The Phantoms wrapped up their first month’s worth of action over the weekend, and with a huge win over the visiting Toronto Marlies, they were able to stretch their winning streak to a season high of four games, put some separation in between them and the trailing Checkers for that third position in the standings, and continue to make some marked progress in fine tuning their team-level process.
It wasn’t a perfect showing, as the team struggled a bit in the first period to get their offense clicking at a high level, and fell behind by a goal late in the frame, but a three-goal output in the second period — an effort so relentless that they were able to chase NHLer Joseph Woll from the game in his first down on his conditioning assignment — and a pouring on of chances in the early part of the third period, combined with a tightening of their defensive effort over that stretch gained the Phantoms control of the game almost entirely, and even with a bit of pushback mustered by the Marlies late in regulation, they were able to weather it.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve played a full 60-minute game,” head coach John Snowden acknowledged after the game. “I think it’s really hard to play a full 60-minute game, in fairness, but I think we’re trending in the right direction, we’re getting close. The biggest thing that we want to make sure that everybody does is, when you step on the ice, you’re leaving your shift, and you’re setting up the next line behind you, and that’s a big thing that we’re trying to really get through to the group is just understanding that your shift and how you set up the next line is going to impact the sequence that we’re in right now. I think tonight in the second period for sure we set up the line behind us by extending some o-zone, getting some o-zone changes, making the [point to be] transitioning quickly and we get off the ice and they can’t get off the ice, so we’re setting up the line behind us. I thought we did it in the third period for a little bit as well, they started to press since they scored the goal, and that’s gonna happen, you expect that.”
The Phantoms are continuing to refine their system and improve their habits, and while there’s a lot in this process that is doing well to support their offense and allow their most dynamic players to find success as the space opens up for them, but equally, they’re working towards playing a focused game that supports them playing the possession style which they set out to build up from the start of the season, a style which will help them suppress their opponents’s offense and make their defenders’ lives a little easier, in turn. It isn’t about going out there and trying to win every shift through pummeling the opponent with scoring chances and then bailing when their energy is spent, and whatever happens next is the next line’s problem, but in building sustained pressure and possession through a layered attacking mentality. The Phantoms were able to have the look of pouring on chances through good portions of this game because they were sustaining pressure and avoiding having to reset with every new line’s shift, and it really seemed to wear the Marlies down at times.
Now, they weren’t able to sustain that work perfectly, and the Marlies were able to hang around in that game in points, in turn, but the Phantoms looked closer in this one to playing the consistent level and style of play, regardless of game situation, that their coaching staff has been asking of them.
“Sometimes learning how to win is, it’s hard, to win at this level, and understanding that what made us successful to that point, like you can’t change the way you want to play. We still gotta stay on the gas and we still gotta do things like we did in the first 40 minutes of the game, and you just gotta continue that all the way through. Now, there might be a couple of adjustments here and there — if they’re taking off and they’re stretching the zone, we might have to be a little bit softer in areas — but for the most part, we want to stick to what gave us success and stay on the gas for 60 minutes. We’ll get there eventually.”
The Phantoms have been steadily chipping away at this, playing a more complete game and particularly learning how to close out these games when they’re playing with the lead. It hasn’t been pedal to the metal for them for the whole duration of a third period just yet, but in the meantime, they’ve been supported well enough by their system to play something closer to a bending without breaking type of game. It’s not a model that will likely sustain them through the whole of a season, but it’s been enough to prop them up as they make that incremental progress towards the consistent game that they want and need to be playing. It’s all a process, but they’re advancing through it nicely. It’s a vital lesson, too, for these key prospects in their lineup mix to learn, to be sure, but it’s equally key for the collective to keep pulling in the right direction, to bring a level of team success which is even greater than the sum of its parts.
“I think we got a really smart group,” Snowden concluded, “a very capable group, I know I’m using the word group because I think we’re close to being a team, we’re not quite there yet, but we’re very, very close, and at this stretch, you can see that the way the guys are playing together and playing for each other, we’re right there.”
The Phantoms have a lot of season left ahead of them, and more that they can improve on along the way, but this first month has been about laying their foundation and coming together as a cohesive team unit, and so far, they’ve exceeded expectations.
