Despite tough start, John Tortorella still has Sam Ersson's back

After watching his team allow seven goals to a club that finished with the worst record in the NHL last season, Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella would have been forgiven if he kicked off his postgame press conference with criticism of his goalie, Sam Ersson, who gave up all seven on just 25 shots.

Instead of an evisceration, however, Tortorella offered a full-throated defense of his 24-year old netminder before the first question was even completed.

“Stop right there. Don’t blame Sam for this tonight,” Tortorella said. “He’s part of it. But it’s easy to look at the goaltender and throw it all on him. Not a chance. That’s a team effort tonight.”

Now Tortorella clearly entered the newly-christened Zack Hill Media Center (named after the Flyers’ longtime and now-retired PR director) with the goal of supporting his goalie, in no small part because Ersson received Bronx cheers from the Wells Fargo Center faithful late in the game when he made even straightforward, simple stops, treatment that Tortorella called “bullshit.”

But it’s not like Tortorella was wrong in his evaluation of the game — Ersson wasn’t the only person at fault for the Flyers’ 7-4 loss at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.

Let’s go through each of the seven goals:

• Goal 1: Travis Sanheim whiffs on a breakout pass, allowing Anaheim to attack in transition with speed; Ersson gives up a big rebound on the initial shot & Ryan Strome buries it
• Goal 2: Joel Farabee tries to break up a PP zone entry and fails, falling behind the play; Vatrano enters the low slot and takes advantage of a screen to rip one past Ersson
• Goal 3: Pass comes from behind the net, Ersson should have sealed post better on Vatrano
• Goal 4: Nick Seeler whiffs on a clearing attempt, Louie Belpedio blocks most of a shot but it slips through him and to an uncovered Adam Henrique in front, who maneuvers around Ersson and flips the puck past him
• Goal 5: Shorthanded turnover by Travis Konecny leads to a quick 4-on-2 transition by Anaheim, and Trevor Zegras beats Ersson with a shot from the slot
• Goal 6: 2-on-1 ends with Brett Leason shooting a puck from below the goal line that bounces off a sliding Seeler and past Ersson
• Goal 7: Breakaway goal by Vatrano

Only two of the tallies — Strome’s goal due to the rebound and Vatrano’s second — truly qualified as weak. And Ersson’s teammates deserved varying shares of blame even on those. But aside from the sixth goal, Ersson wasn’t facing unstoppable shots, either. They may not have been easy. But goalies make big saves on slot shots all the time; same with breakaway stops. Whenever Ersson had the opportunity to erase a mistake from a teammate, or deliver momentum save, he simply didn’t. This was an objectively poor game from Ersson, and he knew it.

“I feel very disappointed with myself. It’s just not up to my standards,” he bluntly stated after the game.

Ersson obviously has talent. He showcased it in Sweden, thriving at both the Allsvenskan and SHL levels. He proved it last season, winning his first six decisions at the NHL level. Remove the debacle that was the February 25 game in New Jersey, when Tortorella left him in to eat seven goals against on a night when the skaters in front of him were totally flat, simply because Carter Hart needed a full day break, and Ersson would have posted a strong 0.911 save percentage in his first NHL season. There’s a reason why we ranked him the Flyers’ seventh-best prospect back in September: he has legitimate starter upside at the top level of hockey.

But after two starts in 2023-24, Ersson is sitting on an ugly 0.760 save percentage. So what’s the problem?

One theory: he’s struggling a bit to adjust to the life of being a backup netminder.

Like most top prospects, Ersson has spent basically his entire hockey career as the starter on his clubs, playing multiple times a week and ensuring a regular rhythm for him. During this entire month of October, however, serving as Hart’s backup? Ersson got just three starts: a preseason nod on October 2, a start in Dallas last Saturday (October 21), and then this Saturday (October 28) vs. the Ducks.

The 18-day gap between starts almost certainly led to the clear rust Ersson showed against the Stars, which became even more apparent when Ersson’s play dramatically improved as the game progressed and his comfort level increased. This Saturday, however, Ersson was ineffective all game, after a six-day gap. For whatever reason, Ersson was unable to carry over his sharpness from the third period and overtime in Dallas, and instead regressed back into the goalie who was gashed for three goals in the first 20:30 of that game.

The Flyers really are facing three options right now with Ersson:

• They could give him more regular starts at the NHL level.
• They could send him down to the minors in order to receive more regular work than he’ll get in the NHL.
• They could keep deploying him as is, and trust he’ll figure out how to make it work.

It sure seems Tortorella’s preference is Option 3.

“I’ve got a pretty good goalie in Carter Hart, who’s in great shape. Carter is our number one guy,” Tortorella confirmed. “And I think I’ve got one of the better goaltending coaches (Kim Dillabaugh) in the league. That’s something they have to work through, to try to figure out how to stay in some sort of rhythm with your practice habits to get ready.”

What about the possibility of a demotion, and handing Felix Sandström (who remains on the NHL roster) the No. 2 gig?

“(Ersson) is going to be our backup goalie,” Tortorella said of Ersson. “So he’s gotta to figure it out this way.”

There you go.

Ersson, to his credit, blanched at the “lack of rhythm” explanation when it was presented to him after the game.

“It’s not really an excuse. I think it’s up to me to be prepared,” Ersson said.

But it’s almost certainly playing at least a bit of a part in his struggles. Three starts for a healthy goalie across an entire calendar month is an extremely light workload — especially for one who has appeared in at least 35 games in each of his full seasons since 2016-17.

Playing a lot less is going to be an adjustment. And Ersson realizes that. He’s working with goalie coach Dillabaugh on a daily basis to try and retain his sharpness and always be ready, even if the starts are sporadic.

“I’m practicing, I’ve got to take care of every single practice,” he noted. “(With) the mental part of things here, I’ve got to be able to find a better way to keep myself sharp so I’m ready when I play.”

One thing Ersson still has going for him: the support of Tortorella.

It would be very easy for the Flyers to simply pull the plug on this Ersson-as-backup experiment. Sandström, as noted, is still here, and Ersson is still waiver-exempt, so he could be reassigned to the AHL without fear of losing him to another team. The lower-upside Sandström could serve as the once-a-week (or two weeks) backup while Ersson develops further.

But it’s abundantly clear that Tortorella wants Ersson in Philadelphia. He loves Ersson’s mentality, dating back to his first start last season in Carolina, when he was pulled before having to come back into the game after a Hart injury, and in his second appearance of the night nearly led the Flyers to an improbable comeback win.

Hart is established here in Philadelphia, and is young enough to be a long-term piece, assuming he is cleared by the Hockey Canada investigation and signs a long-term contract. If Ersson is going to be a part of this rebuild — and Tortorella very much wants him to be — he’s going to have to learn how to thrive as an NHL backup getting sporadic starts, at least for now.

“When he plays again, I don’t know. But there is a learning curve for him as far as being the No. 2 guy,” Tortorella acknowledged. “I’m not going to go here alternating goalies back and forth to get him in rhythm. I got a pretty good guy in Carter Hart. He’s going to play the bulk of (the starts). And Erss is just gonna to try to get himself ready for his starts.”

The starts should come more frequently for Ersson at least to start November. After that near three-week gap between appearances, he has gotten the nod once a week, and now the next two weeks each include a back-to-back, meaning that he’ll have four straight weeks with at least one start per seven days. That’s not ideal for a goalie, but it’s a reasonably solid workload for an NHL backup, and more than manageable from a rhythm standpoint — if Ersson can adapt to the new role.

Ersson’s teammates believe he can do it.

“Erss is awesome. He battles every day in practice, he competes when he’s in,” Travis Konecny raved after Saturday’s loss.

And of course, so does Torts.

“He’s a unique guy for me, because I think he’ll rebound,” Tortorella said. “I think I’ve said to you guys many times, I think he’s got a mental awareness and toughness. He’ll bounce back.”

The Flyers (and Ersson) certainly hope he’s right.