Carter Hart returns in goal — finally — as Victor Mete makes his Flyers debut vs. the Los Angeles Kings

LOS ANGELES — It’s officially official now. Carter Hart will return between the pipes for the Flyers.

Hart was expected to make his return Friday night in Anaheim but was scratched earlier in the day with an illness. The goalie missed the three previous games after leaving just 10 minutes into the contest against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 1 with a back injury.

Coming off a 6-3 win over the Ducks and facing the Los Angeles Kings, who have not lost in regulation their last eight games (6-0-2) on Saturday night, head coach John Tortorella opted to swap out some of his younger players — and no, one of them is not Morgan Frost. Defenseman Egor Zamula and forward Bobby Brink will watch from the press box. Brink will be a healthy scratch for the second time this season, and Zamula will sit for the third time.

Ryan Poehling will slot back in but will be put into a “more offensive role” further up in the lineup than his usual spot alongside Nic Deslauriers and Garnet Hathaway. Victor Mete will take Zamula’s spot on the blue line, pairing up with Louie Belpedio, for his Flyers debut.

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It’s been almost a year since Mete last laced up his skates for an NHL game — 340 days, to be exact. Then a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Mete sustained an injury doctors told him was more common for someone in a car accident.

“It was pretty bad. I broke my pubic bone and I sprained the [sacroiliac] joint in my back, so it was a long recovery. ... I just got hit, and it wasn’t even like a hard hit,” said Mete, who signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Flyers on July 5. “I tore my adductor and I was playing with it. And then I tore my lower abdomen, and those two tearing ripped my pubic [bone], and then I sprained my SI joint in my back.”

Mete went into the boards awkwardly in a game against the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 30, and said his left leg turned out when he made contact. After getting hit, the 5-foot-9, 187-pound defenseman tried to play through it; he lasted two more games for a total of just 16 minutes, 40 seconds. Somehow he avoided surgery.

“I had to change some [of my] skating, couldn’t sit as low just because I would feel it every time,” he said. “Training in the summer too, a little bit, couldn’t do like single leg stuff, had to be more double leg. But single leg is a little bit better now.”

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A veteran of 247 NHL games with the Leafs, Senators, and Canadiens, Mete will now get a chance to prove himself south of the border. Recalled on Nov. 5 from Lehigh Valley as the team headed west, the new dad — daughter Milena was born Oct. 29 in Toronto — is excited about the opportunity to show what he can do for a head coach who didn’t have him on the radar when training camp opened in September.

“It’s just kind of play simple,” Mete said when asked about facing the Kings. “Try to keep them on the outside, take away their stick if I can’t move them. Try to take away what I can from them, take away time and space. I think I’m a little bit quicker than a lot of them so just try to beat them with my feet.”

As Hart and Mete return to the lineup, defenseman Sean Walker is having a different kind of return. The undrafted defenseman spent the first six years of his professional career — five at the NHL level — with the Kings organization. He makes his return to Crypto.com Arena for the first time since being acquired in the three-way deal that sent Ivan Provorov to the Blue Jackets.

“The writing was kind of on the wall,” Walker said earlier in the week. “I knew where the organization was at and where my position was, so it was something that I definitely was prepared for. ... At the end of the day, I’m really happy where I am now and looking forward to the future.”

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The future is bright for Walker. With the Flyers, the 28-year-old blueliner is averaging more than 20 minutes after never averaging more than 18:50 with the Kings. In 14 games this season, he has four points (two goals, two assists) and is on pace for 23 points, one off his career high. Across his five seasons in the City of Angels, he never averaged more than two minutes on the power play; in the last two games, after being moved to the point on the second unit, he’s averaging 4:31.

“Obviously, being on the power play, that’s more minutes that you’re going to be on the ice,” he said. “You should be in the offensive zone most of the time and gain some confidence that way, getting some shots through, making plays. That’s something that I have known that I’ve always had in my game. I’m glad that they’re starting to realize what I can bring to the table and hopefully, that just keeps going forward.”

Before the puck dropped on the Kings-Flyers matchup, the women hit the ice. Hockey Canada and USA Hockey met at Crypto.com Arena for the next installment of the Rivalry Series. ... Former Flyers bench boss Ken Hitchcock will be formally inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday night. Speaking with The Inquirer recently, he said his biggest disappointment in hockey was how the 2003-04 season ended. Reeling with a depleted blue line, the Flyers lost in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final to the Tampa Bay Lightning — and Tortorella. “The big injury there was [Eric] Desjardins, he was such a good player,” remembered Tortorella, who also quipped with a smile and a laugh that Hitchcock should “stop making excuses” for the loss. “It was a big part of our meetings, was trying to attack that position because they were banged up.” Tortorella, who also calls Hitchcock a good friend, said when he was a young coach he would seek him out at events to learn from him. “I look at Brad Shaw, who I have here, and I look at Ken Hitchcock, two of the most interesting hockey minds I have been around. Very detailed, very intelligent, I have a tremendous respect for him.”