Flyers’ league-worst goaltending risks setting back their culture, rebuild

It was the Philadelphia Flyers primary concern headed into the 2024-25 season.

Was Samuel Ersson capable of handling the workload of a No.

1 goalie, while also getting competent support from others? The answer so far is an resounding no to both questions, and it leaves the team in a perilous situation coming out of the Christmas break.

Advertisement Through 35 games, the Flyers are the owners of the NHL s worst goaltending.

Its not up for debate.

Their .866 team save percentage ranks last (the next lowest team, Columbus , is at .875), while advanced metrics tracker Moneypuck has them at a NHL-worst 18.0 goals-against above expected at five-on-five, including Erssons minus-11.8 goals-saved above expected, also a league low.

Most distressing is that while Ersson was serviceable through the first couple months, and even had a handful of strong performances, a groin injury that forced him from the lineup twice has seemingly thrown off his calibration.

Combining the workloads of Ersson, Aleksei Kolosov and Ivan Fedotov , Moneypuck has the Flyers at nearly three fewer wins than they would have with simply replacement-level goaltending.

Put another way, thats four to six more points in the standings had they gotten more stops on routine shots, placing the Flyers in either in a wild-card position or at least on the cusp of one.

Theyre four points behind Ottawa for the second wild-card spot now, and the Senators have a game in hand.

In early October, coach John Tortorella quipped that the Flyers goaltending situation scares the crap out of him.

Three months later, with the Flyers set to begin a five-game road trip in Anaheim on Saturday, hes probably even more terrified.

Consider that when asked in mid-November about how a teams goaltending situation can affect it from a mental standpoint, Tortorella said: Goaltenders are the heartbeat.

When theyre playing lousy, your team is miniature.

When theyre letting in bad goals, your team is on its heels.

When they present themselves as confident ...

it certainly affects whats going on in front of (them), how (the team feels) about how they can play.

In moments leading up to the break, the Flyers did look miniature, to use the coachs word, after some bad goals.

The first period on Monday in Pittsburgh, in which they allowed four goals, ultimately cost them the game, and although they werent all Erssons fault, the fifth one late in the second on a stoppable shot when it was just a one-goal deficit took the wind out of the Flyers sails for the third.

They managed just five shots on goal in the period in a 7-3 loss against a rival club, never really getting back into the game.

Advertisement On Dec.

21 against Columbus, the Flyers were on their heels early, and Ersson admitted after the game that two of the four goals he allowed were shty ones.

The Flyers, to their credit, stormed back multiple times to win 5-4 in overtime, but Columbus isnt exactly among the leagues elite.

Their goalie, Elvis Merzlikins , was just as leaky that night, too.

On Dec.

19, Kolosovs misplay led to a game-tying goal late in the second period by Anze Kopitar in a match that was even to that point, but it resulted in the Flyers turtling in the third and allowing four goals while mustering just two shots in a 7-3 loss to the Kings .

Those sorts of situations were similar down the stretch last season, too, of course, as the Flyers goaltending was the primary reason they frittered away a playoff spot after Carter Harts departure in January.

They couldnt outwork the porous goaltending.

What they didnt do during the struggles then, according to the players in the dressing room, is unravel behind closed doors.

The renewed culture remained strong.

There wasnt any finger-pointing.

They likely understood that Ersson was thrust into an unfair and unfamiliar position as a young goaltender, and none of the backups they used to give him a rest were NHL-caliber.

While a few players seemed to indicate after the season that they didnt deal very well with some of the noise around the team in the second half, from the Hart situation to Tortorella making some puzzling comments and decisions , they never turned on one another.

How will they handle it now, though, if the goaltending doesnt drastically improve? It could be the biggest test for their renewed culture so far if this pattern continues, especially since its now been nearly a full calendar year since their goaltending position was thrust into disarray.

Advertisement If goaltending is the heartbeat, the Flyers are flirting with a flatline.

Its a precarious place to be.

And the importance of a teams culture seems to have been reinforced lately around the league.

The New York Rangers are in free fall after trading captain Jacob Trouba this month and waiving fourth-line glue guy Barclay Goodrow in the offseason.

The Vancouver Canucks like the Rangers, a team with preseason Stanley Cup aspirations have disappointed, probably at least in part to a reported rift between their two top centers.

The Buffalo Sabres have proven year after year that simply stockpiling young talent doesnt always work; conversely, the Nashville Predators have shown adding big names in the offseason isnt always a recipe for success.

Patrik Laine was recently critical of his former team, the Blue Jackets, for just giving up when its December, and he should probably get the benefit of the doubt considering that organizations dire history.

Make no mistake, Flyers general manager Daniel Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones shoulder most of the blame for the goaltending over the past 11 months.

But their commitment to trying to establish something none of those aforementioned teams seems to have at the moment is looking better by the day.

Further, they had the foresight to notice that the goaltending pipeline needed addressing when they used second- and third-round picks on goalies in the 2023 draft, the first they ran.

Both of those now 19-year-old goalies have shown promise, too.

Carson Bjarnason is part of Team Canada in the upcoming World Junior Championship, while Yegor Zavragin has been particularly impressive in the KHL.

Bjarnason will likely turn pro next season and play for the Phantoms, while Zavragin is under contract with SKA for two more seasons after this one.

Will the Flyers stated goal of building a strong culture and, in turn, winning games along the way remain in place until either Ersson finds his game again still their best hope or someone else emerges? Because part of keeping that foundation strong is preventing losses from mounting.

Thats impossible without reliable goaltending.

The goaltender, Tortorella said last month, is really the mindset of your team.

More saves may be necessary, then, to keep this unique rebuild on the level.

(Photo of Samuel Ersson and Columbus Kirill Marchenko : Eric Hartline / Imagn Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.