In their most recent game, the Flyers dropped the Boston Bruins in a 2-0 shutout. A big part of that game is goaltender Sam Ersson's performance. In this game, he stopped all 23 shots that he faced to earn his sixth career shutout. Hmmmm. Six shutouts. For a guy who wasn't supposed to be the starting goaltender, that's impressive. But how impressive? Let's take a look at his career stats.
The game with the Bruins was his 70th game, of which he has started 65. The victory is his 32nd. That places him 25th all-time in Flyers history. With three more wins, he'll tie Ray Emery and with 11 wins, he'll crack the top 20 as he'll be ahead of Ken Wreggett and Sergei Bobrovsky. Ten more beyond that will put him ahead of Iyla Bryzgalov and John Vanbiesbrouck. That's easily attainable this season as that would give him 26 wins (plus the two he has already).
Where does he stand elsewhere? His six shutouts tie him with Brian Elliott and Carter Hart for 15th all-time. One more would put him in a tie for 10th with Pelle Lindbergh, Martin Biron, Robert Esche, Bob Froese, Tommy Soderstrom, and Bryzgalov. That's impressive when you consider how little he's played so far in his young career.
It becomes even more impressive when you look at the team he's played for. This has been a team that has been in a funky state of transition over the last two seasons. The defense has been less than dependable. He doesn't have blue-liners like Chris Therien, Eric Desjardins, Mark Howe, Kjell Samuelsson, Luke Richardson, Chris Pronger, or Kimmo Timonen in front of him. He's had a patchwork of guys who have either overperformed (Nick Seeler, Sean Walker, underperformed (Rasmus Ristolainen), or can't stay healthy (Jamie Drysdale). This is also with him being burned out at the end of last season because the backup options were less optimal than a goalie running on fumes.
70 games is not enough to tell how a hockey career is going to go. He could end up becoming an amazing goalie or he could turn south and become a travesty in the net, and in that respect join the cavalcade of failed Flyers goalies.
To be fair, there is the possibility that Ersson is the guy we've been hoping for. He seems to be fairly solid in the net. If he can keep his confidence up, he could become one of the best goalies in the league. He just turned 25. Maybe all we need to do is give him a chance. After all, this team gave up on Bobrovksy early on and he just became the fastest goalie to 400 career wins and could crack the top 10 most wins this season.
As for Ersson, let's see how his development continues. If he can keep trending in this direction, the Flyers may have something special here.