Sam Ersson, Sean Couturier day to day with lower-body injuries

The Flyers will be a bit more shorthanded than originally expected. They will be without both Sam Ersson and Sean Couturier as they take on the Ottawa Senators.

When news came out of Ivan Fedotov starting Thursday night's game, many were confused. With two days off, why was Ersson not in the net? Rumors, later confirmed, surfaced of a minor setback with Ersson's previous groin injury.

He left Wednesday's practice early and would not return. The hope is that the Flyers are being cautious with the injury. With both Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov on the roster, there is no need to push Ersson this early into the season. Kolosov was nursing an injury of his own before this, so Fedotov starting was a natural conclusion. Kolosov is expected to be the backup, though.

A surprise came a little over two hours before puck drop. Along with Ersson, the Flyers announced that Couturier would miss the game against Ottawa. He is also dealing with a lower-body injury. This one holds a little more confusion to it.

Couturier was a full participant in practice and played just over 20 minutes against the Sharks. He even played a season-high 24:21 against the Panthers before that. Couturier hasn't played under 20 minutes in a game in his last four. It's possible this is something that has been nagging him and he finally needs to take a seat from it.

The day-to-day designation is a good sign, for now. With Ersson, the thought is that he is likely to miss at least a week as he did before. They could be more cautious and give him even more time to rest the groin. For Couturier, the rest is unknown. There was no word of an injury before this, but if it is something nagging, that may explain it.

Ersson, Couturier with lower-body injuries

With Couturier's absence, Morgan Frost will check back into the lineup after missing the Flyers last game as a healthy scratch. John Tortorella has had plenty of patience with Frost and will want to start seeing some kind of turnaround. It's been the same story for the last few years on whether or not Philadelphia needs to cut ties with Frost.

It isn't necessarily the offense that has been the issue, though that does need some improvement. Frost has one goal and six points in 15 games. He scored his first goal of the season in the loss to Carolina. The Flyers do need to see more out of a top-six player than that. Defensively, it has been an immense struggle.

Frost has the worst CF% (39.77) amongst forwards and is third overall on the team. The Flyers are getting badly outplayed, outshot, and outscored when Frost is on the ice. Frost's expected goal share is 38.85%, behind only Noah Cates and Bobby Brink when it comes to forwards. Something has to give.

397 players have skated at least 170 minutes at even strength. Frost ranks CF% ranks eighth worst amongst all of those players. The Flyers are outscored 11-3 when Frost is on the ice, giving him the 10th worst GF% (38.85) amongst the same list of players. His 4.91 xGF is the fourth worst.

Maybe the healthy scratch is what wakes him up. He was also benched numerous times last season, though. It might be time to end the experiment for good. But for right now, he'll get another chance with the injury to Couturier. He might want to make this one count.