Flyers’ Travis Konecny has a theory for Joel Farabee’s impressive start | On the Fly
The second-year wing is one of 30 players with at least 10 goals already this season. He’s also the youngest.
Alain Vigneault gave the Flyers players the day off on Wednesday, another sign that this current stretch of six games in nine nights has him a little concerned.
The veteran coach, in his 18th season, has mentioned several times in the last two weeks that he’s never gone through such a heavy load. It’ll get worse. From March 17 to 23, the Flyers are scheduled to play five games in seven nights, and they do not have two days off between games again until April 1 and 2.
A couple of interesting lineup choices await when the Flyers return to the ice on Thursday morning for a brisk morning practice ahead of the 7 p.m. game against Pittsburgh. Where will Travis Konecny slot in, will Nic Aube-Kubel be reinserted, will there be any changes to the defense after Giveaway Tuesday, and, of course, will it be Moose or Cah-tah Haht in net?
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— Ed Barkowitz (flyers@inquirer.com)
Travis Konecny could see Joel Farabee’s red-hot start coming
Thirty players have scored at least 10 goals this season. Joel Farabee is the youngest.
Four players have scored at least 10 even-strength goals this season: Toronto’s Auston Matthews ($11.6 million cap hit) and Mitch Marner ($10.9 million), San Jose’s Logan Couture ($8 million), and Farabee ($925k). Farabee’s the best bargain.
Travis Konecny said he could see in the brief training camp Farabee’s dedication with weights and to adding muscle to his 6-foot frame. Farabee was 19 years old and about 165 pounds when he began his NHL career. He is maybe 15 pounds thicker this year, which has led to 19 points in his first 19 games.
“You always run into him in the gym putting in his time and working on putting on some weight, and doing extra stuff on the ice,” Konecny said. “It’s no surprise to us that he’s doing this well.”
Farabee’s already surpassed last season’s eight goals, and he’s three away from the 21 points he had in 52 games a year ago. With 19 games down, there’s still about two-thirds of this season yet to play.
Konecny then paid Farabee the ultimate compliment.
“He’s one of those guys,” TK said, “that makes players around him better.”
Farabee said an example of his added strength was an assist he had last week where he was on the right-wing boards and muscled a pass to a cutting James van Riemsdyk for a quick redirection.
» QUICK CLIP: Joel Farabee with a gorgeous pass to James van Riemsdyk
“Last season, I would have rimmed it [around the boards] or gotten rid of it,” Farabee explained. “But I feel like in my game I’m holding on to [the puck], waiting for plays to open up, and it’s really helping me.”
Farabee turned 21 last Thursday. Said he had a glass of red wine to celebrate. Probably wasn’t at Rexy’s Bar over in West Collingswood, which is just as well.
He had two goals in the loss to Pittsburgh the other night, but was more annoyed with his play at the other end. Farabee leads all second-year players in points, and his plus-8 also is tops. It’s his attention to playing 200 feet that some day will get him into the same tax bracket as Messrs. Matthews, Marner, and Couture.
“We were getting a little too greedy, and trying to jump [up ice] a little bit, myself included,” Farabee said. “I think we just gotta tighten it up a little bit in all three zones and we’ll be OK.”
Things to know
Sidney Crosby was still in the COVID-19 protocol yesterday. There’s no word yet on whether he’ll play tonight against the Flyers, Sam Carchidi reports.
Sam said a lineup change is imminent. I’m still wondering how Nic Aube-Kubel was benched. Sam’s looking for adjustments on the blue line, as well.
Not a lot of power on the Flyers’ power play lately. They’re 0 for their last 15 over a span of nearly 27 minutes. Yikes.
It’s starting to feel like old times now that the spit is hitting the fans. Mike Sielski takes a look at the arrival this week of paying customers back to arenas.
The look on Brayden Point’s face right before his fight with Andrew Cogliano is precious.
Colleague Nick Tricome loves third jerseys, retro-throwbacks, and everything else in that genre. He sent us a YouTube video of a designer who once made a teal Flyers jersey. It comes in around the 7-minute mark. Since my last attempt at fashion was a “Members Only” jacket, I’ll leave it for others to decide.
You get the point
Sean Couturier established a career high on Tuesday with a point in his seventh consecutive game. He’s still way behind the team record of 18 games shared by Bobby Clarke and Eric Lindros.
The NHL record is held by that Gretzky fellow, who had a 51-game scoring streak in 1983-84 in which he piled up 153 points (61 goals, 92 assists). The 205 points he scored that season were not a career high.
Around the division
Top four qualify for the playoffs
Washington (22 GP, 30 Pts.): The Caps made Zdeno Chara’s return to Boston a successful one with a 2-1 shootout win, their fourth in a row. The highlight for Chara, the Bruins captain for 14 years before signing with Washington in December, was spending time with his wife and three kids for the first time in more than two months. “It was really nice to see them after a long time, and to be a dad for one day again,” he said.
N.Y. Islanders (22 GP, 28 Pts.): The Islanders are 9-2-2 in their last 13 and start a three-game set at home with Buffalo on Thursday. Chance for them to pull away.
Boston (20 GP, 27 Pts.): Defenseman Matt Grzelcyk returned to the lineup on Wednesday after missing most of the last five weeks with a lower-body injury. He played 21 minutes, 34 seconds in a shootout loss to the Capitals. Second-line center David Krejci (15:31) also came back.
Flyers (19 GP, 25 Pts.): The Flyers haven’t lost consecutive true, non-bubble road games in regulation since the disastrous 2019-20 holiday trip out west.
Pittsburgh (21 GP, 25 Pts.): Kasperi Kapanen said his breakaway goal on Carter Hart Tuesday was inspired by former Toronto teammate Jason Spezza pulling a similar move a few days earlier in Edmonton.
N.Y. Rangers (20 GP, 19 Pts.): Head coach David Quinn said star Artemi Panarin, out on leave to deal with personal matters, has been skating and they’re “just waiting day-to-day for the right time for him to come back.”
New Jersey (18 GP, 16 Pts.): Have lost seven in a row at home in regulation. Played in front of fans for the first time earlier this week; even the cardboard cutouts left early in disgust.
Buffalo (20 GP, 15 Pts.): The aforementioned three-game series against the Islanders could bury the Sabres and only intensify the Jack Eichel trade rumors.
Divisional schedule
Wednesday
Washington 2, Boston 1 (shootout)
Thursday
Flyers at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m. (NBCSP)
Buffalo at N.Y. Islanders, 7 p.m.
N.Y. Rangers at New Jersey, 7 p.m.
Friday
Washington at Boston, 7 p.m. (NHLN)
Flyers’ next five
Thursday: Flyers at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m. (NBCSP)
Saturday: Flyers at Pittsburgh, 1 p.m. (NBCSP)
Sunday: Washington at Flyers, 7 p.m. (NBCSP)
Tuesday: Buffalo at Flyers, 7 p.m. (NBCSP)
Thursday, March 11: Washington at Flyers, 7 p.m. (NBCSP)
From the mailbag
Feedback: “It’s a running joke: they need to shoot more — both on PP and in general. Even if they don’t score they get more chances in deflections or rebounds. Instead, they look hesitant, indecisive and end up missing connections and sending the puck back into their end. Basically, they spend the PP acting like they’re on PK. They should have won [Tuesday’s] game.”
— Inquirer.com user superunoriginal
***
Question: Do the Flyers need a veteran presence on defense? It has been horrible lately.
Answer: You ain’t kidding. Where have you gone Matt Niskanen? Flyers’ nation turns its lonely eyes to you. I would put a veteran defenseman at the top of my trade-deadline wish list. Seen a lot of love out there for Nashville’s Mattias Ekholm, who will be 31 in May, is signed through next season, and has a $3.75 million cap hit.
Complicating matters is that Chuck Fletcher also needs to consider his expansion protection list ahead of Seattle’s arrival. There are a couple options, but Ivan Provorov, Phil Myers, and Travis Sanheim figure to be three defensemen he protects. Fletcher had a similar dilemma over the summer when he ended up with Erik Gustafsson.
I’d add some heft back there if I thought the Flyers could win even a couple series. Winning begets winning. It’s just a matter of how aggressive the GM wants to be. — Ed Barkowitz
Send questions or observations via Twitter to beat writers Ed Barkowitz (@EdBarkowitz) or Sam Carchidi (@BroadStBull).