Phantoms Need the Blue Line to Carry Them

Every team in the American Hockey League (AHL) goes through the dog days of the season, the long, cold winter nights where it’s hard to play at a high level. The good teams go through a talent drain as well, where their top players get called up to the NHL, and the team has no answers. The Lehigh Valley Phantoms got hit with both at the same time. 

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The Phantoms hit their wall where the team has fallen off, and at the same time, they are losing their best players to the NHL. Denver Barkey was called up to the Philadelphia Flyers while Alex Bump left the Friday night 5-1 loss to the Bridgeport Islanders after the first period and didn’t return. The team entered their recent game in a slump and now looks like a non-playoff team in a division where six of the eight teams qualify. 

In the last nine games, the Phantoms have only two wins, falling to 13-11-1-2 on the season. “We need to be back to being a team, and right now we just look like a group,” head coach John Snowden stated after the game, and he wasn’t wrong. The Phantoms have the talent but as a team, aren’t playing well together. 

The only bright spot, if there is one, is the defensive unit, which was the best unit for the Phantoms all night. The defense can turn the season around, and it must because the rest of the roster is struggling to do so. 

Offense Must Come From The Blue Line

In the first period, Oliver Bonk fired a shot from the point that hit the crossbar. If that shot goes in, the flow and momentum of the game against the Islanders change. The lone goal from the Phantoms was a deflection from Jacob Gaucher from an Adam Ginning shot at the point. “We’ve got to get shots from the blue line, get from low to high,” Gaucher noted after the game. 

The Phantoms have the talent on the defense to make a difference on the offensive end. Bonk is a top prospect in the Flyers system known for his two-way play, and is slowly easing his way back into the lineup. Christian Kyrou is a puck-handling defenseman who was pivotal for the offense earlier in the season, with four goals and 10 assists. It’s no coincidence that Kyrou’s scoring drought in December has gone hand in hand with the offensive woes. 

The defense is now the strength of this team. It’s what can help out the offense, only if the rest of the team leans into the offense coming from the blue line and works around the play from the point. “You can’t just shoot from the top and have nobody around the net,” Snowden stated after the game, and oftentimes, the forwards aren’t there for the rebounds and the deflections. “We gotta go to the hard areas to score,” Snowden added.

Phantoms Must Win With Defense

The offense has only 11 goals in the last seven games, a brutal stat for a team that was running up the score on teams early on in the season. The Phantoms aren’t winning games with their offense and instead are winning them by grinding out low-scoring victories. Their Dec. 13 win over the Rochester Americans came in a 2-1 shootout battle, and the win over the Utica Comets on Dec. 6 came 3-2 in overtime. 

The bottom line is that the offense isn’t there, and the Phantoms must defend to win games. It’s something the forward unit, even without Barkey, can do but isn’t. The Phantoms can get in on the forecheck and play a heavy and physical game. Yet, they aren’t. “We’re just not winning our battles,” Snowden mentioned after the latest loss. 

The irony is that the Phantoms have the players who can play that game. It’s not just the veterans like Garrett Wilson and Zayde Wisdom. The prospects on the roster can play a physical game, notably Devin Kaplan, who is going through the growing pains of a rookie season in the AHL. If Snowden leans into a slower game, it will feed into the strengths of this team and allow them to rebound. 

Other Issues For The Phantoms on Display

The penalties remain a problem. They cost the Phantoms against the Islanders and cost them against the Springfield Thunderbirds on Dec. 17 in a stunning 3-1 defeat. Taking a step back, the penalties were the Phantoms undoing in the Calder Cup Playoffs against the Hershey Bears. That was a different team with a different head coach but the same issues keep resurfacing, and the question is when things will change. Ideally, the change happens under Snowden, who looks like the coach who can address and fix the problems. 

The Phantoms also need their forwards to score. They don’t want to be known as a one-line team, yet the offense drops off after the Lane Pederson-led line with Barkey and Bump on the wings. “It’s gotta start with our leadership group,” Snowden noted, and players like Anthony Richard, a 29-year-old forward with eight goals and 10 assists, are the ones who stand out. 

The Phantoms looked like a top team in the Atlantic Division a few weeks back. They look like a team that won’t make the playoffs with the way they’ve played lately. “We need to work through the adversity through the season,” Snowden noted, and that’s what this time of the year is about. It’s about powering through the tough stretch and preventing it from undoing an otherwise promising season.