The great humorist Mark Twain was around long before ice hockey goaltenders arrived on the scene but his famous line “there are three types of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics” could probably apply to the NHL today.
That is, excelling at goals-against averages and save percentages doesn’t necessarily guarantee success.
On the flip side, though, for the Flyers’ current netminding situation, the numbers can tell you something.
None of last year’s goaltenders had GAAs below 3.00 or SPs above .900. No wonder they finished last in the Metropolitan Division and out of the playoffs for a fifth straight season.
Maybe this year will be different. No. 1 starter Samuel Ersson hopes to stay healthy this time around and both backups from last year – Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov – have been replaced by ex-Calgary Flame Dan Vladar, so perhaps the Flyers can see some improvement in this important area.
After Monday morning’s skate at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, N.J., Ersson talked about maybe having a closer relationship with Vladar than he did with the two Russians last season.
“Haven’t really had a chance to yet,” Ersson said of getting to know Vladar better. “It would be nice to do something outside (the rink). . .we’re definitely going to do that.”
Ersson said goaltenders are like “a team within a team.
“You need to be able to lean on each other throughout the year,” he said. “Vladar is a great guy so I don’t think we’ll have any problem with that.”
No doubt there is the inhouse competition for time in goal but that shouldn’t affect an overall relationship.
“There’s always competition,” Ersson agreed. “But you’re on the same team, you want to help each other and help the team. The competition is why I do what I do. I think there’s always positives to that. Try to help each other by pushing each other as well.”
Oh, and by the way, the Flames finished well ahead of the Flyers in total points last season in part because Vladar finished with a 2.80 GAA. The Flyers would settle for that number in the 2025-26 season.
>Couturier’s impressive numbers
Speaking of numbers, Flyers captain Sean Couturier is about to enter his 15th season with the team, making him the “dean” of all Philadelphia pro athletes.
Couturier, a first-round (eighth overall) draft pick in 2011, has played 874 games with 206 goals/543 points and a plus-73. That includes missing the entire 2022-23 season due to back surgery.
Things didn’t go all that well for Couturier toward the end of the John Tortorella regime but there’s a chance the 32-year-old Couturier could revive his career under new coach Rick Tocchet.
Couturier did enjoy a bit of a revival at the end of last season and his 45 points were the most since 2019-20 when he won the Frank J. Selke Trophy for best defensive forward.
On Monday morning, Couturier talked about his first training camp in the fall of 2011. It was a veteran Flyer squad that hed just been to the Stanley Cup Final in the spring of 2010. As an 18-year-old, he just kept his head down and tried to soak up as much knowledge as he could.
It must have worked because at the end of the season, Couturier scored a hat trick during a Stanley Cup game against cross-state rival Pittsburgh.
“I would just look around and try to learn as much as I could,” Couturier said. “I really didn’t talk a whole lot. I was just observing everything that I could to learn and get better.
“As the year went on, we had a lot of veterans to learn from.”
One of those veterans was NHL great Jaromir Jagr, who was playing in his only season in Philadelphia.
“That was something special,” Couturier recalled. “I learned a lot from those guys.”
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