Flyers taking ‘steps’ after interim head coach Mike Yeo’s first practice; Joel Farabee participates in limited capacity

After a five-games-in-seven-nights stretch last week, interim coach Mike Yeo welcomed the opportunity to host his first full practice.

While the Flyers made adjustments to their system on the fly after head coach Alain Vigneault’s firing on Dec. 6, Monday’s practice served as an opportunity to take additional strides toward Yeo’s vision.

“I don’t want to say we’re a long ways away, but I think that we’ve taken some steps,” Yeo said. “But it’s going to take time.

» READ MORE: Flyers hope they've turned a corner under Mike Yeo

“I’ve been part of this three different times, twice in a good way, once in a bad way — in all three of those situations, it took time. And so I’ve seen a great response from the players as far as their attention and their buy-in to the things that we’re saying.”

Because of limited practice time, defenseman Justin Braun said that the Flyers can’t completely “start from scratch” with a brand-new system. Instead, the coaching staff is gradually implementing new wrinkles, utilizing video review when the team isn’t on the ice.

Some of the biggest differences in the system that the Flyers are trying to implement, according to winger James van Riemsdyk, focus on subtleties in positioning and different cues players look for breaking out of the defensive zone. Monday’s practice helped the Flyers commit those tweaks to muscle memory.

“As we all know, in any sport, you’re playing better if you’re playing with your instincts and just kind of going versus thinking about it too much,” van Riemsdyk said. “So it’s nice to just sort of go through some of those things and see some different mistakes we may make and try to clean them up.”

While the changes in the system will be important to the Flyers’ future success as they dig themselves out of their hole, Yeo emphasized the importance of doing the little things right within the bigger picture.

“There’s structure and there’s systems and there’s things that we want to apply and we want to talk about,” Yeo said. “But at the end of the day, if you don’t have the right details in the system, if you don’t have the right pressure, if you don’t kill plays and be physical and win your one-on-ones, then all that stuff’s gonna be irrelevant.”

Not only did the Flyers experience the gift of practice time on Monday, they also enjoyed the gift of Joel Farabee’s presence. The winger, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, participated for the first time in more than a week while wearing a gray no-contact jersey and took part in drills in a limited capacity.

“Great to see Joel out there with us today,” Yeo said. “Such an important player for us in so many areas of the game. Obviously, he was a little limited in what we have him participate in. But still, he’s ahead of schedule and getting very close.”

Farabee was placed on injured reserve on Dec. 9. He suffered the shoulder injury on Dec. 1 against the New York Rangers when he lost an edge and slid into the boards. Farabee left the game shortly after and did not return.

Because Farabee must miss seven days while on injured reserve, the earliest he can return to the lineup is Thursday on the road against the Montreal Canadiens. However, Yeo doesn’t expect Farabee to fully rejoin the team that quickly.

“We want him involved in a really good practice [before playing in a game],” Yeo said. “We’ll take a look at what our schedule gives us the chance to do here. But getting him out today was a really good first step.”

Last season, Farabee led the Flyers with 20 goals. Before his injury, Farabee scored seven goals and had a plus-7 rating through 21 games.

While Farabee was present at practice, top-line center Sean Couturier took a maintenance day and was absent. He is expected to be available for Tuesday night’s game against the New Jersey Devils, Yeo said.

Couturier exited Friday night’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights after he got cut by a skate following a faceoff. After getting a few stitches in the locker room, Couturier returned to action and scored a power-play goal in the third period. He also played in Saturday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes, when he registered a secondary assist on forward Scott Laughton’s goal.

Flyers 2020 fifth-round pick Elliot Desnoyers was selected to Canada’s roster for the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championships. Additionally, 2020 second-round pick defenseman Emil Andrae was named to Sweden’s roster. ... Forward Derick Brassard (lower-body strain) skated before practice Monday but did not participate with the rest of the team. Yeo would not provide a timeline for his return to the lineup. “We’re still being cautious with that,” Yeo said.