Sanheim, Farabee sit in 2nd period of loss; DeAngelo faces possible suspension originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Two players sat for the entire second period.
One player was kicked out late in the third period.
Tuesday was an ugly night for the Flyers down in Tampa Bay, Florida. They were outclassed by the Lightning in a 5-2 loss at Amalie Arena.
John Tortorella decided to bench Travis Sanheim and Joel Farabee during the middle stanza. With 2:40 minutes left in the game, Tony DeAngelo got the boot from the officials after he speared Corey Perry.
Quite the inauspicious start to a challenging three-game road swing for the Flyers (24-29-11).
They had a 1-0 first-period lead, courtesy of Morgan Frost, but it lasted only 1:46 minutes.
Brendan Lemieux scored the Flyers’ other goal. With his team down 4-1 in the second period, the trade acquisition stopped the bleeding when he just barely got a piece of Cam York’s shot.
The Flyers have lost 13 of their last 17 games (4-9-4). They didn’t handle themselves well against an angry Tampa Bay team that saw its season-worst losing streak hit five games with a 6-0 blowout Sunday at the hands of the Hurricanes.
The Lightning (38-21-5) put that skid to rest and took the regular-season series from Tortorella’s club. The Flyers went 1-2-0 against Tampa Bay.
• In the first period, Farabee committed two penalties and Sanheim one.
The Lightning scored on two of the power play opportunities to flip the Flyers’ 1-0 lead into a 2-1 deficit by the first 34 seconds of the second period.
Clearly, Tortorella was not pleased.
Farabee and Sanheim did not see the ice at all in the middle stanza. The head coach put them back in the game during the third period. Farabee finished with 12:48 minutes on the night and Sanheim 12:12.
Was it wise to glue both of them to the pine in the second period?
The decision to bench Farabee was highly questionable when you consider a few things:
He assisted Frost’s game-opening goal.
And, just two days ago, he played one of his better games in a while. Farabee didn’t score a goal Sunday night, but he looked a lot more like himself offensively.
“God, he could have had two or three,” Tortorella said after the Flyers’ 3-1 win over the Red Wings. “That’s the first step, right? He’s involved in the offense. You noticed him tonight, so hopefully he’ll just keep on growing from there.”
But that momentum was completely thwarted by sitting him for an entire period. Farabee hasn’t scored a goal in 23 straight games.
More: Tortorella sticking with Farabee, says the winger’s agent ‘should just shut up’
A little over two weeks ago, Tortorella made Sanheim a healthy scratch. It came in Calgary, Alberta, where Sanheim played junior hockey and had family in attendance for the game.
Four days later, Sanheim said “not a whole lot” was communicated to him the day of the benching.
Does a player have to seek out the coach?
“I wasn’t thrilled with the decision being in Calgary,” Sanheim said Feb. 24. “For me, I didn’t go upon that. But maybe moving forward, that is a route.”
Much like Farabee, Sanheim is trying to regain his confidence. Sitting during the second period Tuesday night probably didn’t help.
• DeAngelo let his frustration get the best of him when he inexcusably speared Perry in the marbles after a whistle.
The 27-year-old defenseman is a fiery player and has kept his emotions in check for the most part this season. But this was bad. It looks inexplicable on video and it very well could warrant a suspension from the NHL Department of Player Safety.
Eighteen seconds later, Nikita Kucherov finished off the Flyers with Tampa Bay’s third power play goal.
• Carter Hart made 34 saves on 39 shots.
During the second period, he stumbled behind his net, which led to the Lightning’s fourth goal.
But other than that, he was far from the Flyers’ issue.
Tampa Bay netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy, a five-time All-Star and two-time Stanley Cup champion, stopped 33 of the Flyers’ 35 shots.
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• Frost’s goal gave him 30 points on the season (12 goals, 18 assists).
Lemieux’s goal was his first with the Flyers. He made a positive first impression Sunday night.
• The road trip continues Thursday when the Flyers visit the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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