Flyers head coach John Tortorella made a shocking revelation today, saying that the team knew Carter Hart could be in trouble at least as early as last offseason. The goaltender leaving the team has certainly had a negative impact on their season.
The coach was talking about his team's struggles in goal this season when he brought up Hart. He decided that honesty is the best policy, revealing that the team talked about what to do with Hart last summer. Clearly, they knew something was coming. Oddly though, it seems that the team elected to kick the can down the road as they ultimately did nothing to upgrade in goal. Similarly, they did nothing to add insurance either. While teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs added security in a solid third netminder in Martin Jones, the Flyers elected to rely on young goalie Samuel Ersson.
The Ersson experiment has not gone well as the 24-year-old has put up a 21-17-7 record along with a .889 save percentage and a 2.83 goals-against-average. Tortorella did add that it was unfair of the team to ask him to play so many games this season, but they really had no other options. Backup netminder Felix Sandstrom has been abysmal, putting up much worse numbers. In just five games played he has a 1-2-0 record, a horrific 3.87 goals-against-average and an eye-wateringly bad .823 save percentage. The team reassigned him to the American Hockey League when Ivan Fedotov joined the Flyers out of Russia.
All things considered, the Flyers season could have gone worse, but it could have gone much better too. The team has been sunk by their netminders, who collectively have put up the NHL's worst save percentage since January 20th.
