Another day, another bit of housekeeping taken care of somewhere in the organization. Yesterday, it was the Phantoms announcing that they’ve locked up one of their leading points getters for the next two seasons, and now it’s… the Phantoms again… but this time, announcing their preseason schedule.
The Phantoms will kick off their preseason slate of action on Tuesday October 1 with a game at home against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (who, if we recall, the Phantoms upset in the play-in round of last year’s playoffs). Then they’ll be off for a few days, having a few practice days to likely work in some new players who will be sent down in the last round of cuts from the Flyers, after they wrap up their preseason on October 3.
The Phantoms will be back in action, then, on Saturday October 5 against Hershey (meeting for the first time since the Bears eliminated the Phantoms from the playoffs last spring) at home, before they close things out on the road with a Sunday afternoon game in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
The Phantoms will then have another nice little break, having the whole of the next week to practice and get themselves all the way up to game speed and ready to go, before they open their regular season on that next Saturday (October 12) at home against the Hartford Wolf Pack.
The Phantoms are in an interesting position heading into this season, with their head coach extended for another two seasons, and having found a bit of success in the postseason, but still on the outside of being legitimate Calder Cup contenders, and still with some questions lingering about their ability to well and truly develop young players to NHL readiness. The stakes are high, and there are a number of questions open about how and if they’ll continue to take steps forward this season, and it will be interesting to see how they address them.
