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Takeaways: Lightning put up a touchdown on Sam Ersson in 7-2 Flyers loss

Sam Ersson is the story of this one, and the Flyers will see the Lightning again on Monday night.

Posted on by Cole Keller
Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

In the first game of a two game set against Tampa, the Flyers allowed the most goals in a game this season so far, losing in blowout fashion 7-2.

The Basics

First period: 1:49 – Nikita Kucherov (Brayden Point), 4:15 – Garnet Hathaway (Noah Juulsen, Rodrigo Abols), 6:05 – Kucherov (Point, Charle-Edouard D’Astous) 
Second period: 13:37 – Nick Paul (D’Astous, Anthony Cirelli) 
Third period: 2:03 – Gage Goncalves (Kucherov, Darren Raddysh), 3:37 – Brandon Hagel (Jake Guentzel, Cirelli), 4:45 – Owen Tippett (Christian Dvorak) (PPG), 9:00 – Yanni Gourde (Zemgus Girgensons), 11:00 – Goncalves (Kucherov, Point) 
SOG: 23 (TBL) – 20 (PHI) 

Some Takeaways

Kucherov beats Sam Ersson twice in first, and Ersson is bad the rest of the way 

Right away in this game, we were quickly reminded just how good Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point are at this sport. Point forced an early turnover right at the blueline, and spotted Kucherov in front for a pretty unstoppable goal. No fault to Sam Ersson at all there. 

The second one, though, is one Sam Ersson would love to have back. Kucherov absolutely sniped Ersson, but anytime a goal goes in unscreened from above the circle, the goalie should probably have stopped it. Ersson probably deserves a little bit of slack considering one of the best players in the sport did it to him, but it’s yet another goal that an NHL goalie typically stops. 

That’s before mentioning what happened after that. As we watch more and more Ersson games, it’s becoming increasingly evident that he just never makes the big save. The chances that the Lightning scored on tonight were all pretty high-danger chances, but man we’re watching a goaltender that is just being obliterated out there right now. Entering the third period, it looked like we were getting just a typically middling Ersson performance where he allowed 3-4 goals and made just enough saves to keep the Flyers in the game. 

Then, the third period just completely unraveled on them. Multiple breakaway goals, multiple goals Ersson should have had, and just a mess defensively for the Flyers. Even with a pretty leaky defensive structure tonight, you’ve got to get more saves from your goalie. There’s no question about it, and even if the Flyers were stout defensively tonight, they weren’t ever winning this game the way Ersson was playing. Full tire-fire disaster level goaltending tonight. By HockeyViz’s metrics, Tampa had only 2.7 expected goals tonight, to put Ersson’s performance into perspective. 

Rick Tocchet also just let Ersson wear it. Maybe it’s a symptom of the Flyers condensed schedule, or the fact that the Flyers didn’t want to give the Lightning a look at Dan Vladar in advance of Monday’s game. Sometimes these nights happen, but you have to wonder if the Flyers would look at improving the backup goalie situation in the coming months. Whether that’s bringing up Aleksei Kolosov, or finding a cheap goalie at the deadline, you’d have to think the front office knows that rostering a goalie with Ersson’s statline is untenable. For the condensed schedule coming up, particularly after the Olympics break, the points that are being left off the table in Ersson starts might come back to haunt the Flyers. Feels like we’re at or near an inflection point here. 

Hathaway did it! 

After Kucherov’s first goal of the game, the Flyers immediately responded, courtesy of a deflection goal by Garnet Hathaway. This was so good to see from Hathaway, who broke his goalless and pointless streak to start the season, a streak that reached 36 games. 

Maybe it’s a sign that Hathaway is coming out of what was easily the worst stretch of his NHL career. After nearly half a season of very bad hockey from Hathaway, it’s been quite easy to think that the 34-year-old winger was just cooked. Rick Tocchet even took the veteran out of the lineup for multiple games in favor of guys like Carl Grundstrom, and he really only got back in because of injuries to other wingers. Having said that, Hathaway has been returning to form since his return to the Flyers lineup. He’s in and around actual offense now, not making awful decisions on every shift, and he’s being quite the annoying pest for oppositions to deal with. We’re getting Hathaway fights with regularity (like tonight’s versus Declan Carlile), and he’s throwing around massive hits that actually disrupt the play again. It’s been very good to see for the Flyers veteran. 

Grebenkin-Zegras-Michkov appears 

After starting out the game with Christian Dvorak centering Trevor Zegras and Matvei Michkov, Rick Tocchet replaced Dvorak with Nikita Grebenkin on the line midway through the first period, and shifted Zegras to the middle. Once that happened, the line began to really generate chances, earning many more looks for the Orange and Black as the game progressed. The line spent six minutes together tonight, and they were well above water in terms of expected goals and shot attempts. 


Stylistically, the players seemed to really work off each other well. Grebenkin and Michkov are two of the Flyers best players along the boards, and all three players seem to be really excellent in making plays with little time and space. Zegras and Michkov match each other in terms of pure skill and awareness, while Grebenkin’s motor can just give those two ample opportunities with the puck. Out of anything that came out of this game, the use of this line combination is one of two real positives (along with Hathaway) to build from. 

Ristolainen gets caught puck watching 

Way back to the Lightning’s third goal of the game, Rasmus Ristolainen had one of the rougher defensive plays of the night. Being pressured along the boards by a Tampa player, he just kinda aimlessly threw the puck up the boards to another Lightning forward. He then got caught puck watching, and didn’t recover to gain positioning in front of the net. After some suspect defensive plays the other night against Toronto, it’s now been two off nights in a row for Ristolainen. In fairness, tonight was an off night for the entire team, minus a few forwards. So, let’s hope this is just a minor blip in the radar for a guy that’s been pretty consistent in his time with the Flyers. 

Owen Tippett throws a changeup 

Another small positive from tonight came courtesy of a third period goal from Owen Tippett. On the power play, Tippett flubbed a shot from the high slot, and it was just enough to fool Vasilevsky. Lucky but good, and the 14th goal of the season for Tippett and a minor breakthrough for the power play. 

A really dangerous stretch for the Flyers 

This stretch of games has the potential to make-or-break the Flyers season, especially considering how tight the Eastern Conference playoff race is. Considering how injured the Flyers are right now, and the state of the backup goalie situation, it’s fair to be nervous about how this next few weeks is going to go. Ahead, they’ve got a rematch with Tampa, games in Buffalo and Pittsburgh, the Rangers, and then a Western road trip that includes Vegas, Utah, and Colorado. Lots of tough teams that will be pretty unforgiving on the Flyers. 

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