Flyers starting netminder Samuel Ersson reinjured his previous lower-body issue and will miss the next one to two weeks, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reports Friday.
Ersson, 25, sustained the initial injury in the first period of Philadelphia’s game against the Bruins on Nov. 2 while stretching to stop a shot from Nikita Zadorov. He missed a few contests but returned to action last Saturday, stopping 58 of 62 shots in a pair of games before missing out on Thursday’s overtime win over the Senators.
It’s not clear when exactly he re-aggravated the ailment. However, Kurz reports Ersson had imaging done in the past few days that revealed a minor tweak to the previous injury, which appeared to be groin-related.
In his first full season as the Flyers’ No. 1 option between the pipes, Ersson has responded to the challenge. He’s greatly improved on last season’s numbers, posting a 5-2-2 record, .902 SV%, 2.70 GAA, one shutout, and 0.4 GSAA in 10 starts and one relief appearance.
Those numbers become quite valuable when compared to his backups’ performance. Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov have combined for a 2-6-0 record and ghastly .862 SV% while conceding 8.3 goals above average.
It will now be down to those two to improve their numbers, as Ersson could remain sidelined for anywhere from the Flyers’ next three to seven games. Since they were both on the active roster, and injuries have forced the Flyers to carry three goalies for quite a few days now, no corresponding transaction is needed.
Given Ersson’s return timeline, Philadelphia could place him on injured reserve to open up a roster spot if necessary.
The other two goalies have been hurt by horrible defense in front of them, much worse than for Ersson. Last night’s game was prime example and they were able to win only because Fedotov was excellent. None off the goalies are great but Ersson not really that much better.