The Phantoms are coming off a big win in their home opener. The Penguins are in town. It’s matinee hockey at the PPL Center today!
About Last Night
We’re going to go bullet-style because there’s a lot to get to:
- The light show was fine. There were no lasers, as expected. But if everyone is trying to take a picture or video of the scene, then who is left to participate in the cell phone light show?
- The puck dropped at 7:17PM. We don’t really care, but they did advertise “puck drop” at 7:05PM. Today we’re back to “Show Starts” so it all feels a little better.
- The team played with very high energy and plenty of skill even if things looked a bit sloppy at times. There was no home-arena advantage from that ref crew, that’s for sure.
- The high quality of play is good marks for new coach John Snowden. It was a team ready to play. They’ll need to clean some things up, and that might not start happening until next weekend in Cleveland, but it’s a good start for the new guy behind the bench.
- The youth movement is on, and they showed up last night. It just wasn’t the names we expected! This also portends good things for the season.
- The new scoreboard and ribbon boards looked really good. Of course there’s going to be advertising. The roster scroll is probably unnecessary, but it’s early in the season, so we get it. The video resolution is better, for sure, but they might be able to adjust the brightness and contrast a little bit to make it pop better amid the sea of other things on the board at all times.
- The new sound system sounds great, too. But, WAY too loud. Maybe they just wanted to pump things up for the opener, and perhaps I’m still in baseball-relax mode, but man it was loud. Also, get off my lawn.
- No more jokes about Russian goalies. Or, Belarusian goalies. Kolosov was outstanding last night, especially early on. He’s got to maintain that level of play, of course, but it was the best we’ve seen him.
- Perfect 7/7 on the Penalty Kill. That won’t continue, but it was a key to the game.
- Andrae and Gaucher wore the’A’s as Wilson remains the captain.
Roster Update
No moves since yesterday, let’s look at the lines and scratches:
90 Richard 25 Pederson 91 Grundstrom
21 Bump 56 Gaucher 52 Barkey
72 Gendron 23 Dorwart 20 Marody
17 Wilson 74 Wisdom 12 Kaplan
6 Andrae 3 Grans
19 McDonald 24 Berger
4 Murchison 7 Meehan
35 Kolosov (Backup: 64 Bjarnason)
Discussion: Not sure about Bump and Barkey on the same line, and sure enough they did struggle at times. Andrae looked really good–strong on the puck and excellent passing. Wilson maybe lost a step, but it was his line that got the first two goals and speed is not his game anyway. That fourth line did work.
Scratches:
13 Massimo Rizzo 14 Emile Chouinard 22 Tucker Robertson 27 Samu Tuomaala 36 Sawyer Boulton 43 Oscar Eklind 57 Artem Guryev
Thoughts: Samu and Eklind are the only two we suspected would be in the game. Perhaps they will be today, but not sure whom you take off, either. As always, we have to be on injury watch.
Player Spotlight: #12 RW Devin Kaplan
Kaplan is a New Jersey native, taken in the third round of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft out of the US National Development Team. He played three seasons at Boston University before turning pro and playing one game with the Flyers late last season. He’ll turn 22 in January, and stands 6’3″ tall, shooting right-handed.
GAME DAY!
Show Time: 3:05PM
All Doors: 2:00PM
Premier Members: 1:45PM, WFMZ and Air Products Gates
Parking: Hockey parking as per usual, but remember street parking outside the Hamilton corridor and the arena blocks is not monitored on Sundays.
Pre- and Post-game: Check your favorite bars and restaurants for hours given the 3PM start time.
Promotion: Trading card giveaway
Penguins: It’s a lot of the usual suspects on their roster–names you’ll recall from last season’s battles. They won a close contest with Hartford last night in their own home opener.
Media Kit: (rosters, records, standings, etc.)
Officials:
Referees Mathieu Menniti (#30), Austin O’Rourke (#19)
Linesperson Shawn Oliver (#66), Patrick Dapuzzo (#57)
What To Watch
- Watch to see if they can keep up the energy in a quick turnaround game
- Watch to see how Bjarnason looks in net, as we doubt they’ll turn Kolosov around this quickly
- Listen to see if they tone down the audio
- Watch them drop the puck at 3:15PM
- It should be Phantoms in home whites and Pens in road black, but watch out for any variation
- Watch for someone to drop the gloves. There were some close calls last night, but both these teams will want to set the tone for the season.
Up Next
Off to Cleveland for two next weekend. They’ll visit Wilkes-Barre the following Wednesday on the way home. Back at the PPL on Friday 10/24 for Haunt Night.
See you at the arena,
@Kram207
Featured Image of the season puck drop by Kram
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