Photo Credit: NHL.com
“We saw last year how good he was. He was strong for us when he came in, he gave us a chance. The last two were good shots by good players. We have belief in our goalies,” Scott Laughton said about Samuel Ersson following a game in which Carter Hart was on the shelf with an injury.
Ersson is just one main reason why the Flyers should not look elsewhere for a trade. Asides from his past few starts with Hart being out due to the Hockey Canada incident, Ersson has been stellar between the pipes. Yes, his Save Percentage has dipped below .900 (.898%), but he should come back strong following this break. Even so-much-so, Ersson was voted by NHL.com to lead rookies, in terms of first year players at the All-Star game, an All-Rookie team.
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The 24-year-old Swede in Ersson struggled somewhat early in the season, mainly with his timing of saves. He wasn’t terrible, but he hasn’t made that save either. What I mean is he didn’t made that momentum save, that turns the page on the game in the Flyers favor.
He was pretty solid in relief of Hart at times, but he gave up another two goals that lead to the Buffalo Sabres winning the game 5-2 (One empty net goal). Ersson was pretty impressive with his rebound control in the pre-season and Ersson made timely saves. He moves laterally from post to post well, and has donned a new goalie mask in the same token this season.
That was then, and this is now. Since then, Samuel Ersson was 5-0-1 with a .916 Save Percentage in his last six games played following that drubbing. The Flyers are reaping the benefit of some awesome backup goaltending. Ersson time and time again gets the job done, “He just continues to get better, making key saves at key times. Goaltending has been good, it’s given us a chance every night for a while here. He came up with the extra save, and we found a way to get two points,” said John Tortorella.
The former Vasteras IK product in Ersson appeared to a confident after his first 12 stints in the NHL. He was 6-3, with a 3.07 GAA, and a .899 Save Percentage to start his NHL career last season. Ersson is agile, and really moved well laterally from post to post. He has a good glove hand, as he snares pucks out of mid air. For his efforts, Ersson earned a 2.00 GAA, and a .930 Save Percentage in his last three starts, and he led the Flyers to a sweep of the California road trip for the first time in franchise history.
This was an unlikely role given to him, with the sickness to Sandström, but he seemed to relish his new role with the Flyers. Ersson really turned some heads in a good way for the Flyers proud faithful, and took this backup goaltending spot by the bullhorns for a short period of time. However, John Tortorella seemed to favor Ersson over Sandström when Felix came back from injury. Now one can see why. The Flyers goaltending has been fantastic, and it has propelled the team to third place in the Metropolitan Division.
“He just continues to get better, making key saves at key times. Goaltending has been good, it’s given us a chance every night for a while here. He came up with the extra save, and we found a way to get two points,” Flyers’ Head Coach John Tortorella said.
Cal Petersen
Enter Petersen who was recalled from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in Hart’s absence back in November. Petersen entered a game against the Los Angeles Kings reeling after getting smoked by the Kings a week prior at home in Philadelphia. This happened to be a different game, as Peterson was phenomenal with his rebound control, en route to a 4-2 victory against his former team, “It’s amazing. The guys battled hard for me, blocking shots. Tell last year, but to do it here means so much,” Cal Petersen said following the game.
Theoretically, Hart’s absence wasn’t a bad thing. This gave the Flyers a shot to not only get a look at a Samuel Ersson, but Petersen, as well. Hart’s absence allowed both Ersson and Petersen to regain their confidence. Ersson was struggling before Hart’s absence, and mainly that was due to lack of playing time. It appeared that he was struggling moving to a backup role, as opposed to a starting role. The two are much different, so hopefully now he can adjust himself properly. While Petersen was struggling in Lehigh, to the point who knew what goaltender you were going to get on a particular night. It wasn’t only Petersen’s fault, the play in front of him hasn’t been that good for Lehigh this season, at least in the early going.
Petersen on one special night saved 35 shots on 37 shots faced, which was good enough for a .946 save percentage for the evening. He had tons of help in front of him, as the Flyers blocked 24 shots to propel the team to victory. Petersen was very appreciative of the guys battling for him all night, with blocking tons of shots, to give him his first NHL victory in almost a year. More importantly, he got revenge against his former club, which weight on the player’s minds following a back-to-back the prior weekend against his former club in a losing effort.
This allowed the Flyers to juggle and have faith in their goaltending depth from here on out, as Hart is now out indefinitely with the Hockey Canada incident. Hart now has been formally charged on one count of sexual assault related to the said incident from 2018 at the WJC. That one game against Los Angeles gives the Flyers hope that he can plug in a start here and there for Ersson, at least for the rest of the season. This also gives Petersen a shot to restore his NHL career.
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In the end, Flyers’ General Manager Danny Briere did a great job in plugging a hole in case of a long-term injury, or obviously this said incident with Hockey Canada. The Flyers should not make a trade for a goaltender at the trade deadline. I do not expect Carter Hart to play for the rest of the season, but the Flyers have the goaltending depth at the moment to sustain this situation. They are in a rebuild, and obviously they are not supposed to be this good, this soon. Hopefully, the Flyers stay the course of the rebuild and don’t blow assets to bring in a more Veteran netminder. If Petersen can’t do the job, give Felix Sandström one more crack at it. The orange and black have a plethora of goalies in the system at the moment for once, why not use it to their advantage?
WTF. This writing is atrocious. What the hell does this even mean?
The 24-year-old Swede in Ersson struggled somewhat early in the season, mainly with his timing of saves. He wasn’t terrible, but he hasn’t made that save either. What I mean is he didn’t made that momentum save, that turns the page on the game in the Flyers favor.
My head hurts