The two last-place teams in the AHL Atlantic are coming to the PPL Center this weekend, and it’s time to see if the Phantoms can make a real move.
Records:
Overall: 19-15-5-1 (5th Place in Division)
Home: 10-6-2-1
Away: 9-9-3
White Jerseys: 11-7-1
White-Out Jerseys: 1-1
Orange Jerseys: 4-4-1
Black Alternate Jerseys: 3-2-2-1
Black-Out Jerseys: 0-1-1
Fridays: 5-4-2
Saturdays: 8-5-2
Sundays: 0-2-0-1
Wednesdays: 5-1-1
Tuesday/Thursday: 1-3
Sunday 3/3: 0-1-0-1
Post-Game Player Event Day: 2-0
October: 2-3-1-1
November: 7-3-2
December: 4-7-1
January: 6-2-1
Players
Important roster moves to note:
Departed: F Rodrigo Abols and F Anthony Richard are with the Flyers. G Keith Petruzzelli was returned to Reading
Arrived: F Olle Lycksell returns from his stint with the Flyers just in time for the All Star Game next weekend in California. G Alexei Kolosov returned from the Flyers after Ersson got healthy and Fedotov beat him out for the back-up job. D Gianfranco Cassaro arrives from Reading. It will be his AHL debut when/if he takes the ice. He played for the Youngstown version of the Phantoms once upon a time, but since then has spent plenty of time in college with UMass-Amherst and RIT. He doesn’t have eye-popping stats with Reading but also doesn’t take a ton of penalties.
GAME DAY!
Springfield is in town! No promotion because dollar dogs again this month would be just too much.
It’s Springy’s first trip to 7th and Hamilton this season. They’ve split in two contests in New England thus far this season. There are a lot of familiar names on their roster, but no old friends that I saw. They are the AHL affiliate of the St Louis Blues.
Springfield has the #19 Power Play which drops to #27 on the road. The Springy PK is #30 but rises to #22 as an Away unit.
Event time is 7:05PM. Public doors are 6PM with Season Members in early at 5:45PM. Expect hockey around 7:17PM. Good tickets are still available on the primary and secondary markets, with some deals to be had in the latter.
OFFICIALS
Referee Stephen Hiff (#46)
Referee Brody Sutter (#71)
Linesperson Anthony Lapointe (#58)
Linesperson Patrick Dapuzzo (#57)
Scouting the Refs: These are two new ones to us here at home. Last game here at home was Lindner and Hanrahan who got very low marks from Kram3 who was with me that night.
MEDIA KIT
What To Watch
- Just like at the beginning of the season, expect Kolosov to get heavy work. I expect him tonight and then probably Sunday in Wilkes. Does he look any better now compared with earlier this season? Do you think there’s an NHL goalie in there? Should we just send him back to Russia now?
- Watch for some fights. Yes, plural. If my memory serves, these teams had some brawls in those games up in Springfield and a player on one team or the other probably has beef.
- Watch to see if the Phantoms can dominate special teams. They really should.
- Watch to see how Lycksell looks since being with the Flyers. Richard hasn’t been here a ton so I don’t think we’ll miss him a bunch, but Abols might be a sneaky hard player to replace in this lineup. Watch out for that.
- We’ll talk about the lines tomorrow. Watch for them before the game.
- Watch to see if there’s a blue-liner missing, with the call up on defense.
Up Next
Back at it tomorrow with last-place Bridgeport. They took advantage of a tired Phantoms squad last Sunday at their place; we need to take this game in regulation.
Sunday up in Wilkes then a Wednesday away game before the break.
See you at the arena,
@Kram207