Desperate for offense and a win, Flyers must find a way without Farabee

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VOORHEES, N.J. — If the Flyers are going to awaken from their goal-scoring slumber on the immediate road ahead, they'll have to do so without Joel Farabee.

The 21-year-old winger is considered week to week with an upper-body injury.

"I would give you a timeline, but every time I've given you a timeline this year, I've been wrong," Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said Friday after practice. "Medical is not an exact science, but I would say that he's somewhere in the vicinity of week to week."

Farabee suffered the injury in the Flyers' 4-1 loss Wednesday night to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. About eight and a half minutes into the game, Farabee lost his skating edge and slammed into the boards as he took out the legs of Rangers defenseman K'Andre Miller.

Farabee was hunched over when he returned to his feet and skated to the bench. He went out for another shift but once the Flyers cleared the defensive zone, he went directly back toward the bench and eventually made his way to the dressing room for further evaluation. He did not return to the game.

The Flyers have fallen into a lengthy funk offensively, which makes Farabee's absence particularly damaging and concerning for a team mired in a seven-game losing streak (0-5-2). Since Oct. 30, the Flyers have scored only 1.67 goals per game, the second fewest in the NHL over that span. They've gone 4-8-3 in that stretch.

Prior to his injury Wednesday night, Farabee had scored a goal in each of his previous three games. He has seven on the season to go along with three assists. Last season, Farabee blossomed and finished with a team-high 20 goals in 55 games.

With Farabee out, the Flyers recalled Max Willman on Friday under emergency conditions. Here is how the club looked at forward in Friday's practice:

Claude Giroux-Sean Couturier-Cam Atkinson

Morgan Frost-Kevin Hayes-Travis Konecny

James van Riemsdyk-Scott Laughton-Zack MacEwen

Oskar Lindblom-Connor Bunnaman-Max Willman

The Flyers (8-9-4) on Sunday start a stretch of five games in seven days when they host the Lightning (6 p.m. ET/NBCSP). They welcome the Avalanche on Monday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP+) before hitting the road for the final three games.

Fortunately for Vigneault's club, it appeared to dodge some more injury scares in Friday's practice. Ivan Provorov was dinged up toward the beginning of practice and Keith Yandle near the end. Both defensemen finished practice and Vigneault said they were fine.

Travis Sanheim took a puck to his mouth but also finished practice.

"It was a hard practice, we were going hard," Yandle said. "Things are going to happen throughout a practice where stuff like that happens. But obviously nothing serious, so that's a good thing."

A positive on the Flyers' health front was Patrick Brown (thumb) returning to practice. The bottom-six forward could be available at some point next week.

"He was farther ahead than I thought he would be," Vigneault said. "I was told yesterday that he would do the first part of practice with us and then come off. He did the whole practice, so that's a positive sign for us. He's not quite there yet, but hopefully in this next stretch here, he can come in and help us out."

Derick Brassard (lower body) did not practice Friday but had a short skate on his own for about 15 minutes, per Vigneault. The veteran center is not expected to be available for the upcoming back-to-back home set.

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