After playing his 51st game of the season and 32nd of the Flyers’ last 38, Samuel Ersson wanted to keep playing.
He wanted the playoffs, an admirable desire from a 24-year-old rookie goaltender who had played a lot more than anyone imagined at the start of the season.
“Obviously I played a lot, especially in the second half of the year,” he said after the team’s finale last month. “But that’s the type of player I want to be.”
Ersson, who is currently playing for Sweden at the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, is scheduled to be the Flyers’ No. 1 in net next season. He suddenly stepped into that role this season on Jan. 23 when Carter Hart requested and was granted an indefinite leave of absence due to the Hockey Canada sexual assault case.
Flyers general manager Danny Briere did not have an update on Hart’s status last month and it appears the testing will not begin until after the 2024-25 season is underway. The Flyers plan to have Ersson and rookie Ivan Fedotov, 27, form their goaltending tandem to open next season.
Heading into the final training camp, Ersson was trying to earn the Flyers’ backup job. Does his mentality change this time as the favorite to be the Flyers’ number one?
“I would say it’s business as usual,” Ersson said at his end-of-season news conference last month. “You’re always trying to make strides, right? You’re just trying to get better and put me in a good position to compete for as many games as I can next year.”
Ersson will try to prove that he can be a regular starter in the NHL. He showed early signs of great potential this season and struggled down the stretch as the year progressed and departures piled up.
“It was a really tough situation for him, losing his teammate and having to play almost every other night,” Briere said last month. “I know it got a little tough down the stretch and maybe they overplayed it, but overall it was an impressive season for a young goalkeeper.”
John Tortorella noted that Ersson was originally scheduled to play 18 to 22 games.
“I’ve played with him a ton,” the Flyers head coach said last month. “And he’s tired.”
From January 18 through the end of the regular season, Ersson’s 32 appearances were tied with the Sabres’ Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen for second among all NHL goaltenders. Only the Capitals’ Charlie Lindgren played in more games during that span with 33.
The Flyers ended up playing five goaltenders this season and were tied with the Senators for the worst save percentage in the league at .884.
“Let’s face it, things got into a really weird situation when we lost Carter,” Tortorella said. “But having said that, we had conversations in the summer about the situation with Carter and we thought something was going to happen, right? We have to be honest about it, it’s not a great situation for our team when we lost him. But he showed me a lot good things about a specific guy in Ers, how he handled it. But I made the decision, I made the decision, to live or die with Ers when I played all those games with him.
From Nov. 3 to Jan. 18, the Flyers went 21-9-5 over a 35-game span. In that stretch, Ersson went 12-3-2 with a 1.82 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage. Over his final 15 starts of the season, he was pulled four times and went 5-7-2 with a 3.65 goals-against average and .861 save percentage.
On the season, Ersson finished 23-19-7 with a 2.82 goals-against average, an .890 save percentage and four shutouts.
“I felt like there were some ups and downs,” he said. “I had some tough stretches and I also felt like I had a long stretch where I think I played well and consistently over a period of time. I think the key word I’m trying to push is consistency. I feel like that. “It’s the key to me to be an impactful player in this league.”
The Flyers lost nine of their last 11 games (2-7-2), a stretch that included a costly eight-game losing streak. With three games left, the Flyers were able to stop the skid and stay alive in the playoff race for a Game 82 that mattered. Ersson was strong in those three games, posting a 4-1 win over the NHL’s top Rangers, a 1-0 shutout of the Devils and allowing just one goal in a 2-1 loss to the Capitals.
“I feel like I can hold my head up a little bit higher,” he said. “It was a tough stretch and it happened at a tough time of the year, but I think coming out of that we made a valid effort. I think that’s something that’s a good experience for us as well.”
“This is the first time we’ve experienced it, for a lot of us. Basically, the hard work of the season, the stretches where you play every other day for a month. It’s something I haven’t done and you have to know that.” about learning how to deal with it, how to keep your body and your mind at the best possible level to be ready for those games.
“We have to play some big games here at the end of the season and chasing the playoff spot is something we can definitely learn from and gain experience from.”
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