Call it the nightmare before Christmas Eve.
The Flyers will stagger into the holiday break after a wild 6-5 loss Friday night against the Hurricanes at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Despite a valiant comeback attempt in the third period, it was a mess for the Flyers considering what happened in the first 40 minutes.
Samuel Ersson made his NHL debut that he won’t forget for all the wrong reasons. Head coach John Tortorella had to retire the 23-year-old goaltender just halfway through his very first start. But then Carter Hart, Ersson’s replacement, was knocked out and forced out less than 10 minutes later.
Ersson, who thought his night was over, jumped into the net to end the game.
When Hart left with an upper-body injury, the Flyers (11-17-7) were trailing 6-2 late in the middle stanza and nearly finished. But Nick Seeler’s even-strength goal and consecutive shorthanded scorers from Scott Laughton and Travis Konecny brought the Flyers to life in the third period.
The Flyers failed to tie with their empty net.
Avoiding a complete meltdown, the Hurricanes (22-6-6) improved to 12-0-1 in their last 13 games.
The Flyers are 0-1-1 against Carolina this season. They faced the Hurricanes twice more, both games in March.
• Hart was injured as the Hurricanes scored their sixth and first against the 24-year-old.
With Carolina on the power play, Rasmus Ristolainen tried to pull Seth Jarvis out of play near the net. But he blocked the Hurricanes forward against Hart as the goalie slipped into his crease, causing a bad collision.
Hart had no chance to stop Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s shot. He stayed on the ground, visibly shaking, before finally skating on his own with head athletic trainer Tommy Alva by his side.
Hart had just played Thursday night and backup Felix Sandstrom was not traveling due to illness, so Ersson started on his NHL debut. It was a tough task on the road against the team with the league’s second-best point percentage.
He held his own when he returned to the net, finishing the night with 25 saves on 30 shots. When he was relieved, he had given up five goals before the halfway point of the second period. The 2018 fifth-round pick got little help from the Flyers.
Ersson was ambushed by Carolina for three goals in the first period. The Flyers had to play a ton of defense and didn’t do it well.
They fell behind 2-1 allowing a power play goal that Ersson was thrown into. Jesper Fast then scored his second goal of the game with less than a minute left in the first stanza. The Flyers had a coverage failure.
In the second half, goals from Andrei Svechnikov and Jordan Martinook sent Ersson to the bench.
But not for long.
Veteran Hurricanes goaltender Antti Raanta stopped 26 of the Flyers’ 31 shots.
• Travis Sanheim and Tony DeAngelo also scored for the Flyers.
Konecny, Laughton and DeAngelo each had two-point games.
But the crazy rally and all the positives were completely ruined by the fact that Hart was forced into the game and then had to leave it due to injury. It could have been avoided.
Hart was the Flyers’ best and most important player. They can’t afford to lose it.
• After a 7-3-2 start, the Flyers went 4-14-5 with a minus-32 goal differential.
• With the NHL-mandated three-day hiatus and a couple of game-free days, the Flyers aren’t back in action until Thursday when they visit the Sharks (10:30 pm ET/NBCSP).
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