Flyers takeaways: Joel Farabee was ‘seeing red’ as emotions ran high in win over Islanders

ELMONT, N.Y. ― For the longest time, it seemed like the Flyers were doing everything right, except for winning.

Now they have won three of four and have points in four straight games following an emotional 5-3 win against the New York Islanders.

Here are three talking points from the win.

There are multiple ways to be there for your teammates. On Thursday, the Flyers tried to do it with their physicality but then did it where it hurts the Islanders even more — in the win column.

Ryan Poehling was injured in the first period after taking a dangerous high hit from Max Tsyplakov, after he had a shot on goal while shorthanded, causing him to leave the game. Garnet Hathaway immediately went after the Islander, but he wouldn’t drop the gloves. Joel Farabee tapped him later but was called for slashing instead. Rasmus Ristolainen made a point to hit Tsyplakov, more than once.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ point streak continues as they roll to a 5-3 win over the New York Islanders

“Emotions were high,” captain Sean Couturier said. “Tough loss with Poehls going down there and guys trying to stick up for him; we’ll kill those kind of penalties. But we’ve got to regroup at some point. I thought we did a good job in the second of responding the right way.”

Yes, “emotions play a big part” in games, as Hathaway said, and things could have gone sideways as emotions — like Farabee’s saying he was “seeing red” at the time — cascaded over the Flyers. Coach John Tortorella told his team to “take care of Poehls” and while the coach and players would not comment on the hit after the game, the Flyers certainly did take care of things.

The Flyers settled down and scored a hat trick of goals in the second period.

“I think just as a group, Poehls goes down, and I think it just gave us a little more [expletive] in our game, and we went after them,” Farabee said. “I think the scoreboard showed that.”

Speaking after the team’s morning skate at UBS Arena, Farabee said he wanted to take chances, not play safe anymore, work hard for his teammates, be reliable, and play inside more. Pretty sure all those boxes got checked off as the guy nicknamed “Beezer” was all over the ice on Thursday in his first game after being a healthy scratch for three.

“I just went out there. I felt confident with the puck, was assertive with my plays, and just tried to play hard,” Farabee said.

Tortorella said he wanted Farabee to bring energy and he certainly did. He had two assists, five shot attempts, three shots on goal, and two blocked shots in more than 13 minutes of action.

» READ MORE: Q&A: John Tortorella talks coaching Matvei Michkov, balancing winning and development, and more

Playing with Couturier and Michkov, the line had seven shot attempts for and just two against, with Couturier finishing off a play atop the crease that was started by Michkov and set up by Farabee.

According to Natural Stat Trick, when Farabee was on the ice the Flyers had 52% more shot attempts at five-on-five; it was No. 2 on the team behind Michkov’s 59.09%. Farabee was one of three Flyers who was on the ice for two of the team’s five goals. Couturier won the offensive-zone faceoff to Farabee, who set up Cam York for the eventual game-winner.

“Great game. Beezer can make plays. He’s got a lot of skill. He’s a smart player as well,” Couturier said. “I think it’s about just getting his confidence back and you can tell when he’s feeling it, he can make plays.”

Known for his physical game — and you can add another seven hits to his total after the Islanders game — Hathaway is doing it all right now. After he tried to fight Tsyplakov for the dangerous hit on Poehling, he went out and played against the Islanders even harder with a shorthanded goal.

It may have been his only shot on goal, but he made it count. With his usual penalty-killing partner out, Hathaway worked with Travis Konecny, who had another monster game with three assists and Hathaway called “a star.” One of those assists was a sweet saucer pass over to Hathaway on a two-on-one that the physical forward easily buried.

He now has goals in three of his last four games.

“It’s funny, this league,” Hathaway said. “You go on weird patches of games, at least me personally, where the puck goes in, or you get a lot of chances and they don’t go in, or you get some and they all go in. It’s weird.

“It’s one of those things where I’ve tried to fall back on kind of the basic principles of my game, which is just being strong on the pucks, trying to keep them going north in the right direction, and making stuff happen around the net.”