PHILADELPHIA – It’s been a struggle for Joel Farabee practically all season so few eyebrows were raised when coach John Tortorella announced the Flyers’ left wing was scratched for Saturday night’s game against Anaheim.
Taking his place was Olle Lycksell, who’s been back and forth from Lehigh Valley the past couple seasons.
Farabee, 24, has posted just six goals/14 points with a minus-14 in 42 games this season. He’s been a regular on the top two lines at least half of those 42, which is why much more is expected of him offensively.
“Up until probably a couple weeks ago, I liked his game,” Tortorella said at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, N.J. after the morning skate. “The production wasn’t there. But he’s been involved in a lot of the offense.
“Unfortunately he doesn’t score. Sometimes he fed others and they didn’t score. But the past couple weeks it’s just gotten stale.”
The coach said he wasn’t sure what the plan for Farabee was going forward.
“I stayed with him, stayed with him,” Tortorella said. “Top-line minutes (from mid-November to mid-December). Started using him a little bit killing penalties. I thought that might help. He just hasn’t manufactured much.”
Farabee’s game tailed off a bit last season, too, as the schedule wore on.
That could be why his name popped up in trade rumors last March and they really haven’t gone away this season.
“I think he’s in shape – he cares, he had a fight the other night,” Tortorella said. “It’s hard for me to take him out. He fights for his team, I think he’s fighting just to try to get some juice in us. It’s not easy taking him out but sometimes you take players out for punitive stuff, sometimes take players out just to get away from it.”
Tortorella indicated this wasn’t the former reason. He respects Farabee’s effort and wants him to succeed.
“I need to get him playing better,” the coach said. “Maybe he watches and we’ll see where it goes after this.”
Farabee was a minus-4 in a 7-3 loss at Pittsburgh on Dec. 23 and has only two goals in his last 15 games.
“When Joel and I talked, I asked him, ‘what do you think happened?’ Because it’s the same thing as the year goes on, he’s just kind of faded away a little bit.
“And I asked him if there’s anything I can do differently. He lost some minutes and everybody feels to get out of. . .because he was fading a bit. But he was involved in a lot of stuff so we kept on giving him minutes with the hope he would break out of it.”
Probably the whole team is pulling for Farabee to make a comeback. He’s had seasons of 20, 17, 15 and 22 goals (including the pandemic-shortened 2021-22 season), so the talent is there.
“The guy cares,” Tortorella said. “His name is being bounced around (in trade rumors) during the (trade) deadline. He wants to be here.
“I am not going to give up on him. He’s had a couple years of 20-plus goals. And I said he’s a key guy – he can play center, he can move up and down the wing. Maybe something clicks in. If he does score, maybe he will feel better. Maybe it’s a confidence thing.”
