by Bob HerpenPhanatic Hockey Editor
One thing that John Snowden knows how to do more than any other previous Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach, is communicate. He does it quickly, he is expansive, he looks you straight in the camera and you never come away from a question without some kind of useful quote or answer.
So on Sunday evening, when Snowden said there would be no change in tactics or philosophy with a depleted roster that banded together to claim a 2-0 victory over the tired Belleville Senators at PPL Center, you should believe him.
"It's not going to change the way that we do things. At the end of the day, our job is to prepare our players to get to the NHL," Snowden said when I asked him if the unusual amount of players shuttled back and forth between Allentown and Philadelphia in the season's first 3 weeks might alter his approach.
There’s been more than the usual interaction between the Flyers and Phantoms due to poor play and a raft of lingering injuries to key Flyers players. Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen will be out at least 2 more weeks with a recurrence of an injury that cost him 9 games. Travis Konecny and Cam York are still sidelined.
Players who were expected to stick around just a little bit longer and contribute to a strong start, like Alex Bump, Oliver Bonk, Cole Knuble, Hunter McDonald and Jake Studnicka, have already logged significant time in Philadelphia. Garrett Wilson made the big club out of camp but saw no action, a guy “good for the room” but not good enough to earn a more than the odd shift.
A couple names might be around a while longer. At least one on that list may not come back at all. For Snowden, that’s apparently all in the game.
"And when they get to the NHL, our hope is that we prepare them well enough and we develop them well enough that we never see them again. That's what our job is and that's what we know in the room," he said.
Less than 24 hours before, the Phantoms were soundly beaten by Syracuse, 7-2, in front of a packed house while both teams exerted their frustrations to the tune of 149 penalty minutes and the hosts set a Lehigh Valley-based team record with 98 PIMs.
On Sunday, that same team held the B-Sens to 16 shots on goal to register their first home win of the season after 5 tries. The Phantoms had been outscored 22-10 before that, including losses to Hartford and Cleveland twice. Their 3 best games of the season came in the middle of the month, with Bump on a goal-scoring tear that earned him Player of the Week honors in the wake of wins at Hartford and Springfield twice. He’s still up in Philly.
Snowden didn’t disclose the nature of any conversations he might have had with either Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet or GM Danny Briere on timetables for returns of the above-mentioned players. He’s sticking to his guns all the way.
"On the other side of it, our job is to develop players that are going to fill those roles so we don't have to change the way we play. So we can continuously play (in) the same state of mind that we want to play and have the identity that we want to play with."
It’s a tall order and one I’m not expecting the organization to actually achieve: turning both the parent club and its affiliate into those which can compete for and win championships. Only the 1995 New Jersey Devils and Albany River Rats ever achieved the feat in the same year.
However, it’s Year 13 in the Lehigh Valley and the Phantoms have recorded exactly one season where they’ve advanced past the 2nd round of the playoffs: 2018, when Scott Gordon led the club to wins over Providence (3-1) and Charlotte (4-1) before losing to eventual Calder Cup champs, the Toronto Marlies, in a semifinal sweep.
This is Snowden’s second season at the helm. He’s the fifth bench boss in the Allentown era. The organization gave him what might be the best crop of prospects and almost-NHLers this season then immediately yanked some of them back down the Northeast Extension at the first sign of trouble.
For the better part of 2 ½ decades, the AHL has acted like a conveyor belt between parent club and top minor league affiliate. The only major decisions are who gets to be promoted first and for how long. Usually, injuries to the NHL team speed up the process.
But whenever hot prospects outlive their time in the minors, chances are the players who are “next man up” aren’t of equal temperament and skill. A million internet points to you if you know who came after Shayne Gostisbehere. Or Scott Laughton and Nick Cousins. Oskar Lindblom. Travis Sanheim. Morgan Frost. How about Bobby Brink?
What’s made the Phantoms go for the balance of their time in Allentown have been Quad-A players – those not good enough to be promoted to Philly or another NHL squad, but who found a home there for a couple seasons. Zack Stortini. Phil Varrone. Mike Vecchione. TJ Brennan. Greg Carey.
This year? I don’t know aside from Garrett Wilson and Zayde Wisdom, maybe Jacob Gaucher (8 pts in 7G) or Cam Dineen (5 pts in 7G) or Ilya Pautov, who picked up 2 assists in Sunday’s victory.
Jack Studnicka – a 2nd-round Bruins pick and reclamation project – was the best player statistically on Sunday, 5 shots on goal, an empty-netter and a plus-2. Wisdom was in the mix, too, but he’s on the bottom of the bottom 6.
"I thought the fourth line was outstanding. I think they drew three penalties," Snowden recalled. "I think they didn't spend a whole lot of time in their end. When it was time to be hard in our end, we had more battle."
Optimists might say it’s a great thing your 4th line was a difference maker, but not when your top 6 contributed one non-empty net goal and the defense had to hold the opposition to single digit shots until the final minutes.
Here’s where Snowden sounded more than a little bit defiant as he progressed in answering my original question.
"We have enough guys and we have enough depth on our team right now where we can continuously play that way and it's just the next man up. I don't think about when anybody's coming back. I don't want them to come back. I want them to stay there."
Fine. But when the inevitable losing skids happen this year because Bonk, Bump, Barkey and whoever else stays up and the Phantoms' opponents flush with prospects given a wider and longer berth to develop in the minors start beating them -- what then?
Only 2 of the celebrated 2023 draft class are still with the Phantoms, 4 from the 2024 class and none from either 2025 or ‘26.
When your best players – the ones who actually stick around for one or two full seasons – are the journeymen and not the high-end draftees who aren’t fast tracked for stardom, Snowden’s statements do ring a bit hollow. At best, he’s putting up a brave front because of the increased interconnectedness of the organizational message.
Whatever, the Phantoms are 4-3-1 so far in an Atlantic Division which has yet to distinguish a front runner. Home victories are a must – seven home dates in November feature three against Providence, one each vs. Hershey and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Their longest road trip won’t happen until just before Christmas.
Time to see if the plan is actionable or just words.
