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Flyers’ Hart kept injury a secret, expected to miss 7-10 days

Detroit Red Wings v Philadelphia Flyers

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - FEBRUARY 16: Carter Hart #79 of the Philadelphia Flyers defends his net in the third period against the Detroit Red Wings at Wells Fargo Center on February 16, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Detroit Red Wings 6-5 in overtime. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

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PHILADELPHIA — Carter Hart’s injury happened before the Philadelphia Flyers’ 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night. The problem was he didn’t tell anyone about it until after Friday’s practice at Lincoln Financial Field ahead of the Stadium Series game (8 p.m. ET; NBC) against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

So when Flyers head coach Scott Gordon addressed the media Friday and announced that Brian Elliott would start the game, he had no idea Hart, whom many expected would be starting, was injured. Hart participated fully in the team’s practice and then spoke with reporters afterward and expressed his disappointment with the decision while not giving off any inkling something was up.

Gordon said that Hart’s injury was discovered Friday night by team doctors, one day after the he allowed three goals on nine shots.

“Carter, to his credit, was trying to fight through it [vs. Montreal], and it was a little more severe than he thought,” Gordon said.

The Flyers announced on Saturday morning that Hart would be out a “minimum of 10 days” with a lower-body injury. Gordon said hours before the Stadium Series game it would be more like 7-10 days. Either way, Hart will miss a handful of games and their two losses this week to Montreal and Tampa Bay — which Hart was pulled from both — effectively ended their already-slim chances at grabbing an Eastern Conference playoff spot.

After the injury was been discovered, Gordon looked back at the Canadiens game and could see something was up with Hart.

“I couldn’t tell if he was favoring,” Gordon said. “I don’t necessarily look at just the goals if I’m gonna pull the goaltender. It’s more about how he’s handling the rebounds and I felt like pucks were coming off him funny. Like the third goal, usually he puts that to the corner or he’s tied that up and it popped out in front and Robert Hagg cleared it to the corner. I don’t know if that had any impact. I don’t know. I haven’t spoken with him on the specific shots. It was a shot where he reached up and he got a piece of it but he didn’t handle it. There was a couple rebounds that I thought were kind of awkward. Whether that has to do with it or not, maybe it was on his mind. I don’t know.”

With Hart sidelined, that leaves the Flyers with Elliott and Cam Talbot as their options in net. With a back-to-back next Thursday and Friday against Columbus and New Jersey, that will likely see Talbot make an historic debut. Whenever Talbot gets into a game for the Flyers the franchise will set an NHL record by using its eighth goaltender this season.

MORE 2019 STADIUM SERIES:
Penguins ready to enjoy Stadium Series, but focus is on two points
Why Scott Gordon chose Elliott over Hart for Stadium Series start
2019 Stadium Series by the numbers
Simmonds’ mind on helping Flyers, not NHL trade deadline
Scott Hartnell Q&A

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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.