Coming into the 2023-24 season, Joel Farabee needed to show that he was a player that deserved to stick around and be committed to during this period of rebuild. After scoring just 39 points during a full, 82-game campaign last year, some movement towards being a reliable offensive threat needed to happen.
On Thursday night against the Washington Capitals, the 23-year-old scored his 11th goal of the season and continued to just pluck away at the visitor’s defense during his time on the ice. The only thing, is that his ice-time continues to be fairly limited. Without presence on either the power play or penalty kill, Farabee has been restricted solely to 5-on-5 play and according to head coach John Tortorella, he isn’t complaining about it, despite most likely wanting more opportunity.
“Big goal at that time. He has been plugging away,” Tortorella said. “He loses ice time when I don’t have him on the power play, I’m not using him killing penalties, I tried to get him on the ice more 5-on-5 tonight. I’m sure he wants to be on one of those special teams, but he has shut his mouth and just played.”
So far this season, Farabee has spent just over 42 minutes on the power play. Even last season, he was limited to just around 162 minutes over his 82 games. There is something that Tortorella doesn’t like about the young winger on the man advantage, and he definitely cannot say it’s because the Flyers’ current power play is working, either. Only the Blackhawks, Blues, and Capitals have scored fewer power-play goals than Philadelphia, and the underlying numbers are ugly.
Regardless of missed opportunity, Farabee knows that he has evolved as a player compared to his disappointing production through the 2022-23 season.
“He literally said let’s just control what we can control and we went out there and got a goal,” Farabee said. “I feel like, for me, last year, I really spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself, wishing things were going one way. Whereas this year, I feel like I know exactly what Torts expects and what he needs from me as a player. I really just try to go out there every night and give whatever I can to the team.”
And that seems to be working for him. Now, it’s just about finding consistency and being able to contribute when this team is back in its winning ways.
