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Ersson, Drysdale activated off IR, return to lineup for Flyers vs. Utah

Ersson (lower body) had missed the last 11 games and Drysdale (upper body) the last 12

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The Flyers activated Samuel Ersson and Jamie Drysdale off injured reserve. Both players will return to the lineup for the team's home game Sunday against the Utah Hockey Club (7:30 p.m. ET/NBCSP).

Ersson had missed the Flyers' last 11 games with a lower-body injury. The team was clearly being careful with its No. 1 goalie, who practiced Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

"I think they're doing their job," Ersson said Thursday. "I trust them, they trust me, I think we had a great dialogue throughout this whole process. I think we're taking the right steps."

The Flyers have three goalies on their roster with Ersson, Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov. Kolosov will back up Ersson against Utah. In place of Ersson over the last 11 games, Fedotov went 3-1-1 with a 3.10 goals-against average and an .893 save percentage, while Kolosov was 3-2-1 with a 2.98 goals-against average and an .890 save percentage.

In the last two games, both losses, the Flyers gave up a combined 11 goals (one an empty-netter).

"We've got to keep evaluating," Tortorella said Monday. "That position isn't a 10-, 15-, 20-game type of situation and think we've got it figured out. That's a process of trying to figure out what your tandem's going to be. It's not ideal to have three around all the time. I think eventually we're going to have to figure this out, depending on health, depending on if Sam comes back.

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"Sam is our No. 1 guy. We've got to figure out what happens after that as we push through here. I think Koly and Feds have really stepped in where it was worrisome when we lost Sam. But we still need to see more as we play more and more games along the way here to really judge what a goalie is."

Drysdale missed the last 12 games because of an upper-body injury. The 22-year-old defenseman will come back into the lineup for Egor Zamula, who played just 13:31 minutes per game over the last two games. Zamula was playing with Nick Seeler, who is often Drysdale's defensive partner.

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