Comeback Kids?

At the start of every new season, there is always the loom of the unknown. Despite how good or bad someone played last season, that could completely change this season. In this article, we're going to take a look at two goalies who have had bounce back starts to the season. And while it is still early on, these improvements are quite impressive.

Coming into this season, no one expected anything of the Philadelphia Flyers. They traded away their captain at the deadline, have a rough looking d-core, and just hired John Tortorella in attempt to change the culture of the team. Getting of to a 7-3-2 start in their first 12 games was definitely a surprise to many. This record is largely due to the incredible play of Carter Hart. He went 5-0 in his first 5 starts and continued on to 6-0-2 in his first 8, pulling off above .93 save % in 7 of those 8 games. This is incredible considering the rough year Hart had last season. He ended the season with a save percentage of .905 and a GAA 3.16 and a GSAx of -33.7 in 44 starts. So far this season, Hart has improved his Sv % by 4.1% and dropped his GAA by 1.19, up to .946 and 1.97 respectively. His GSAx is at an astounding 15.9 in just 8 games. He has completely turned his play around and is to thank for the Flyers early success. How long he can keep up this incredible level of play is yet to be seen, but Flyers fans are certainly enjoying this season more than they thought they would be.

Kevin Lankinen is entering his 3rd year as an full-time NHLer. He has been a backup all 3 years, playing a total of 69 games in his first two seasons in Chicago. This year he is playing behind a new team, the Nashville Predators, and a new goalie partner, Juuse Saros. Saros, a Vezina finalist last season, has not gotten off to the start he wanted, meanwhile Lankinen has played terrific in his first 4 outings. So far, Lankinen has a save percentage of .940 and a GAA of 1.91. He has also saved 3.9 goals above expected, nearly a goal a game! These numbers are a massive improvement from last year, where he had a save % of .891, a GAA of 3.5, and a GSAx of -28.6 in 32 starts. While some of the increase could be due to Nashville's defense being better than Chicago's, Lankinen is due for a lot of the credit considering Saros has not had the same early success. And while the sample size is quite small, just 4 games, if Saros' game doesn't improve soon, we could see a 1a/1b tandem start to emerge in Smashville (check out last weeks article for more on goalie tandems).

*Stats as of 11/8/22*