 2020-21, which concerned some, but mostly those who didn't realize those numbers didn't happen in a vacuum.
Things improved last season, but Hart's stats were still affected as the team in front of him succumbed to nearly 600 man-games worth of injuries. There were still some COVID ramifications floating around, as the Flyers had some games rescheduled and some players miss time. But for the first time in a while, Hart started to feel normal again.
"I think last year I felt a lot better," he said. "Just mentally, was probably the biggest thing, right? Just being happy. Being able to visit my family or have them come see me when they want and being able to have a life outside of the game, I think that's important too.
This past season was the first time since the pandemic that the NHL made it through a completely normal year operationally, in terms of the schedule falling where it normally does and no COVID-related restrictions, schedule changes or interruptions. His 2.94 GAA and .907 save percentage aren't quite where he was in 2019-20, but his play this season largely was better than those numbers show. And he thinks it's apparent elsewhere that guys are happy to be back to normal.
"I mean, even just around the league, you look, guys have been flying this year, scoring has gone up a lot," he said. "McDavid's the first guy to score 150 points since Lemieux almost 30 years ago. It's pretty crazy."
Indeed, scoring across the last two seasons has been the highest since the mid-1990s, according to Hockey Reference. It's a trend the Flyers are hoping to join next season as they start their second year under John Tortorella.
"He's been great," Hart said. "Coming into this year, we knew that he was gonna push guys hard. And I think he got the most out of our group. And you look at our team, like some guys have really had breakout years like [Owen Tippett] and [Morgan Frost]. The depth of our roster is maybe not as deep as a lot of other teams, but I think he got the most out of what we had."
From the back end where he can see everything, Hart can see things starting to turn around for the group.
"I just think our our young guys have really started to develop," he said. "Frosty, Tip, Farabee has started to find his game again. And even some young guys coming up and playing some minutes, Tyson [Foerster] coming in and playing really well, Egor [Zamula] coming up and playing some really solid games for us. I think that's huge. It shows a lot of strides in the right direction and it's gonna be a big part of our future going forward."
