“I don’t want us to be a team that’s going to get pushed around,” Tortorella said. “I watched it today, I don’t think it’s a really bad hit [by Bennett], I don’t. It’s a shove. And I think we also have to understand where the situation in the game is. Sometimes being a team that’s strong is to be able to take hits, to be able to handle those type of situations, and in such a long year, there are other opportunities if you think you need retribution.”
Farabee conceded on Friday that part of his retaliation was Bennett — who, as most know, does not have the cleanest reputation — was taking liberties all night. Notably, late in the first period, the Panthers forward went to play the puck in the Flyers’ zone along the boards and put his elbow into the face of Travis Konecny. Farabee called it a “vicious elbow” on Konecny and then added, about Sanheim, “Our No. 1 defenseman gets absolutely crushed from behind. I’m on the ice and I make it a point that when I’m on the ice and things like that happen, I usually try to step in.
“There was some prior stuff that happened in that game with that specific player that maybe that’s why I saw red a little bit,” Farabee said. “But I think as a group, we do a really good job sticking up for each other in all those situations. Yeah, but I take ownership of the dumb penalty late in the game.”
This isn’t the first time this season Farabee has gone to the aid of teammates, as he tried to drop the gloves with Calgary Flames forward Blake Coleman in the second game of the season after he hit Jamie Drysdale.
”I’ve got to be a lot smarter,” he said. “But I felt that when TK got elbowed, it’s pretty ugly. That’s our best forward and then he goes after our best D. It was really dumb on my part, but at the same time, I’m going to stick up for my teammates.
”I don’t think at any point in my career I’ll ever back down from a situation like that where a teammate gets cheap-shotted, in my opinion. I know I’m not the toughest guy out there, but at the same time, someone’s going to hear about it.”
John Tortorella did not speak after the Flyers’ 7-5 loss to the Florida Panthers Thursday night.
“I just didn’t think it’d be productive,” the coach said Friday as his team practiced below the news conference room at the Flyers training center.
Some would say he should have been angry about Joel Farabee taking a penalty with 2 minutes, 28 seconds left in regulation after the Flyers clawed their way back and were tied at 5. Farabee was responding to a check by Sam Bennett on Travis Sanheim along the boards in the offensive zone.
And while Farabee shouldered the blame, calling it “a dumb penalty,” the bench boss said it was a tough spot. He would have liked him to be more aware of the situational play — that the game was tied and the Panthers’ power play was already 2-for-4 — but understood that sticking up for each other is a big part of the team’s identity.
“I don’t want to condemn Joel, I don’t, because I know his heart’s in the right place,” Tortorella said. “But it’s a power play that’s rolling. We know it’s rolling. We had no answer for it, and we just couldn’t be sitting in the box.”
The Panthers did score, with Sam Reinhart burying the puck on the ensuing opportunity to take a 6-5 lead.
Linesmen stop the Flyers' Joel Farabee and the Panthers' Gustav Forsling from fighting in the third period on Thursday.
Yong Kim
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