Flyers rookie Joel Farabee excited, not fatigued, as playoff race heats up
The Flyers winger, 19, is excited to be playing in a playoff race in his rookie season. He says he is conditioned to play 82 games and, hopefully, beyond.
The video of Flyers rookie winger Joel Farabee getting “beaten up” Monday went viral.
The video, taken by The Inquirer’s Ed Barkowitz and viewed more than 340,000 times, shows Farabee getting rabbit-punched by Kyle Gonzalez, one of the players from the Flyers’ youth special-needs team.
“It was awesome,” Farabee said before contributing two assists in the Flyers’ key 5-1 win over Columbus on Tuesday. “I dropped [the gloves] with one kid earlier, and then another kid came up to me and said, ‘You want it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I want it!’ It was great.”
Farabee, who tweeted that he was now 0-3 in fights this season, said he enjoyed spending time with the young players and doing drills with them after the Flyers’ practice in Voorhees.
“Helping those guys was really cool,” he said. “It gives you a really good perspective of life and stuff outside of hockey. I had a ton of fun with those guys.”
Farabee recently missed three games because of the flu and lost 10 pounds. He has gained eight of them back and is now up to 178 — and feeling like his old self.
Playing an 82-game schedule is new territory for Farabee, who as a freshman for Boston University last season was in 37 games.
“This year has felt a lot longer,” he said. “In college, the year flew by so quick. In college, you wait until late October to play your first game. Here, right from September you’re playing preseason games. It’s been good, a great learning experience for me. I think in years to come, I’ll be better prepared. Obviously, this is all new to me.”
Farabee, who turns 20 next week, is excited about playing in a playoff race and says he feels he is conditioned to play a longer schedule.
“When I was in the U.S. program, we were playing upward of 70 or 65 games,” he said, “so I’ve had a little experience with it.”
The Flyers are one of several teams locked in a furious battle to qualify for the playoffs.
“We need a really good push to get in,” said Farabee, who played on the second line Tuesday and now has seven goals and 20 points, “and once we get in, anything can happen. That’s kind of our mindset right now.”
Breakaways
Shayne Gostisbehere skated for the third straight day and said his surgically repaired left knee was feeling much better. “Definitely a step in the right direction,” said Gostisbehere, who didn’t know if he would need a rehab assignment with the AHL’s Phantoms. He didn’t play Tuesday and is doubtful for Thursday’s game in Columbus. … Columbus rookie winger Eric Robinson, a Bellmawr native who entered the game with five goals, five assists and a plus-10 rating, had about 75 friends and relatives at the game, his first NHL contest at the Wells Fargo Center.