Two and a half weeks ago, John Tortorella admitted the unknown with the Flyers' goaltending situation frightened him.
"It scares the crap out of me," the head coach said.
He probably fought those fears, even if just a little, when the Flyers saw Thursday night's game get away from them in Seattle. Over a span of just 2:55 minutes in the second period, a 2-2 game turned into a 5-2 hole for the Flyers. They entered the period leading by a goal and ended it trailing by three.
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Ivan Fedotov, the Flyers' backup goalie making only his third career NHL start, was pulled at second intermission. The Flyers went on to lose, 6-4, finishing their season-opening road trip at 1-2-1.
And now we'll see how patient Tortorella and the Flyers are willing to be with their 6-foot-7 netminder. Fedotov surrendered 10 goals combined in his two starts on the trip. Identifying the puck through traffic appeared to be an issue. Some stoppable shots, particularly Thursday night, snuck past him.
But the 27-year-old has hardly experienced the NHL and the Flyers certainly didn't play perfect games in front of him. It's early and two starts make for a small sample size. The pressure does appear to be on, though, when you consider that the Flyers want to find rest for Samuel Ersson and Tortorella had such little faith in the Flyers' backup options last year.
From Jan. 18 to the end of the regular season, Fedotov, Cal Petersen and Felix Sandstrom combined to play in 11 games (six starts). Ersson's 32 appearances (31 starts) over that stretch were tied with the Sabres' Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen for the second most among all NHL goalies. Only the Capitals' Charlie Lindgren played in more games (33).
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"When I overworked him last year, it was crunch time at the end," Tortorella said three weeks ago. "And quite honestly — I've been very honest about it — I don't think our other goalies were playing well at all. I would have used someone else if I had any type of confidence at that point in time. Not saying now, because it always ends up you clear your mind and the goalies get another opportunity.
"We're going to give Fedotov some time. Hopefully he steps up and goes from there. If that doesn't work out, we've got to reassess. But it's not going to be Sam Ersson all the time."
What adds to the pressure on Fedotov and the Flyers' decision-makers is Alexei Kolosov seemingly itching to play in the NHL. Despite differences in opinion this offseason, which bled into training camp, the Flyers and the 22-year-old prospect are trying to make it work right now. Kolosov is just underway as the No. 1 with AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley and him being loaned again to the KHL, Russia's top pro league, is not off the table.
"He believed that he needed another year in the KHL," general manager Danny Briere said 11 days ago. "We told him we didn't really agree with that, we wanted to see him, we wanted to see where he was at in his development. We didn't see him this summer at development camp and not showing at training camp put us in a tough position. And I get it, from his standpoint, he thought he needed another year or he thought he was ready for the NHL. I'm not sure where he fit between the two.
"There's nothing set in stone as far as where he's going to be. Is he going to be in Lehigh the whole year? Is he going to play some games with the Flyers? You know how it works, there could be injuries, there could be changes — it's something we're going to evaluate pretty much on a weekly basis."
The Flyers' first week of the season is in the books and Tortorella's nerves with the picture in net can't be at ease.
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