Flyers Momentum Goes As Goaltending Goes

Of the three goaltenders the organization has used, Carter Hart has been the most consistent. Of course, as the teams default "starter" coming into this season, he's also been given the most chances. That's not to say he hasn't earned the time he's been given, though. His 2022/23 season(Current Official Stats as of 02/13/23: 40GP, 16W, 15L, 9OTL, 1SO, 2.78GAA, .913Sv%) has been much improved from his disastrous 2020/21season(Official Season Stats: 27GP, 9W. 11L, 5OTL, 3.67GAA, .877Sv%) and even slightly improved over this 2021/22 season(Official Season Stats: 45GP, 13W, 24L, 7OTL, 3.16GGA, .905Sv%).

For the Flyers, the improvement, regardless of how small, is surely a good thing given the other options they have in the pipeline behind Hart. Coming into the season, they expected to have a goaltending depth chart that consisted of Hart, Ivan Fedotov, Felix Sandström and Samuel Ersson. However, those plans were derailed in July 2022 when the Russian net minder, Fedotov, ran into governmental issues that thwarted his ability to fulfill his two year contract with the Flyers. As a result, the Flyers were down a man on their depth chart leaving them with Hart, Sandström and Ersson.

Of the two options behind Hart, Samuel Ersson has been the next best option since training camp. However, Ersson suffered an injury in the 2021/22 season that caused him to miss all but 5 games of the AHL season, only actually completing 3 of those 5 games; leaving the remaining 2 with the same injury that would ultimately end his season. Given his lack of playing time, the organization wasn't ready to thrust him into the NHL until forced.

That came right before Christmas when Sandström got sick and The Flyers had a back-to-back set. Ersson's initial game against the Hurricanes started out as a complete disaster, forcing Tortorella to yank the rookie and bring Hart in despite it being the back half of a back to back in which Hart had played the first half. Unfortunately, just ten minutes into his stint in the game, Hart left with a concussion.

This goes right to the heart of the matter. Ersson struggled mightily initially, and the team appeared dead in the water. Hart started to steady the waters a bit before he was injured, and upon the injury, Ersson came back in and made some tough saves that helped thrust the momentum in the Flyers favor.

With Sandström back from illness, but Hart out recovering from his concussion for three games after the Christmas break, Ersson was made the makeshift starting goalie despite his initial game. Tortorella said given how he played in the latter part of the game against the Hurricanes he deserved a chance to rebound. It didn't help that Tortorella hadn't enjoyed anything he'd seen from Sandström this season(Current Season Stats as of 2/13/23: 11GP, 1W, 8L, 1OTL, 3.52GAA, .880Sv%). The Coach has been critical of Sandström, admitting that he doesn't know enough about the position to say much about the analytics of it, but admitting he knows just enough that he knows the goalie needs to "make more saves".

The Flyers managed to keep Ersson in the NHL for an extra two weeks beyond Hart's return from his concussion by using a CBA loophole that allowed them to send Sandström down to the AHL on a two week long conditioning stint. Within that stint the Flyers had a back-to-back set that saw them face Boston. Hart struggled a bit against the best team in the league, leading to Ersson getting a crack at them when Tortorella pulled Hart, though he was quick to point out post-game that his decision was not necessarily due to Hart's play and more to do with trying to jolt the team. Ersson didn't far much better against the high powered offense of the Bruins, and the team couldn't find any offense of their own to help pick their goalies up in this game as they dropped the contest 6-0.

The Bruins game would be Ersson's next to last appearance before Sandström's return from his conditioning stint forced the Flyers to make a decision between waiving and assigning Sandström to the AHL or sending the waiver-exempt Ersson down instead. Ultimately they opted to send the rookie back to the AHL after a 7GP, 5W, 0L, 0OTL, 1SO, 2.37GAA, .918Sv% stat line that had fans scratching their heads at the decision.

They were left more confused and even frustrated when Sandström's first NHL start back saw him give up a really weak, rough goal to the Jets shortly after the Flyers had come back and tied the game. The goal took the momentum out of the Flyers sails and ultimately ended up being the game winning goal that allowed the Jets to defeat the Flyers 4-3 in regulation.

All three of the goalies the team has used this season have proven they're indeed human. What separates two of them above the other is the ability to bounce back after a bad goal or bad game while the remaining goalie appears to be stuck in his own head. It's gotten to the point where fans consider all his games a loss before the game has even started because his lack of confidence easily and so clearly sucks the momentum out of the teams sails rather early in games, which just further proves this team goes as their goaltending does.