Flyers goalie Sam Ersson tries to shake off ‘embarrassing’ effort against Lightning

Sam Ersson has not had the best start to the season.

In 16 games, he is 6-6-4 with a 3.33 goals-against average and an .858 save percentage. They are the highest and the lowest numbers, respectively, in an NHL career that spans 126 games across four seasons.

Everything came to a head on Saturday in a 7-2 Flyers loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Xfinity Mobile Arena, matching his career high in goals allowed for the third time. He faced 23 shots.

“Yeah, obviously, it’s been tough for me, personally,” he told The Inquirer Sunday about his season as a whole. “It’s weird. I would say, like the team is doing well, we’re winning, it’s a lot of fun in that sense, but at the same time, you want more out of yourself, and I’m disappointed in how I perform.

“I think there’s been stretches of where it’s been good and got some big wins. And then there’s been stretches where, especially now, lately, I feel like it’s been lacking.

“Obviously, especially last night, it’s very tough, embarrassing to let in seven goals on your home ice. You feel like you kind of let down the team and the fans. Obviously, that’s not acceptable. Just got to be better.”

Ersson has one win in his last seven starts, a 3-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks before the NHL’s holiday break. He started nine of the first 26 games, going 5-2-2 with a 2.97 GAA and an .869 save percentage. Since Dec. 4, he has started seven of the Flyers’ last 17 games, going 1-4-2 in that stretch with a 3.80 GAA and an .844 save percentage.

The 26-year-old goaltender is not one to make excuses. And he has the chance to do just that with a new coaching staff, new systems in front of him, and fewer starts for a goalie who played in 47 games last year and 51 the year before.

“I’m not blaming anything like that,” he said. “It comes down to me, how I perform, how I approach things, and I know if I do that in the correct way, my game, I will have success no matter what.”

According to Money Puck, among goalies who have played at least 10 games, he is ranked fifth-worst in goals saved above average (-9.5), sixth in percentage of expected goals (-21.01), and tied for last in save percentage (.858). And he doesn’t have nearly as many minutes as the guys below him, like Jordan Binnington and fellow Swedes Jacob Markström and Linus Ullmark.

Goals saved above average is a comparison tool to show how a goalie did compared to an average goalie seeing the same shots. Among goalies with at least 700 minutes played, Ersson ranks dead last at five-on-five in goals saved above average, too (-16.02). His high-danger goals saved above average is the 10th highest (-4.28), but he has also faced the fewest high-danger shots (70).

» READ MORE: Flyers takeaways: Sam Ersson is ‘in the mud’ and needs to get out; Garnet Hathaway finally breaks through

It’s a bit surprising because, before the team made mistakes — not every goal on Saturday can be blamed on the goalie — and the Flyers allowed a touchdown and the extra point, they were ranked ninth in the NHL in goals allowed (2.79). It’s a wild drop from last season, when they finished at 3.45.

“I think it’s better,” Ersson said when asked about structural changes in the defensive zone by Rick Tocchet and his staff. “I think we’re doing a really good job defensively with how we’re playing.

“So, for me, it all comes down to kind of how I play and how I perform. And I know if I play to the level I can and want to be, I will have success. So, just got to find a way to flush these last few games and get back to where I want to be.”

The Flyers play the Lightning again on Monday (7 p.m., NBCSP), and the expectation is that Dan Vladař will get the start. But there’s a good chance Ersson will get an opportunity to right the ship with the Flyers having a back-to-back in two of the next three weeks.

“Just got to roll up the sleeves and grind away,” Tocchet said. And Ersson, who was the first one on the ice Sunday at practice, is up for the task.

“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” the goalie said about what comes next. “I would say usually, like when you’re in a tough stretch, less is more. You’re obviously working, but if you start to try to change everything, then you’re just tearing down the foundation that you’ve built up for years, right? So it’s the combination of trusting your game, but just like pushing everything a little bit and getting back to where it needs to be.”

Travis Konecny’s return practice Sunday lasted only a few minutes. During the first drill, he took a shot off his knee.

“Kind of a nerve,” Tocchet said. “So hopefully it wakes up a little bit. So it just was like a dead leg kind of thing, so we’ll see about tomorrow.”

The Flyers forward, who was injured during Thursday’s game and did not play the third period, also missed Saturday’s loss to Tampa Bay with an upper-body injury. After watching the game from the press box, he was a participant in a regular jersey in Voorhees.

It became evident quickly that Konecny was in a lot of pain on the bench. He tried to walk it off under the watchful eye of assistant athletic trainers Alex Ambrose and Joe Mele, and even tested it on the ice, but did not return to practice.

“It seems like injuries, even with other teams, they come in bunches, they don’t come every once in a while,” Tocchet said. “You get one, two, three, four in a row, so maybe it’s our turn now, we’re starting to get it. So, yeah, you’ve just got to push through that stuff.”

At the start of last season, defenseman Nick Seeler missed the Flyers’ first five games after suffering a nerve injury to his leg in a preseason game, hitting an area without padding.

“The numbness was the whole outside of my right leg and into my foot,” he said at the time, pointing toward the back of his leg, where it caused everything to “shut off for a while.”

The Flyers hope to have Konecny, the team’s second-leading scorer, back in the lineup Monday against the Lightning. It starts a stretch of 11 games in the last 20 days of January, and they do not have two days between games until the start of February.

Forward Bobby Brink should be good to go on Monday. Brink has missed the last two games after being injured on a blindside hit during Tuesday’s win against the Anaheim Ducks. He participated in Saturday’s morning skate in a noncontact jersey but was in a regular black jersey on Sunday. … Defenseman Jamie Drysdale was still in a noncontact jersey. … Forward Carl Grundström missed practice due to illness. His status for Monday’s game is to be determined.