Flyers vs. Panthers takeaways: Sam Ersson returns to lead our three stars, Joel Farabee finishes the job

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Flyers could have gone down one of two paths on their three-game road trip.

They could have continued to struggle and not earned a point, or they could have found their game and skated away with six points. Instead, they bulldozed a path straight down the middle by playing considerably better and getting three out of six points, including one in Saturday’s 4-3 shootout loss to a Florida Panthers squad riding a six-game winning streak in which they outscored opponents by 30-13.

“The biggest thing for the coaching staff is, each day we just try to get back to the way we’re supposed to be playing,” coach John Tortorella said. “The type of attitude, the type of personality we need to show as a team.”

Here are three stars from the Flyers’ hard-earned point on Saturday night.

After missing the last two games with a lower-body injury he suffered a week earlier, the Flyers’ top goalie was back between the pipes.

“It’s just something that happened. We took care of it,” Ersson said. “It feels good and it was very light. It was a couple of days here and good to be back.”

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Ersson was indeed back. He stopped 28 of 31 shots and looked like he never missed a beat. His only flaws were two goals — the third was one not even Bernie Parent could have stopped, as Sam Bennett was left all alone at the right post.

The first shot attempt he faced, by Aaron Ekblad, went off the crossbar 4 minutes, 2 seconds into the game. But the first save he made wasn’t until 5:49 in, stopping Tomas Nosek.

One of the best saves Ersson had was in the third period, when he slid across to stop Anton Lundell. It was a critical play with the Flyers down by a goal — because 13 seconds later, Garnet Hathaway tied things up at 3.

Then, with around five minutes to go, the Panthers tried to pounce. They had four shots on goal in a 14-second sequence that saw the netminder make stops at both posts. He stopped Lundell on a wraparound; Jesper Boqvist on a deflection; Eetu Luostarinen on a tip-in; and Luostarinen again on a wrister.

“He’s calm. He’s a good dude. You want to play in front of guys like that,” forward Scott Laughton said. “He works at his craft and he’s great. Happy to have him back.”

On Friday, Tortorella had praise for Farabee, saying he “was one of our better offensive players” in the win against the Tampa Bay Lightning the night before. But, he added, he’d “like to see him finish.”

Check that box off, Torts.

Farabee has been playing well in the last few games. His top-tier play was rewarded with his first goal, which wasn’t an empty-netter, since the second game of the season; he scored into an empty net in the Flyers’ 2-0 win against the Boston Bruins on Oct. 29.

“That line’s been good, Laughts, him, and Bobby [Brink],” Tortorella said Saturday. “Beezer [Farabee], the last game, had a number of scoring, or at least involved in scoring chances. Played another good game tonight.”

Indeed.

Speaking to The Inquirer on Oct. 25, Farabee was blunt when asked where he saw his game. “Not very good. I feel like my play has been pretty [expletive],” the winger said.

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Since then, he has four points (two goals, two assists) in eight games, including four even-strength points, with a plus-minus of minus-1 in 15:21 of ice time per game. He has also put 15 shots on goal with a 13.3% shooting percentage and, according to Natural Stat Trick, has created four rebounds at five-on-five. Before then, he had one goal and two assists in seven games, with 10 shots on goal and a 10% shooting percentage. He was minus-8 while averaging 12:56.

The goal Farabee scored is something the Flyers have been hammering home with him — going to the center of the ice. He went right down the middle to the net and was able to bury the chip by Laughton.

“It was big,” Laughton said. “Him and Bobby read off each other good. It’s easy to play with those guys. They’re always supporting the puck and making plays … they’re always looking for each other, looking for me. So, we were on the ice for a couple, but I thought we created a ton of chances and could have had a couple more.”

Farabee had a tip-in chance with 2:55 left in the second period that just missed from in front. In overtime, he had two chances, including a breakaway shot from 15 feet out that Sergei Bobrovsky got the pads closed on.

Hathaway may play on the fourth line, but there is no denying what he brings to the Flyers.

The feisty winger has tenacity and grit as he throws the body around and brings intensity. A solid forechecker, who creates havoc for the opposition, he also brings some skill.

According to Natural Stat Trick, in 15 games this season at five-on-five, Hathaway has the fourth-best shooting percentage (11.11) on the team, the eighth-most individual shot attempts (30), and has drawn eight penalties. When he is on the ice, per Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers have a Corsi For percentage of 45.86%, the fifth best, and he has the best Goals For percentage (54.55) on the team.

He is also a key cog to the Flyers’ penalty kill, which is 89.8% effective, and was 2-for-2 against a Panthers power play ranked in the top 10. Hathaway is also one of three players on the Flyers who has a positive plus-minus on the team (plus-2); the other two players are his linemates Ryan Poehling, who is on injured reserve, and winger-now-center Noah Cates.

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On Saturday, Hathaway also brought speed and a nose for the net — and not just to get under the skin of the goalie.

“I thought we dictated the speed of the game tonight and that’s something that when we’re playing to our identity, it’s what we do,” he said. “I think you saw it a lot last year and I think right now it’s finding that game and understanding what it takes to start a game with that mentality. To go at them.”

He went at them, all right. Hathaway got the puck and skated through the Panthers, including around Selke winner Aleksander Barkov, showing a gear the speedster Owen Tippett was bringing all night.

His centering pass ended up going in off Uvis Balinskis and tied the score at 3.

“I did not do it on purpose but I think that might have been the only way to beat [Bobrovsky] tonight,” Hathaway told The Inquirer after the game. “I thought he was unbelievable. You could see it in the overtime, chance after chance, and he stood on his head. It’s how he plays a lot of the time. But it just happened to be a good bounce to go my way tonight, but usually he stops those.”

Travis Sanheim skated 30:19 and was within a toe of winning the game in overtime on a breakaway.

Emil Andrae once again played a solid game and saw his ice time jump in the third period from around 5:30 in each of the first two periods to over eight minutes in the third. He also got a shift in overtime. “He deserves the time he’s getting,” Tortorella said.

As mentioned, Tippet brought his speed on Saturday night and put a season-high seven shots on goal. He also had a chance in overtime and kept the shootout going with another goal; he netted the shootout winner on Thursday against the Lightning.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Owen Tippett finds his rhythm, scoring in consecutive games. But will it last?