Farabee latest to be injured as winless streak hits 7 with 4-1 loss to Rangers
Is there a hockey doctor in the house?
Opponents of the Flyers are adding injury to insult these days as the orange and black continue to lose players and games.
Last year’s highest goal scorer, Joel Farabee, was the latest to go down during Wednesday night’s 4-1 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, extending Philly’s winless streak to seven games.
Farabee suffered what appeared to be a left shoulder injury midway through the first period and did not return to the game. The Flyers would only confirm it’s an upper-body injury.
Meanwhile, while the month of November has come to an end, the Flyers’ struggles haven’t.
Once again, goal-scoring was the main issue. The Flyers simply cannot put the puck in the net. Their record has now fallen below .500 (8-9-4) and one has to wonder how much heat will start to be felt by head coach Alain Vigneault and his staff.
Things went haywire almost from the start for the Flyers, who fell behind by a 2-0 score in the first period.
On the plus side for the Flyers, they did welcome back center Kevin Hayes to the lineup. He had missed all but two games this season as he’s been dealing with the aggravation of an abdominal injury which had required two surgical procedures.
Hayes centered a line with Scott Laughton on left wing and Travis Konecny on the right.
The Rangers picked up a power-play goal from Jacob Trouba while Farabee was serving a high-stick penalty. Trouba’s point shot eluded goaltender Carter Hart at 3:41.
Dryden Hunt expanded the lead to 2-0 when he powered past Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov and threaded a shot under Hart at 9:32.
Chris Kreider needed only 34 seconds into the second period to make it 3-0. Kreider has 16 goals in 21 games.
The Flyers finally broke through at 9:37 of the period. Morgan Frost picked up his first goal of the season when he shoved a loose puck under Igor Shesterkin.
Philadelphia’s power play went 0 for 3 and is now four for its last 53 attempts.
Hart allowed three goals as the Rangers’ fourth goal was put into an empty net.
Allison activated
Right wing Wade Allison, who previously underwent surgery to repair an ankle injury, was activated on Wednesday and assigned to the Phantoms. Also, with Hayes returning to the lineup, Max Willman was loaned to Lehigh Valley as well.
Major infraction
The Rangers’ Hunt received a five-minute major plus a game misconduct penalty for hitting Flyers defenseman Justin Braun from behind at 1:57 of the second period. The Flyers failed to score during the extended power play, firing blanks on all seven shots. Hunt is subject to a suspension by the NHL. Braun missed several shifts for repairs but later returned to finish the period.
Short shots
The Flyers do not play again until Sunday when they play host to Tampa Bay in the first half of a back-to-back which concludes on Monday against Colorado . ... Claude Giroux’s 61.6 winning percentage on faceoffs trails only Boston’s Patrice Bergeron (63.0) in NHL stats.