John Tortorella changes tune on goalie Sam Ersson: ‘As we move forward, we’re hoping it’s going to be a tandem’

There is a dividing line for Sam Ersson this season: Feb. 28.

In the 17 games between the holiday break and Feb. 28, Ersson was on his game. He was 11-4-2 with a 2.40 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage. According to Evolving Hockey, he had 3.51 goals saved above average (GSAA) — 13th best among goalies with at least 10 games — and 4.38 expected goals saved above average (xGSAA).

GSAA, according to Dobber Hockey, “measures the difference between the number of goals a goaltender has allowed versus how many they were expected to allow, given the league average save percentage and the number of shots faced.”

Since Feb. 28? Woof.

In five games, he is 1-3-0 with a 4.68 GAA and .833 save percentage. Evolving Hockey has his GSAA at -7.85, the third-worst in the NHL, and the league’s worst xGSAA (-7.14). For comparison, Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov, who just beat the Flyers on Saturday, has the best GSAA (5.56) and Montreal Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault has the best xGSAA (8.35) during that time frame.

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The only glaring difference for Ersson, a technical goalie who likes to see shots, is that in the 17 games he played well, he averaged 26.1 shots against , and in the five games since, it has dropped to 22.8.

Or maybe it’s because, since Dec. 27, Ersson has started 22 of the Flyers’ 33 games.

“Sam’s struggles have nothing to do with how much he’s played,” coach John Tortorella said Saturday morning before Ersson allowed five goals on 30 shots to the Carolina Hurricanes. “Sam has been inconsistent. Our goaltending has been inconsistent. Sam put together [from the] end of December into the full month of January, early February, he put together a really good package of games. That’s what we’re looking for.”

Tabbed the Flyers’ No. 1 goalie since training camp, Ersson dealt with multiple lower-body injuries for the first 2½ months of the season. During that stretch from Dec. 28-Feb. 27, he also missed three games with another lower-body injury.

Ersson, 25, has played 39 games this season after playing 51 last season for the Flyers — as a rookie — and a combined 54 in 2022-23 with the Flyers and Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. Tortorella leans heavily on goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh to see where Ersson’s energy is, and when it’s time to give the goalie a break.

Also evaluating, the coach has changed his tune slightly with Ersson in recent days.

“I think with Sam, as we move forward, we’re hoping it’s going to be a tandem,” Tortorella added. “We’re not going to ask Sam to play 55, 60 games if he’s the guy. I think it’s going to be a tandem. We’re still evaluating. He’s been inconsistent.

“Sometimes you watch him play, and you think he’s got it, but then he falls off. It happens to a lot of goalies. That’s why some goalies just don’t play and are out of the National Hockey League. So we continue to evaluate, and we’re going to continue to the same thing these last 15 games or so.”

Yes, gone are the days of goalies playing 60 or 70-plus games consistently. Former Flyer Cam Talbot was the last goalie who played more than 70 games when he appeared in 73 for the Edmonton Oilers during the 2016-17 season.

Entering Monday, the Flyers have 14 games left. Ivan Fedotov, who has a 2.34 GAA and .913 save percentage in his four games since Feb. 28, will start against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday (7 p.m., NBCSP).

The expectation is the net will be split down the stretch as the Flyers evaluate not just Ersson but also Fedotov. But Tortorella has often said that the weight of being rushed to the top spot for Ersson was unfair.

“A constant team evaluation as we go through it,” the bench boss said Saturday. “I’m certainly not laying everything at the doorstep, but it’s the most important position in the game as far as winning and losing and giving your team a chance to win.

“We have a combination of, I think, inconsistent goaltending with a very young team. I think we’ve done a fairly good job this year as far as defending, as far as keeping our shots — I think we’re at 26, 27 shots [allowed] a game. ... But it’s certainly not running Sam down. When we show our tape, when we talk to our team, we’re always trying to be better defensively in front of our team, and we’ve certainly had breakdowns.”

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Flyers prospect Yegor Zavragin was named one of the Kontinental Hockey League’s players of the week. The 19-year-old goalie went 2-0 for SKA St. Petersburg with a 0.50 GAA and .981 save percentage, including a 23-save shutout of HC Sochi, the team he was loaned to earlier this year.