The Flyers have proven to be ‘resilient’ so far this season, led by goalie Dan Vladař
With Sam Ersson out, Vladař has bounced back from bad starts to keep the Flyers in a position to win night after night.
The Flyers haven’t played perfect hockey all season. They certainly didn’t play perfect hockey on Thursday night in the first period against Nashville — the team allowed a goal within the first two minutes of the game.
But so far, the Flyers have shown an ability to weather those early storms and stay in games long enough to get their bearings.
“We’re resilient,” head coach Rick Tocchet said Friday. “That’s important to build culture and identity, is to have resiliency. You’re not going to have your A game. Can you win on your B game or your C game? That takes resolve, and I saw that on this trip.”
A big part of the reason for that has been the team’s vastly improved goaltending, especially from Dan Vladař. After giving up a three-goal lead in Montreal on Tuesday, Vladař was hard on himself, Tocchet said, but stayed focused and secured the Flyers’ win in a shootout.
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With Sam Ersson on injured reserve, the Flyers needed Vladař to come right back and start the next game after two bad starts against Toronto and Montreal, allowing four goals in each game, on 19 and 20 shots, respectively. He gave up one goal early in Nashville, but made 23 saves to keep the deficit at one, allowing the Flyers to come back for a 3-1 win.
Vladař’s ability to avoid letting one below average game snowball has stood out to Tocchet so far this year.
“It was almost like, ‘Hey, I reset myself. I’m ready,’” Tocchet said. “I like that. Goalies are going to have bad nights, or average nights. It’s, can they stop the average nights in a row, right? Most starts, he’s given us a chance to win.”
In nine starts this year, Vladař has allowed 2.18 goals per game, third-best in the NHL, and saved 91.7% of shots he’s faced, tied for sixth-best in the NHL.
He’s also faring well in the advanced metrics. Moneypuck says Vladař has saved 6.1 goals more than expected this season, which ranks ninth in the NHL. But it’s not Vladař’s performance that stands out the most to Tocchet.
“I just like his character,” Tocchet said. “He comes by the bench. The other team’s all over us. [He says,] ‘Hey guys, we’re good. We’re good.’ Instead of saying, ‘Hey man, I’m getting peppered on here.’”
The Flyers’ goalies were among the league’s worst in 2024-25, but the tandem this year has gotten off to a much stronger start, led by Vladař.
“They’re all over us the first period,” Tocchet said. “We could have crumbled, but the guys held it together and got some timely goals.”
Breakaways
Aleksei Kolosov was returned to Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League, and Ersson, who was activated off injured reserve on Thursday, took the ice for an optional skate on Friday. Tocchet said Ersson is a candidate to start on Saturday. … Tyson Foerster, who was placed on injured reserve Monday with a lower-body injury, skated without pads before the start of Friday’s optional skate. Foerster is eligible to return from IR as soon as Wednesday. … The Flyers recalled forward Carl Grundstrom from Lehigh Valley on Friday. Grundstrom spent last season in San Jose and tallied three goals and six assists in 56 games. Prior to that, he spent six seasons with the Los Angeles Kings. He has three goals and three assists in 11 games so far for the Phantoms this year.