Ersson on the brink: Flyers hit backup breaking point - and change is needed post haste

PHILADELPHIA -- It took all of three shots in six minutes and five seconds to know that the Flyers have reached a tipping point. 

The outcome of the game, a 7-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, was not nearly as important as what happened in that snippet of time in the first period.

Nikita Kucherov, who is on one hell of a heater with 45 points in his last 21 games, scored two goals on two shifts. The Lightning had a grand total of three shots. 

But it was the second goal that did it. It had to have. 

The first one was the result of a turnover by a young player in Denver Barkey, and a missed coverage by defenseman Cam York. 

But the second one, Kucherov coming down the left wing, the opposite side of where he usually sets up in his office, snapping a wrister from the left dot, that beat Ersson over his glove, is the one that needed to be stopped. 

Nikita Kucherov has goal #2 on Sam Ersson tonight...

Get the liquor out.

2-1 TB. pic.twitter.com/mBcipkYvLo

— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) January 11, 2026

From our Snow The Goalie perch in the Assembly Room of the Xfinity Mobile Arena where we broadcast the Press Row Show for every home game, we can see into the executive box where the Flyers brass sit in the opposite corner from where we are located. 

Immediately after that goal, Flyers President Keith Jones and General Manager Danny Briere were having a private discussion. 

Now, for all I know, they could have been making plans to watch the Eagles playoff game on Sunday together. But something tells me that was the moment when they decided together they can't go on like this with Ersson as the backup goalie. 

What happened in the following 53 minutes and 55 seconds, could only confirm that.

Ersson allowed seven goals on 23 shots. It's the fourth time in his short NHL career he's allowed seven goals in a game. The last being last March when the Flyers lost by an identical 7-2 score in Toronto, a game which prompted Jones and Briere to fire John Tortorella as coach.

Just woke up on this beautiful Sunday morning and Sam Ersson just let in another goal to the lightning

— Brendan Sherwood (@BrendanBrandon) January 11, 2026

This time, one has to assume, has to be the end of the line - at least for now, if not for good - for Ersson. 

His numbers are atrocious this season. 

There are 55 goalies who have started at least 15 games in the NHL this season. Ersson's .858 save percentage ranks dead last. It's so bad, that the next worst save percentage is eight points better (.866).

His goals against average isn't at the bottom of the barrel, but it's not much better. At 3.33, he ranks 44th. 

The Flyers were really shorthanded against an excellent Tampa Bay team, so they were facing stiffer odds Saturday than they would have normally without three starters (Travis Konecny, Bobby Brink, Jamie Drysdale) due to injury. 

But it's in games like that where coaches usually lean on their defense and goaltending to try and win a hockey game.

Ersson didn't do his part. He hasn't done his part for most of the year. He has now dropped six of his last seven starts, and they seem to be getting uglier. 

I know I've been beating this into the ground. I feel like I'm writing something to this effect every month. But if the Flyers truly think they can be a playoff team, they need to make a change at backup goalie. They can't keep just having points disappear because of bad goaltending. 

The Flyers did not make Ersson available to reporters after the game. Coach Rick Tocchet did address Ersson's play at his press conference.

"He's struggling a little bit, you can tell," Tocchet told reporters. "You're going to have tough nights. It's a tough night. (But) to have an NHL career, sometimes you're going to be in the mud and you've got to get yourself out of it. You've got to work harder. You've got to analyze things."

And the Flyers may force him to do that. 

"We have to work with him and help him out too," Tocchet said. "Whatever we have to do to help him - (both) mental and physical. He's got to show up the next day, we got practice (Sunday) and be ready to go. That's the only way you get out of these things."

Head coach Rick Tocchet met with the media following #TBLvsPHI. pic.twitter.com/LQ9djZFQeN

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 11, 2026

The Flyers really only have two options at this point - either they find a reason to put Ersson on injured reserve, work on his game, and then at the end of that stint, give him a 14-day conditioning/rehab assignment in the AHL to get back to being the guy they believed he can be when they anointed him their starting goalie a season ago, and let Alexei Kolosov get a couple starts in his place. or they make a trade.

Ultimately, maybe they do both. But the first option may be the easiest, as it's all internal. 

The second option requires a dance partner. 

If you make a trade, either Ersson is part of it (much like the Penguins and Oilers did when swapping Tristan Jarry for Stuart Skinner), or, you don't mind exposing him to waivers because you have a backup in place ands still have Kolosov as the No. 3, if needed. 

Dan Vladar will undoubtedly start Monday in a rematch with the Lightning, but a backup will be needed next week when the Flyers have consecutive road games in Buffalo and Pittsburgh on back-to-back nights. 

Kolosov makes the most sense to start one of those games. It just can't be Ersson right now. It's not fair to the rest of the team who is trying to get you to the playoffs. 

And I think Jones and Briere know it, too.