The Phantoms played two games last week and picked up victories in both contests, first a 6-2 drubbing of the Bridgeport Islanders on Wednesday, then a 3-2 victory against the Toronto Marlies on Saturday in a fun game that wasn’t as close as the score suggests. They’re now 8-3-0-1 to start the season.
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Denver Barkey
Barkey recorded a goal and three assists on Wednesday. The goal came on the power play, as did one of the assists. Not sure whether Barkey was banged up early in the season or he found his confidence all at once, but either way, this is the version of the player everyone was expecting to see and if he can keep this up, it’s worth getting excited about.
Alex Bump
Bump scored a goal on Wednesday and added an assist in each game. He has five points in last four games and eight points in 12 games on the season, which is currently second on the team in scoring. Ideally, he’d still be a bit more electric on a game-by-game basis, but the offensive consistency is starting to develop, so it could just be a matter of time now before he puts the rest of the pieces together.
Christian Kyrou
Kyrou posted four assists in two games last week. He now has seven points in four games since arriving in Lehigh Valley last week. Considering his career high in points was 23, which her recorded two years ago, this kind of offensive production is hard to believe. Did he find a new gear with his new team or is it just beginner’s luck that will wear off eventually? Considering the Phantoms’ blue line is real thin at the moment, and especially when Andrae is recalled, Kyrou won’t be seeing a reduction in responsibility any time soon, so we’ll see if he can do this more often than not in short order.
Alexei Kolosov
Kolosov stopped 22 of 24 shots in his return to Lehigh Valley after a two game recall to the NHL where he posted a .929 save percentage in two games. Kolosov still has some hiccups with some soft goals against, but he has so far been a complete 180 from whatever he was doing last year. He may not be back at top goalie prospect status yet, but the short term sample sizes have at least been promising that he could return there eventually.
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Carson Bjarnason
Bjarnason made 35 saves on 37 shots against Bridgeport on Wednesday. It was his best statisctal performance of the season so far, and he even registered an assist on the Phantoms’ shorty empty netter in the final minutes of the game. Unfortunately for him, Kolosov made his return to Lehigh as Ersson returned relatively quickly in the NHL, so Bjarnason’s time as a starter was limited. Back to a 50-50 split for the foreseeable future.
Ty Murchison
Murchison recorded an assist on Saturday. The rookie defenseman may not be doing anything overly pretty, but he remains a more than solid body on the back end, which is a similar role to what he was doing in college too.
Devin Kaplan
Kaplan scored a goal on Saturday. it was his first point since opening goal since opening night and first point in eight games. The Phantoms finally shuffled their lines with Carl Grundstrom getting recalled, and it payed off for Kaplan in a big way. The kid definitely has the skill even if he hasn’t gotten much of a chance to show it off yet. In a perfect world, guys like Bump will be recalled sooner rather than later and Kaplan will replace him in the top six and blossom further. But it’s the Flyers. They could just not recall anybody and that means guys like Kaplan will stagnate longer than anticipated.
Karsen Dorwart
Dorwart is now on a six-game pointless streak. It’s not for a lack of trying, he does have 10 shots on goal in those games, but a solid pair of hands with limited offensive upside isn’t going to get him far on his journey, even if he’s one of the lone centers in the entire organization.
Alexis Gendron
Gendron scored a goal on Saturday. It was his first goal in five games and only his second of the season. The sophomore forward does have five points in nine games, but considering he was looking to grow from his 20-goal season last year, it has felt like he’s been one of the more disappointing players through the early days of the season in terms of living up to expectations.
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Hunter McDonald
McDonald has one point, a -2 rating and 26 penalty minutes through 12 games this season. As his 100-game mark in the AHL is quickly approaching, it’s time to start wondering if McDonald will ever reach the high ceiling the organization thought he had out of college. He’s a perfectly fine player more often than not, but is prone to big, physical defensemen mistakes like dumb penalties and being out of place in the name of a check. The absolute logjam in front of him on the main roster blue line definitely doesn’t help his cause when it comes to ever seeing NHL minutes, but he hasn’t exactly stepped up in the best way either.
Oskar Eklind
Remember Oskar Eklind? He played his first back-to-back games of the season, which brought his total up to five, and he still hasn’t recorded a point. Unlike Samu Tuomaala who was freed from his press box prison, Eklind won’t be so lucky. He’s not being used in any way more than an extra forward at this point. Not that he had much value as a prospect, but they have made no secret that they snuffed him out.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 