Farabee trying to get up to speed
Maybe Joel Farabee was simply in such a good mood because he was able to be back at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, N.J., doing what he does best ...
Sort of playing hockey. “You play however many games that we played, and you get that chemistry, you get that flow, and then the season goes on pause,” said Farabee, the Flyers’ up and down rookie from last ... well, this ... season. “So I think the biggest thing is trying to get that chemistry back and get the flow going again. I’m pretty confident in all our guys that we’ll be able to do that really well.”
The Flyers can begin to do so formally when or if Training Camp II commences at the Skate Zone, which is scheduled to be July 10, coronavirus waves-willing. Farabee, the 20-year-old Cicero, N.Y. native who made the big club last fall after only one season at Boston University, provided eight goals and 21 points during the Flyers’ 69-game virus-halted season.
He had stretches of ineffectiveness, went down and played with the Phantoms on a couple of
stretches, but still managed to play 52 Flyers games.
With such peaks and valleys in his first NHL season, he was happy Monday to be one of the six allowable players to be working out informally at the team training facility.
As for what they’re working out toward, the season is planned to resume with a somewhat bizarre 24team playoff tournament that will be contested at a time and place to be determined. If and when such a tournament occurs, the Flyers will start it in good shape.
By virtue of their 4121-7 record on what is now considered a completed regular season, they’re the fourth of four Eastern Conference teams that will compete in a round-robin tournament to determine playoff seeds.
The other eight eligible East teams will hold a separate “qualifying round” mini-tourney to try to win one of four wildcard-type spots in the conference playoffs.
“Personally, I think it’s a good idea,” Farabee said. “It’s tough with everything going on to make everybody happy, but it’s a good format for what it is. I’m excited to go through it.”
And all of those games, but the regular rounds of playoffs to follow? They’d be played without the bother of fans in the stands or media members in the mile-high press boxes.
“I definitely think it’ll be an experience,” Farabee said. “Very abnormal, but I think it’ll be kind of cool. Obviously you have to create your own energy and you have to get up for a game. And I think the best team that’s able to do that will come out on top.
“Obviously we want fans there, we want to be playing in front of fans. But we want everyone to be healthy and safe. So if that’s what we’ve got to do then we’ll go with that.”
Even if the NHL somehow clears air traffic restrictions and virus visa issues with Canada and somehow is given a green light to go ahead with its postseason plans, this postseason should drag into the fall, with the 2020-21 season not starting until mid-winter.
Ah, but why worry about the future when the present is so much fun?
“I think it’s maybe just a little more difficult just because you have less time to prepare,” Farabee said of the pending playoff. “Usually you have a whole summer to prepare and you usually have a plan. Right now, I think we’re just kind of going with the flow, and trying to get back in shape. Obviously, we have a few guys at the Skate Zone right now, and working out every day, so it’s good to see that.
“I know when the season does resume we’ll be ready.”