Flyers to try Aleksei Kolosov as Sam Ersson's new backup

Last week, coach John Tortorella said, “Let’s face it, we have a goaltending situation.”

Yeah, it was starting to get a little scary. While the issue was never about Sam Ersson, the No. 1 goaltender who will start Thursday against the St. Louis Blues, there were questions about the other part of the Flyers’ tandem.

For now, they may have found a solution.

“I’m looking at (Aleksei) Kolosov now,” Tortorella said Thursday. “That’s how it is.”

Kolosov, 22, was called up from Lehigh Valley on Saturday, making his NHL debut in the Flyers’ 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens the next day. An athletic, speedy netminder, he stepped into the backup role after 27-year-old Ivan Fedotov struggled to find his footing, allowing four or more goals in each of his three starts.

“Ivan had a few matches. We were not happy with his play,” Tortorella said. ‘We’re going to look at Kolosov. So that’s how I think about it. I’m not sure where it’s all going to go as the grand plan as we continue to move forward here because we also have to think about the Fed to give it some time.

“But right now my whole focus is on the hockey team trying to get some traction at the beginning of the year.

“The Fed had a chance. We’re going to look at Kolosov. Kolosov will back up tonight and if I take out Ers, Kolosov will get the next match.”

Both Fedotov and Kolosov came over from the Kontinental Hockey League at the end of last season. The 6-foot-4 Fedotov isn’t well acclimated to the NHL game and all the traffic that comes around the front of the crease.

But the eighteen boys in front of the goalkeeper had not helped either. Starting the season with one win in the first seven games was a bit eerie. The term disconnected was consistently thrown out, and the analytics and the eye test would tell you the Flyers didn’t work together as five-man units.

In Games 8 and 10, the Flyers found their game. They fought for one 7-5 victory against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday and skated away with a 2-0 win against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. Ersson was in the net for each.

“Our team is playing very well for him,” Tortorella said Thursday. “I think they respect him and know how hard he works. It’s one of the most unique positions because it’s basically the heartbeat of the team. I think they are playing very well for him.”

With the problems on the ice and Ersson being the only goalie to record victories – he has won three of his six starts – how will Tortorella handle his rotation? He said he overloaded the Swedish netminder in the second half of last season, so how can he make sure it doesn’t happen again?

‘I won’t do that. I hope not,” he said firmly. “(Goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh) and I constantly have conversations about the schedule ahead of us. Especially (since) we are only ten games in. Of course we will try to find the backup position, but that will not be at the expense of Erss.’

Standing in line

There has been a lot of talk this season about the Line combinations for kites and how many have there been. Between the starting lineups and the changes in play, the various trios are as numerous as the stars above Philly on a clear night.

Will Tortorella dress up as a mad scientist for Halloween at the Wells Fargo Center? He recently said, “It’s not like I’m a mad scientist just trying to throw things around,” saying it with evil hands and all.

He won’t be, at least not to start the game against the Blues. For the first time this season, he will remain the same forwards for two games in a row. But whether Dr. Jekyll during the game in Mr. Hyde changing is never out of the question.

“We went to those lines, they were lines we used a little bit last year, so we tried it that way,” Tortorella said. “I still don’t think we have developed much offensively, but we have defended better. You (the media) are talking about it, I would like to keep the lines together.

“But I’m going to use my feelings and my thought process when we play a game. If I think it’s old, I change them again. But I’d like to keep them together. So we’ll start tonight the same way.”

The groupings will center on Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny and Matvei Michkov – a line that clicked and will be together for the fourth game in a row. Center Morgan Frost will skate with Owen Tippett and Tyson Foerster, a trio that teamed with defenseman Emil Andrae to create Foerster’s game-winner in Boston. Scott Laughton will play between Joel Farabee and Bobby Brink, and Ryan Poehling will center Noah Cates and Garnet Hathaway.

“Obviously it’s hard to keep things together because we’ve been struggling in the games we’ve had, so it’s something we have to change,” Poehling said.

“But no, the fame is great. I think especially the last game, Catesy and Garney, we played a lot with them last year, and just knowing how they play, I think we’re all playing a structure that we know from each other. And that’s really the most important thing: knowing that congruence with each other, which is nice,” Poehling said.

The biggest help here is knowing where someone will go when they have the puck and, more importantly, where their linemates will be without the puck. For Poehling, skating with two guys he knows helps with breakouts and forechecking – two things the entire team has been struggling with lately. “You get to know it subconsciously,” he said, especially about Hathaway, with whom he kills penalties.

“It’s that communication without eye contact or verbal communication, or understanding how someone sees the game and sees the ice and where they find open ice in the game,” Hathaway said.

For guys like Foerster and Frost, it’s about finding their game again. Foerster’s goal was his first since the season opener in Vancouver, and his first at five-on-five. Frost has five helpers, but has not yet found the back of the net this season. Maybe the same trio can help with consistency?

“Right now I’m trying to find it wherever I can, and I’m definitely struggling offensively,” Frost said. “It’s not about me, it’s about the team, and I thought we played a pretty good game for the most part last game. … If you can play a few games, I think maybe you can find some consistency, maybe it will help me personally.

Escapes

Egor Zamula remained a healthy scratch. … After Thursday’s game against St. Louis, the Flyers host Boston on Saturday at 1 p.m. and then travel to Raleigh on Tuesday.