Flyers takeaways: Joel Farabee ends his goal drought; a mixed return for Sam Ersson in net

An NHL season is a long and winding one.

After winning three straight and earning at least a point in five consecutive games, the Flyers have now lost three in a row. It’s the first time the team has been on the losing side of more than two in a row since their six-game skid directly following the season opener in Vancouver.

Have the Flyers faced some obstacles out of their control? Sure. Did the defense look a bit tired? Yes, as noted by coach John Tortorella, largely due to the fact that the team has been shorthanded an average of 4 minutes, 57 seconds per game over the last three games.

And neither team looked fresh on Sunday with the Utah Hockey Club and the Flyers each playing the second half of back-to-backs.

But it’s still three L’s, and the vibes are no longer immaculate. Here are four quick hits from the 4-2 Flyers loss to Utah.

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Matvei Michkov extended his point streak to four games with an assist on Owen Tippett’s goal. It was a smart play by the Russian as he dropped the puck after entering the zone for Tippett, who carried it around the net and executed a give-and-go with Nick Seeler before scoring. Michkov has eight points during the streak and has been a plus player in each game. Across 26 games, he has 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists), leading all NHL rookies.

The final seconds of the game were when things got interesting.

The now 20-year-old (Monday was his birthday) got involved with Utah’s Barrett Hayton, throwing a few punches after he ended up with a mark on his face. He kept going at Hayton and the referee could be heard blowing the whistle right at him as the linesmen tried to separate the two. Michkov appeared to swipe at the referee, Frederick L’Ecuyer, who immediately tossed him from the game, giving him a 10-minute misconduct.

On the way down the tunnel, Michkov stopped to sign a water bottle for a fan.

Joel Farabee looked upset despite snapping a 12-game goal drought when he put the puck past Jaxson Stauber in the second period to tie the score at 1. Why?

“I wish I didn’t take it from [Seeler], honestly,” said Farabee, who is always a team-first guy. “I kind of just saw the puck and whacked it. I wish I would have just blocked the D and let it go in. But a good play by Seels. I wish he would have got credit for it though.”

Farabee hadn’t scored but had been doing a lot of things right while getting chances. The puck just wasn’t going in for him. According to Natural Stat Trick, across that 12-game drought at five-on-five, he led the Flyers in shots (30), scoring chances (30), and high-danger chances (17). He was also fourth in shot attempts (42), drew three penalties, and threw 13 hits. However, he did take four penalties, including a costly one Thursday against the Florida Panthers.

On Sunday, in addition to his goal, he had four shots on goal and threw five hits in 18:46 of ice time.

“He’s pretty much done everything else,” Tortorella said. “He’s made plays. He’s played well, other than he’s taken too many penalties — I’m not just talking about the one a couple of games ago — but he’s taken some inopportune-timed penalties. But he has made plays for weeks now. Hopefully, that’ll help him and, yeah, see where we go with it.”

Tortorella had a blank space for a goalie on Sunday and wrote in Sam Ersson’s name. The Flyers netminder was activated off injured reserve earlier in the day and played his first game since Nov. 11.

“Obviously, there’s some rust that comes with it, but I think you have to remember you’ve played a lot of hockey games in your life, you know how to play hockey,” Ersson said. “So if you don’t make [it] too much of a big thing, I think it’s easier for you, and obviously, you kind of have to accept that there’s going to be a little bit of rust. And if you just work hard, it will shake off.”

Ersson looked sharp — Tortorella said he looked “confident” — despite missing almost a month of games. He allowed four goals on 25 shots, stopping all 12 shots he saw in the opening frame. But Ersson feels that in the second, when Utah scored three times, he needed to “come up with one of those saves there.”

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“I thought he played great,” Farabee said. “Having him back there, it’s a lot of trust and, even playing the puck and things like that, he’s really good at that and just communicating. So, we love having him.”

It should be noted that the first goal by Utah, from a sharp angle by Michael Carcone, went off Ersson’s pad and Rasmus Ristolainen before tickling the twine. The second goal was off a tip-in from atop the crease by defenseman Juuso Välimäki and the third was just a nifty play by Logan Cooley on a power play as he received a cross-crease pass and then cut back across before backhanding one over Ersson. The final goal by Utah occurred after Morgan Frost overskated the puck on a power play.

The second surprise of the night was the return of Jamie Drysdale. The defenseman last played on Nov. 9 due to an upper-body injury.

“It was honestly really good,” Drysdale said about being back in the lineup. “Just the whole lead-up, finding out that I was going to be back in the lineup, really exciting. On the other front, it [stinks] that we didn’t get the win.”

Like Ersson, Drysdale felt some rust, although for him it was about the speed of the game. He played almost 19 minutes, including quarterbacking the second power-play unit. In the third period, he scored what everyone thought was the tying goal with a slick move from the right point down into the circle for the shot. But Utah won its challenge for goaltender interference on Travis Konecny.

While Tortorella didn’t have any issue with the goal being overturned, others disagreed.

“The goalie interference call, in my opinion, was pretty bad,” Farabee said. “The goalies don’t have to fight in this league anymore. They feel contact, they throw their head back and it’s waved off every time. It’s kind of ridiculous if you ask me, so changes the whole game.

“TK is standing there for 10 seconds before that, and then as the shot’s coming, he throws his head back. That’s all I need to say about it.”

But that was one small piece of Drysdale’s night. Overall, he had three shot attempts, three takeaways to one giveaway, and blocked two shots. Before the injury, he often looked out of position defensively. On this night, there were no glaring mistakes. The coaching staff did spend time with Drysdale while he was out, going over tape and showing him the player they think he can be in the NHL.

“I thought he skated,” Tortorella said. “He looked to shoot more. It’s too bad it gets back on him. Yeah, I thought he escaped. I thought Emil [Andrae] struggled a little bit on the power play; we put Jamie out there with the goalie pulled. I thought he played a good game. I got to watch the tape. I just noticed him as far as making plays and using his legs.”