VOORHEES, N.J. — On most nights, Joel Farabee’s primary responsibility is to help generate offense on a team that needs goals by committee to be successful.
On Thursday, Farabee’s primary responsibility was swinging open and slamming closed the door to the home bench.
The forward didn’t play for the final 57 minutes of the Flyers’ 4-3 overtime loss to the Devils after he was caught too far up the ice on New Jersey’s first goal three minutes into the first period. Farabee wasn’t made available to the media Friday despite a request through a team spokesman, but coach John Tortorella indicated both parties have moved on.
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“I had a two-second discussion (with Farabee) as we passed ways in the hallway,” the coach said. “That’s all that needed to be done.”
That Tortorella will drastically reduce a player’s ice time is nothing new. Owen Tippett is a recent example. After erring on a New York Rangers goal Nov. 24, Tippett sat for more than 10 minutes in the second period and finished with a season-low ice time of 11:50 for the game.
After that situation, Tippett said he had “a conversation” with Tortorella, “but at the end of the day I knew what I needed to do to be better.”
And he was better the next night in the Flyers’ 1-0 shootout win over the Islanders at UBS Arena. Tippett registered four shots on goal, 10 attempts and threw a team-high five hits to boot.
“I think it helped playing the next night, just having a clean slate and moving forward,” Tippett said.
Farabee will get that chance, too. He’ll be back in the lineup Saturday in Pittsburgh, skating on a line with Scott Laughton and Cam Atkinson.
“He’ll get his ice time and get right back at it,” Tortorella said.
Not that the coach has much choice at the moment. The Flyers are still carrying just 12 healthy forwards, and Tortorella confirmed they have no plans to recall anyone for Saturday’s game or Monday’s back end of the home-and-home with the Penguins, as long as everyone remains healthy.
One potential danger of carrying the bare minimum is that it could reduce internal competition, something every coach longs for on a roster. Tortorella has utilized that already by shuffling young players in and out of the lineup, including giving Morgan Frost and Bobby Brink nights off as healthy scratches.
There evidently won’t be any healthy forwards scratched for the two games against the Penguins, but Tortorella isn’t concerned. After all, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms are only about a 90-minute drive away. Roster changes can happen at any time.
“They know there’s internal competition because Lehigh (Valley) is right down the street,” he said Wednesday. “That’s one of the things that’s great about our situation. We can get them right away. They know.”
There will be at least one forward recalled in time for the Flyers’ three-game road trip through Arizona, Colorado and Nashville. The team charter leaves for Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon, and someone who’s currently on the Phantoms will be on board.
So who might be on that shortlist?
Olle Lycksell would seem to be one candidate, and with 18 points in 18 games, he’s off to a solid start.
“Like all those guys when he came to us (after training camp), he was a little bit disappointed, which is normal. … Now he’s feeling it and he’s playing well,” Phantoms coach Ian Laperriere said of the 24-year-old, who played eight games with the Flyers last season with one assist. “Not only getting points, but he’s playing well away from the puck, which that’s what he’s going to need to do to go to the next level.”
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Laperriere also mentioned that Wade Allison, who was a bit surprisingly placed on waivers at the conclusion of training camp, has been much better lately. Laperriere voiced his displeasure with how Allison initially responded to his reassignment — comments that he believes were “blown out of proportion” — but the forward has apparently turned a corner, with two goals and three assists in 17 games. And the Flyers could arguably use more size on their roster.
“He’s been great,” Laperriere said. “He’s gotten chances, he’s just not scoring. … He’s been buying in, doing everything I’m asking.”
If the Flyers are seeking a penalty killer to help fill the void left by Noah Cates, out six-to-eight weeks with a broken foot, Tanner Laczynski could get another look. He has 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) in 16 games this season and has been “leading the charge on the PK,” according to Laperriere.
Another forward who could have more upside than any of the aforementioned players, and who left a strong impression at training camp, was Samu Tuomaala. The 2021 second-round pick and playmaker is off to a quick start in his first full pro season in North America, with 17 points (four goals, 13 assists) in 18 games.
“There is a lot of work to do with him, but there’s less than I thought,” Laperriere said. “Coming from the bigger ice and a different style of play, more physical here, he embraced everything. … He’s got a great future in front of him if he keeps working at it, which he is.”
NHL teams looking to recall players from their AHL affiliates sometimes have to balance the need to fill a role with not wanting to interrupt a player’s development. The latter is much more important to the Flyers at this stage of their rebuild, which probably makes it less likely they’ll recall someone like Tuomaala, but at the same time, they might want to reward a player for having success at the AHL level.
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The young defensemen on the Phantoms were left in the AHL when the Flyers needed a spare blueliner after Marc Staal’s injury and recalled 27-year-old Louie Belpedio instead. Belpedio played 12 straight games from Oct. 26 to Nov. 19, posted four points (two goals, two assists) and is still on the roster despite Staal and Rasmus Ristolainen both being healthy again.
That was a reward for Belpedio but also served as a message to some other Phantoms, too.
“If I’m a young defenseman down there in Lehigh (Valley), I’m pissed off that Louie is here and played as many games as he did,” Tortorella said. “But that’s the way it’s going to work. It’s not going to be given to you. A couple people lost an opportunity. Louie is a veteran guy. He also showed us that he can give us some games, too, when we don’t think some other guys are ready. If a younger guy was ready, he’d be getting those minutes that Louie got.
“We’re going to see how guys are playing down there and what we need here and go about it that way.”
(Top photo: Kyle Ross / USA Today)
