Ahead of Thursday’s contest against the Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella revealed that Aleksei Kolosov would earn the start and that he is currently second on the team’s goaltending depth chart.
With all three goaltenders healthy and with the NHL club, the Flyers decided not to send Kolosov down to the minors. The Belarusian had a bumpy start to his NHL career but has done a really good job over the last month or so to not only stabilize his game, but to climb the hierarchy.
Tortorella revealed earlier Thursday that Samuel Ersson was the number one, Kolosov was the number two, and Ivan Fedotov was relegated to being the third option. It should come as little surprise considering Fedotov has only played once since the calendar flipped to December and he was pulled early in that matchup against Florida.
Kolosov carries a 3-5-1 record to go along with a 3.29 GAA and a .881 SV%. His splits are a little overwhelming because he started off 0-4-0 with a .872 SV% before rattling off 3 straight wins where he allowed just 6 goals on 75 shots.
Over his last 2 appearances he’s 0-1-1 with a .843 SV% but he was the tough-luck loser in his last game against Boston in overtime after the Flyers blew a 3-1 third period lead.
While his overall numbers don’t look great, it’s important to note that one of his earlier losses came in relief of Ersson when he was forced out of a game against Boston due to an injury. He earned another loss in relief of Fedotov against Florida last week and he played very well against Boston his last time out despite the 4-goal ledger.
Ersson missed nearly a month of game action due to a lower-body injury and in his stead the Flyers went 6-3-2. Fedotov did a very good job at turning his season around as well in his absence as he posted a 3-1-1 record across 6 games. He earned victories against Ottawa, Buffalo, and the New York Rangersbut also allowed 4 goals in losses to Carolina and Vegas before being pulled in his last start against Florida.
Ersson doesn’t have the best peripherals either as he carries a 2.85 GAA and a .893 SV% into Thursday’s contest but does carry a 6-3-2 record. He is by far the number one goaltender as the Flyers have ditched their 1A/1B efforts from earlier in the season.
Ersson looked a little rusty in his return against Utah but couldn’t really do anything different on their last 2 goals when Logan Cooley danced around the defense on the power play for the game-winner and Kevin Stenlund took advantage of a brutal Morgan Frost turnover while shorthanded.
Even in his last appearance against Columbus, the final tally read 3 goals allowed on 18 shots but he made several key stops late in the second period to keep Columbus’ momentum at bay before allowing late third period goals with the game essentially in the bag.
Considering all the rumours that came out over the summer regarding Kolosov and his standing with the organization, it looks like whatever problems arose – if any – have been squashed.
After being unhappy with his usage after arriving to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms late last year, to potentially feeling homesick, to returning to Belarus to practice in hopes of more playing time, Kolosoov has certainly kept the Flyers busy but his play of late shows why the organization views him with such high regard.
It’s still early in the season but it will be interesting to see how they split the starts moving forward. Barring injuries and with the recent news, Fedotov will more than likely receive the occasional start should Tortorella look to give Ersson or Kolosov an extra day of the rest.
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