Sam Ersson regains his confidence, and other Flyers takeaways from a big win over Toronto

The Flyers’ 4-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, the third contest in their seven-game gauntlet, was a different game than the one these two teams had just five days ago to kick-start the stretch. In that one, the Maple Leafs skated away with an easy win. As Toronto kid Morgan Frost said, “Nice to beat the Leafs.”

But with three losses in their last four games, and the Washington Capitals and New York Islanders making a charge for their Metropolitan Division playoff spot, the Orange and Black got a much-needed win on Tuesday night.

It just came with some drama.

Here are three Flyers who impacted the game.

Couturier’s impact was felt, just not on the ice. The Flyers skated without their captain on Tuesday night as he was a healthy scratch for the first time this season — and just 34 days after being handed the “C.” It’s not an unusual move for coach John Tortorella, who has a history of benching stars he doesn’t think are playing well.

The veteran said after morning skate that he needed to leave his ego aside, but he is “definitely frustrated with the way I’ve been treated around [here] lately.”

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It didn’t help that after the win, Tortorella would not answer questions regarding Couturier.

“As I told you, I’m putting the players out on the ice to win a particular game and these were the 20 that we decided to go with,” Tortorella said.

When a follow-up question was being asked, Tortorella jumped in to add, “I’m not talking about Sean. I’m not debating with you. I’m not conversing. It’s between Sean and I, so we’re just talking about the game.”

While Tortorella didn’t want to answer questions, his players did.

“He’s our captain, but just like anyone else we’ve got a job to do, a game to play,” defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “And, you know, we’re in the thick of a playoff race right now. So our focus is on winning a hockey game.”

“I think in our locker room, we kind of approach every game the same and Coots does so many good things,” Frost added. “So I felt a lot of guys did a good job stepping up for him today and he’s still our leader and we all love him.”

“He’s obviously a big part of our team and when you lose a guy like that you’ve got to fill the void and guys got to step up,” winger Owen Tippett said.

After being pulled in two of his past three starts, Ersson did what he does best — rebound. The Flyers goalie made 27 saves on 30 shots to earn his 20th win of the season.

“Obviously, you always want to get the win, but it’s one of those games you want to respond after what happened last game,” said Ersson, who should also give a few love taps to his goalposts as they stopped four shot attempts. “It definitely wasn’t my best game today. I think I was pretty lucky there a bunch of the times, and some guys stepped up and made huge blocks for me. But at this time of the year, it doesn’t really matter how. You’ve just got to get the win and it was definitely a battle today.”

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The battle included facing off against the NHL’s top goal scorer, Auston Matthews, who had four shots on goal but did not score. And one of Ersson’s best saves of the night came when he stoned Bobby McMann on a shorthanded breakaway with his blocker in the second period. It was one of seven high-danger chances the Leafs had in the middle frame before they put seven more on goal in the final 20 minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“In the second there, a lot of Grade A chances that he had to face. I think in the third he’s facing a lot as well and he just came up big at a lot of times,” Sanheim said. “We expect that now. That’s kind of his job and he’s doing a great job at it.”

Ersson did let in three before the clock hit zero, although two were due to defensive-zone breakdowns that left Tyler Bertuzzi and then John Tavares wide open on the doorstep.

“Huge game for Sam, just for him to get some swagger back in his game,” Tortorella said. “He was outstanding. That’s a hard team to play against. They are so balanced. I don’t think they can move up or down in the standings, they just play. They play free. I thought we played hard. I thought it was a huge game for Sam just to get a result and to get some of his confidence back.”

It also didn’t hurt that the Flyers went back to their old ways of blocking shots. The team blocked 36, led by Egor Zamula’s seven, compared to eight by the Leafs. In the second period, Cam York made a goal-saving block on a shot by Max Domi after a cross-crease pass by Matthews.

The first shift of any period is meant to set the tone. Get the puck deep and either get a whistle that sets up the next line’s start in the offensive zone or score. Mission accomplished on Tuesday because, as Tortorella said, it allowed his group to “play with some swagger and some confidence.”

Tippett continued his hot streak with his third goal in four games by curling atop the left circle and sending one through some screens — 19 seconds into the game. He has seven points during a four-game point streak.

“I think the emphasis has been on our starts lately. I think anytime you can get one on the first couple shifts or first minute it goes a long way with getting everyone involved and just sets the tempo for the game,” Tippett said.

Tippett wasn’t done just yet. In the second period, he showcased a big reason the Flyers signed him to an eight-year extension in January — his speed. The winger used his legs and open stride to power through and split the Leafs’ defensemen — à la some guy named Connor McDavid — creating essentially a two-on-none with Travis Konecny, who just narrowly missed at the far post.

Although both he and linemate Frost, who notched the goal, had just hopped on the ice, the pair has been connecting as of late. Frost himself has a four-game point streak and gave credit to his buddies, Tippett and Konecny.

“My linemates have been making some good space for me and [I’m] trying to shoot the puck a little bit more,” Frost said. “I think that’s always been a thing with me. I don’t have a very hard shot, but you’re never going to score if you don’t put it on net. So just trying to throw more pucks to the net and when you’re playing with guys like Tip and TK sometimes it can be easy to just want to pass to them the whole game and find them.”

Tippett didn’t just have connections with Frost and Konecny in the game, he also used his speed to get up on the play when Scott Laughton, fresh out of the penalty box, got the puck off an errant pass from the Leafs. Laughton made a spin move — reminiscent of a Tippett goal from earlier in the season — to avoid the defense and fed Tippett. He fanned on a shot attempt, but the winger stayed with it and fed Laughton for the goal with a wrap-around pass as Ilya Samsonov was pulled out of position.

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“It’s huge. And that’s why those guys deserve to be in the lineup, they have played well,” Tortorella said about seeing the young players like Tippett and Frost step up Tuesday night. “They get these opportunities and, this is where we’re at. We’re playing these types of games in the middle to almost the end of March, and we have guys that have to experience this for us to go through this process of building this team.”