The Lehigh Valley Phantoms are celebrating another “20 Years of Phantoms Hockey” this Friday night. As part of their celebration, the first 3,000 fans in attendance will receive this poster, which is, um, kind of strange:
Some things make sense, like the inclusions of the mascots, the new PPL Center (which is gorgeous), and some stalwart Phantoms like Anthony Stolarz, Nick Cousins and Brandon Manning. However, some inclusions and some exclusions are real head-scratchers for me.
- They have Dax (mascot during the Adirondack years) and meLVin (current mascot) but not Phlex?! WHY
- Sean Couturier only played 31 games with the Phantoms, back in 2013. Shayne Gostisbehere? 21. Michael Raffl? 2. Two games played. The total between the three of them is 54 games, and even if they were one player, it would still not add up to a full AHL season. They don’t have a full season in the AHL between the three of them, and they are front and center in a poster about their AHL contributions. That alone is friggin’ hysterical.
- Now, it’s not completely shocking that the team would want to highlight the most successful players currently in the NHL (and currently playing for the NHL affiliate at that). So maybe we can give the team a pass there. We’re all fans of Coots, Ghost, and Raff. We get it.
- …. however, a total and complete oversight of two Calder Cup wins? That is something that we can not overlook. I mean, come on! It’s the championship trophy for the league! And the team won it twice in the last twenty years. No mention of that? That’s…an interesting choice. Actually, not just an interesting choice. A bad choice. Not a good one./
On the whole, it’s a free poster, so who really cares? Still, though, there are some weird things going on with this poster that had to be discussed in a public forum.
