PHILADELPHIA – Everyone connected to the Flyers was reminded on Thursday how important it is to have a legitimate National Hockey League-level goaltender at the ready.
The Flyers found out early in the afternoon that one of their starting netminders, Sam Ersson, had been placed on injured reserve after getting banged up in Wednesday’s practice at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, N.J.
According to general manager Daniel Briere, Ersson’s going to be out a minimum of a week and possibly more.
With the Flyers playing three games in four nights, that’s probably too much to ask of their other goaltender, Dan Vladar. Especially with back-to-back games coming up this weekend – against Toronto on Saturday and Calgary on Sunday.
So the team called up Aleksei Kolosov, 23, from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to back up Vladar for Thursday night’s game against the Nashville Predators.
Kolosov, a third-round pick (78th overall) in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, played in 17 games for the Flyers last year and went 5-9-1 with a 3.59 goals-against average and .867 save percentage.
Those aren’t sparkling numbers but don’t forget he was playing for the Metropolitan Division’s last-place team.
The Flyers did not hold a pre-game skate on Thursday and when coach Rick Tocchet did address the media late morning at Xfinity Mobile Arena, the news about Ersson going on IR had not come out yet.
But he did know that Kolosov was being called up to be Vladar’s No. 2 man for the Preds.
Ersson missed a total of at least 16 games last season due to a variety of injuries. So this latest mishap is nothing new. It’s the main reason why Kolosov, a 6-foot-0, 185-pound native of Minsk, Belarus, played those 17 games and the other backup, Ivan Fedotov, played in 26.
“I don’t think it’s anything serious,” Tocchet said in reference to Ersson.
On Wednesday, Tocchet said he probably wouldn’t play one goalie in back-to-back games unless there were extreme circumstances.
>Andrae enters rotation
Defenseman Emil Andrae, called up from the Phantoms a couple days ago, was back in the lineup against Nashville. Tocchet wants to get another look at how the young Swede handles the NHL game.
Andrae did play 42 games for the Flyers last season and had played in one NHL game this season.
For the Predators game he was placed on a third pairing with Noah Juulsen.
Tocchet is still auditioning players to find a steady partner for Juulsen. So far, it’s been a competition among Egor Zamula, Adam Ginning and Andrae.
“The last time he (Andrae) played (at Carolina on Oct. 11) he did some really good things (including an assist),” Tocchet said. “That ‘D’ position is good, the competition is good.
“A guy like him, who moves the puck well. . .when you have the puck and you move it a lot, you make plays, you’re defending. He can add that fourth layer coming up in the rush. Also, can he get back quick enough to wheel the net, make one play and get it out? Those are the best breakouts. He has that ability.”
In the past two seasons at Lehigh Valley, Andrae has been a plus-13 player.
“We’re looking for someone who can be a consistent regular,” Tocchet said. “It’s a hard league, it’s hard to put together four or five consistent games. In the meantime, I kind of like the rotation.”
One other advantage of a rotation is the guys who aren’t playing get to work on their games with the team’s coaches.
“Over the years, that seems to work until someone takes off,” Tocchet said. “That’s kind of what we’re looking for here.”
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