PHILADELPHIA – The standings say the Flyers are right up there among the Eastern Conference leaders. On Saturday night, Tampa Bay arrived at Xfinity Mobile Arena to show the home team that, realistically, there’s still some work to be done. The Lightning, now winners of nine straight games, pret ty much dominated play in this one from start to finish. They skated away with an easy 7-2 win. However, the Flyers won’t have to wait long to exact a little revenge. In a rare scheduling quirk, the two teams will meet again on Monday night on the same sheet of ice. Even with the loss, the suddenly banged-up (no Jamie Drysdale, Bobby Brink or Travis Konecny) Flyers still hold the third spot in the Metropolitan Division standings. Flyers coach Rick Tocchet chose to start Samuel Ersson over Dan Vladar in goal for this encounter with the Lightning and while Ersson did not play all that badly, he didn’t do enough to improve his .839 career save percentage against the Lightning. To be fair, a number of Tampa goals were on breakaways or the like as the Flyers defense completely fell apart in the third period. Much of the postgame talk centered around Ersson’s performance and how much of an opportunity will the Flyers get when the two teams meet again on Monday. Tocchet gave Ersson a bit of a pass because Tampa had so many Grade-A scoring chances, particularly in the third period. That’s when the Flyers appeared to wave the white flag. “I didn’t mind half the game,” Tocchet said of the first 30 minutes when the Flyers still trailed only 2-1. “They’ve got sharpshooters, good players. It’s one of those games. When you play the game long enough, you have those types of games.” The seven goals were the most the Flyers have allowed this season. Their previous high was five on several occasions. “A couple guys that we count on to score turned the puck over too much,” Tocchet said. “You can’t play that way.” Ersson was asked to take part in the post-game media access session but the Flyers declined the request. Tocchet acknowledged Ersson is not on top of his game. “Yeah, he’s struggling,” Tocchet said. “You can tell. Tough night. In your NHL career, you’re going to have your head in the mud and you’ve got to get yourself out of it. You have to work harder, analyze things. You have to really dig down.” There are some who believe that Aleksei Kolosov, who is playing well for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, might be called up in relief as the secondary goalie if Ersson continues to struggle. Monday should be an interesting test of character for the Flyers. They’ve lost back-to-back regulation-time games only once this year. The Lightning are going to try to make that two. “It’s good,” Tocchet said. “After a loss we bounce back pretty good. Maybe get some healthy bodies back. If not, we have to roll up the sleeves.” Sean Couturier, Owen Tippett and Garnet Hathaway had similar sentiments. “One of those games that you have to forget,” Couturier said. “Get a chance to play them again on Monday and get two points back.” Tippett said: “Play them again Monday. Learn from it and bounce back. We’ll go right back at it. We have to be better in front of him [Ersson].” Tampa Bay Lightning’s Erik Cernak, right, checks Philadelphia Flyers’ Denver Barkey along the boards during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton) Hathaway has played well in two straight games. He was involved in the offense, waged a good fight and was aggressive with his body checking. He even got his first goal of the season. He, along with other Flyers, told Ersson this disaster wasn’t all his fault. “I don’t think we played as defensively sound as we need to,” Hathaway said. “Against this very offensive-minded team. And that’s not on him. He played great all year. Forget it, put it in the past. “We’re going to have to watch a lot of tape. Talk about it. It’s nice that we play them in two nights.” Nikita Kucherov, who finished with two goals/four points for the night, got the Lightning off to a strong start in the first period. He scored twice to give his team a 2-1 lead at the first intermission. Kucherov’s first goal came just 1:49 into the game. He was left open at the right post and had no trouble sending Brayden Point’s pass into the net. The Flyers got one back on Hathaway’s goal at 4:45. Noah Juulsen’s point shot deflected off Hathaway and past goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. It was also Hathaway’s first point of the season. That tie didn’t last long. Kucherov struck again at 6:05. His wide-angle shot from the left faceoff dot eluded Ersson. In the second period, the Flyers managed to keep Tampa off the board until the 13:37 mark. Ersson stopped an initial shot by Charle-Edouard D’Astous but Nick Paul was quick to the rebound and it was 3-1. Kucherov picked up his third point of the game at 2:03 of the third period when he sprung Cage Goncalves to make it 4-1. Then the Lightning made it 5-1 with a goal from Brandon Hagel at 3:37. The Flyers did get one back on a Tippett power-play goal at 4:45 but was a bit too little too late.Kucherov would get his fourth point when he assisted on Tampa’s seventh goal, the second for Goncalves. Short shots Before Saturday night’s game, the Flyers had held an opponent under 20 shots on seven occasions. That’s tied with Utah for third-best in the NHL in that category. Wayne Fish is a freelance writer. Follow his coverage at www.flyingfishhockey.com ...read more read less