Phantoms vs. Hamilton Bulldogs 12-18-09: Postgame

There were a lot of instances of the number 4 in this game. Hamilton went into the game with a league-leading four shutouts, and incremented that total by blanking the Phantoms 4-0. It was the fourth time this season that the Phantoms have been shut out.

This game marked John Grahame's debut with the Phantoms. He gave up a goal that he'd probably like to have back on the first shot of the game. Then, near the end of the period, Hamilton scored shorthanded on an odd-man rush that Grahame had no chance on whatsoever. The score remained 2-0 until late in the third period. Unfortunately, my flipping video stream went kaput at the start of the third period, so I saw nothing of the final frame, and eventually reverted to listening to the radio stream. So I never saw the third or fourth goals against; I do know, from the play-by-play, however, that the final goal deflected in off one of our defenders, so that sounds like another one that the netminder had no opportunity to stop.

I can't believe how much trouble this team has had scoring this season. I watched several of the guys who were on the team last season score goals in bunches -- now those same guys are, by and large, wringing sawdust (or composite dust, I guess) out of their sticks trying to find the back of the net. Maybe what some of them should do is look at videos of their goals from last season. If doing that gives them even a few small hints as to what they were doing when scoring wasn't at a premium, then it will be time well-spent.

Anyway... here are the relevant links for the game.

HERE is the box score on the AHL site.

HERE and HERE are the entries on the Post-Star Phantoms blog.

HERE is the Post-Star's coverage of the game.

HERE is the Phantoms site's game article.

Tonight, the Phantoms play in Worcester. It will be our second and final time meeting the Sharks this season; our first time was the heartbreaker of a last-minute loss at the Phantoms' home opener. Freaking Worcester scored with 11 seconds left to win that game. Time for some REVENGE. Go Phantoms!

Jon Kalinski has been returned to the Phantoms

The Phantoms website is reporting that Jonathon Kalinski has been returned to the Phantoms.

There for a while, we had enough Phantoms called up that we were able to field an entire five-man unit of promoted players. Oskars Bartulis and Ryan Parent are currently the Flyers' third defensive pairing, and we had Jon Kalinski, David Laliberte, and Andreas Nodl as one of our forward combos. Considering that goaltender Brian Boucher is also a Phantoms alumnus, when those guys were on the ice together, we had six Phantoms graduates out there for the Flyers. :-) I always enjoy when things like that happen. I love seeing our alumni in NHL jerseys, particularly when said jerseys bear a Flyers crest on the front.

In any event, the Flyers are gradually getting healthy again, resulting in some of the Phantoms' top guys being returned to Glens Falls. I hope this translates into the Phantoms having less difficulty finding the back of the net. We had a scoring outburst over last weekend, but we need to be more consistent about putting goals in. Here's to seeing last weekend's goal-fest continue unabated, starting tonight vs. Hamilton.

Playing Catchup: Phantoms Weekly Reports 9, 10, 11, 12

I've been somewhat under the weather lately, and not posting much on here OR on my personal blog. But now I'm doing better, so my goal is to get back up to speed ASAP and just pick up posting from there.

So to get everyone caught up to how things have been going, let me get up-to-date on the Phantoms Weekly Reports on the Phantoms site.

Phantoms Weekly Report #9

Phantoms Weekly Report #10

Phantoms Weekly Report #11

Phantoms Weekly Report #12

In other news, the Phantoms drew 13,127 for their game at the Wachovia Center. It was great to see our players in person, rather than on a computer screen, and it was doubly great to be able to do so among the many fellow fans I spent so many years attending games with. I got to chat with a lot of people whom I hadn't seen since last April, when the final pro hockey game was played in the Spectrum. We even had our own announcer, as the Trenton Devils let Keith Jones come down to Philly to announce the game. The Phantoms made a good showing, and the only thing lacking from that night was a win. We lost a hard-fought game 2-1 in OT to Norfolk.

We have had some significant roster changes in the past few days. Among them: Johan Backlund, who'd been called up to the Flyers due to an injury to Ray Emery, was sent back to the Phantoms. Backlund was returned to Glens Falls because Michael Leighton, a former Flyer/Phantom (albeit briefly for both teams), was claimed off waivers to back up Brian Boucher while Emery recovers from abdominal surgery. The day prior to the Flyers' claim of Leighton, they signed goaltender John Grahame to a PTO for the Phantoms. Today, to ease the goalie surplus in Adirondack, Nic Riopel was returned to his junior team.

Meanwhile, other players who've been called up as injury fill-ins and returned include Jared Ross, Andreas Nodl, and David Laliberte. Oskars Bartulis was called up, and played so well that he was signed to a one-way deal with the Flyers. Jonathon Kalinski was also called up, and remains on the Flyers roster.

Danny Syvret, who scored one GWG with 1.6 seconds remaining in OT and another with 0.1(!!!!) seconds remaining in regulation time, was almost called up as an injury fill-in. But he couldn't get to Pittsburgh in time to meet the team, and one of the Flyers' injured D (Coburn) was cleared to play, so Syvret's recall transaction was negated.

There. I think that's pretty much all the news that's fit to print for the time being. GO PHANTOMS!

P.S. One more bit of coverage from the Phantoms' game in Philadelphia... Tim McManus interviewed me and another former Phantoms Season Ticket Holder who have continued to follow the team after the move to Glens Falls. Read the article HERE.

Homecoming Night

Not only is our team back for the evening, so is our announcer Keith Jones!

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