Flyers getting great goaltending amidst hot run

On Feb. 1, the Philadelphia Flyers were 2-6-2 in their last 10 games and were tied for second-to-last place in the Eastern Conference.

A team that was once left for dead is now right back in the mix, even as every playoff bubble team has made it nearly impossible to catch up to them. As of Monday afternoon, the Flyers are just two points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second and final wild card spot in the East thanks to an 8-1-1 run that has allowed them to make up ground.

It’s largely thanks to strong performances from goalies Samuel Ersson and Dan Vladar, who have both stolen points with phenomenal efforts lately. Vladar stopped 34 of 36 in a 3-2 overtime win over the Anaheim Ducks a couple of weeks ago, and Ersson only allowed one behind him by turning aside 17 of 18 in a hard-fought 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Sunday.

On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed how the performance of the team’s netminders has allowed the Flyers to climb back into the playoff mix.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I think it’s also really interesting to talk about this Philly team on the heels of that Vegas conversation, because if you look at Philly’s season, if they get saves, they win. It’s really as simple as that. You go back early in the year when Dan Vladar was so good, he had like a .915-.920 save percentage earlier in the season… Philly was winning hockey games. Then the goaltending kind of gives out on them for a bit, they lose a whole bunch, and now you look, in their last 10 games, Hutts, they’ve only allowed 10 games at 5-on-5. You’re going to win a lot of hockey games if you’re only allowing one 5-on-5 goal per game over a 10-game stretch.

Carter Hutton: It’s also the factor of like, Samuel Ersson has been unplayable early in the year. He was struggling so much, and it kind of was Vladar’s crease for the longest time, but now Samuel Ersson has won his last five games. These are tight games. He’s been very good. He’s buzzing at about a .935 in those five wins, so now you have a factor where you can play both guys and win games with this compressed schedule. It gives them a little bit more legitimacy, and again, you’re looking at standings where they’re still right in it. This would be a team that would be a little bit of a sleeper that I don’t think we saw getting to this point and still being able to push to try to get in because it’s wide open.

You can watch the full segement and the rest of the episode below…