Anniversary weekend rolls on. The six-game home stand rolls on. And the team showed signs of life last night. I accused them of “stacking losses” in a recent column, so now I implore them to start stacking wins. Let’s get back into this thing because nothing could be better for celebrating 10 years of professional hockey in the Lehigh Valley than hosting playoff hockey. Like, more than one game. Who’s with me?
About Last Night
The Phantoms came out last night and did many of the things I recommended in yesterday’s preview ‘Hockey Night’ column. Does that mean they’re reading these silly blogs? Not a chance. It’s more like a blind squirrel finding a nut once in a while. However, the team did what they needed to do. They spread the ice and countered the Bears proclivity to just jam up in the slot and park the bus. They got to Stevenson. Boy, did they–with a little help from section 121 and their neighbors. By the end Peterson was visibly shaken showing horrible body language and perhaps damaging his stellar GAA a bit and the fans were chirping him all the way from the other end of the arena.
Sandstrom got the start again, as I recommended, and he once again looked sharp. Even better than Wednesday, he once again looked the best that he’s looked all season. Only once did I see the defense looking flat-footed–and Sandstrom bailed them out. The jump was there, including goals by hard-working role players like Gaucher and Furry. Could the all-out effort be connected to having all of the Flyers’ brass in the house for last night’s game? We’ll see.
Up in Hartford last night the hated penguins went down 1-4 to an up-and-down Wolfpack team before storming back to tie the game at 4 and force overtime. Hartford took the two standings points.
Where Are We?
We’re still right around .500 and we’re still in seventh place. That’s not a place for playoff hockey and it’s certainly not a place for hosting multiple post-season games. We need to stack the wins, I tell you.
January closed out on Wednesday leaving the Phantoms with a 4-4-1-1 record on the month. Not enough to climb out of 7th place.
Lines
Here’s how they lined up last night, with no additions from the walking wounded:
23 Brink – 22 Gardner – 20 Marody
16 Avon – 56 Gaucher – 27 Tuomaala
13 Furry – 91 Desnoyers – 19 Allison
10 Polei – 24 Brooks – 48 Kile
37 Ginning – 2 Grans
6 Andrae – 12 Attard
98 Mete – 5 Samson
32 Sandstrom (31 Gahagen)
Discussion: I kind of like these lines. The tough Gardner and Gaucher as the top two centermen to set up the young attacking wingers. Desnoyers pushing the puck and allowing Allison to run wild. Brooks adding some shooting pop to the bottom line. As for the pairs, Ginning has been playing some very good hockey of late–even better than early in the season when it looked like he had taken a step. Grans, the young Swede who came over in the Provorov trade from the Kings, has looked more timid of late, so that pair makes sense. Grans missed some time this season with injury and I think he needs to put on some weight and gain strength. Just my opinion but I get some Zamula vibes. He’ll be OK just gotta keep playing and keep working. The ‘Double-A’ pairing of Andrae and Attard can get themselves into trouble by looking too much towards the far end of the ice, but they’ve been better lately when paired together. Mete has been really good as the NHL veteran in the group.
GAME DAY!
It’s Anniversary Weekend and Saturday Night Hockey Live! We start off tonight with a visit from some alumni, as the WFMZ gate will open at 4:30PM for Premier Season Ticket Members. We expect to see the Hamilton Howitzer Greg Carey (aside: He lives in the valley and works for the Phantoms. Do we need to change this to, like, the Hellertown Howitzer? The Hamilton STREET Howitzer?), Colin McDonald, Steven Swavely, Sam Morin and Chris McCarthy. Regular season ticket gates will open at 5:45, then, and public gates at all entrances at 6:00PM.
It’s a “Blackout” game so make sure to wear your best black version of a Phantoms jersey. Was this planned on a Penguins night on purpose? Oh, well, all the Pittsburgh jerseys. in the crowd won’t stand out then. We’ve got a great game for you, The Weekenders are here!
Expect a big crowd tonight as the upper level is almost completely sold out. Even on the secondary market, tickets are pricy for this one and in relative short supply. Grab your tickets before you head downtown and leave a couple extra minutes for parking.
The hated penguins are back. They won the first game in this six-game home set by scoring with about a minute and a half left in the game. They came from way back last night in Hartford. This should be interesting–see the “what to watch” section below. The season series stands at 1-1 for the Phantoms and 1-0-1 for the hated penguins.
Head to Chickie’s after the game for some fun raffles of pucks, a stick, and a jersey from 10:00 until 10:30.
OFFICIALS
Referee Morgan MacPhee (#43)
Referee Mathieu Menniti (#30)
Linesperson Brandon Grillo (#79)
Linesperson Dylan Pitera (#97)
MEDIA KIT
What To Watch
- I’m looking for Parker Gahagen in net tonight for the Hamilton Street Heroes. He should face off against All Star goalie Joel Blomqvist, whom we didn’t see here in the last game. In a way, I’m surprised they saved Blomqvist for tonight because he’s got to be on a plane to San Jose in the morning. Then again, he and his countryman Samu Tuomaala can go together from ABE!
- Watch to see if the jump is there again tonight. Was it just juiced because of two Hershey games in a row? Was it to benefit the Flyers’ brass in the house?
- Something to watch–the game started kind of sloppy last weekend for both teams. Can the Phantoms get out to a lead? They do play better from in front, that’s for sure.
- Without any injury updates, I’ll likely give up the watch soon, but I’d sure like to see Laczynski and Wilson and Belpedio back. I don’t even know if it’s possible or if it’s close.
- Watch for extra videos and festivities to celebrate 10 seasons of hockey at the PPL Center.
- Watch for the game to start around 7:20 or even later, due to the anniversary celebration.
- Watch to see if the Phantoms can get a lead and then hold it tonight.
- The Phantoms gave up 5 power plays last night and that’s still too much for one of the most-penalized teams in the league. Watch to see if they can clean it up a bit tonight.
- Watch to see if the concessions are jammed tonight. I predict they will be.
Up Next
Samu Tuomaala (and Joel Blomqvist) head to San Jose for the All Star Classic tomorrow and Monday. Wilkes-Barre returns right back here on Friday for a rematch and game 6 of this 6-game home set. Wilkes-Barre is off until then as well.
February is not much of a hockey month for the Phantoms. We’ve got a Friday game next weekend, then a Saturday game the following weekend (2/17) and that’s it. They have only four road games in addition to that: Finally a game with Bridgeport, a mid-week tilt in Wilkes-Barre, and two down in Charlotte the final weekend of the month.
See you at the arena,
@Kram207