Five Storylines Surrounding Lehigh Valley Phantoms 12/6/19

ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA -- After an offseason full of changes rendered the roster almost unrecognizable from years past, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (10-8-5) have posted a total of 25 points through 23 games in an up-and-down start to the 2019-20 season.

Below are some of the key storylines to note from the team’s performance to date.

Top Prospects get the Call

With so many players going out the door in the offseason, plenty of important roles were left on the table for the youngsters to earn early on in the season. Fortunately for the Phantoms, and the Flyers organization as a whole, multiple prospects were able to produce early and often.

Three players in particular, Joel Farabee, Phil Myers and Morgan Frost, didn’t stay in the AHL for too long because of their production.

Farabee needed just four AHL games to prove that he was NHL ready, as he posted three goals and an assist in his time with the Phantoms.

Phil Myers, who started the season with the Flyers before being sent down to participate in what was his third AHL campaign, posted four assists in six games while being the team’s best defender by a mile.

And while it took Morgan Frost a few games to get on the board, once the points started coming, they didn’t stop coming as he posted a 5-7-12 line in 16 games.

Many other youngsters have received a taste of NHL action including Connor Bunnaman and Carsen Twarynski -- both of whom made the team out of training camp -- and Russians German Rubtsov and Mikhail Vorobyev, who have also had various stints with the big club.

Close Games Galore

Through Lehigh Valley’s first 23 games this season, 16 (70 percent) of them have been decided by just one goal - the most of any AHL team to date. They have posted a solid 7-4-1-4 record in such games prior to Friday’s contest against the Hershey Bears.

It’s obviously early in the season and so much can happen between now and March when the team is in the thick of a playoff push, but getting experience in tight, one-goal contests almost routinely this early in the season has to bode well for them down the road.

More Power Needed From the Power Play

The Phantoms have a lot of things going well for them but if there is one bugaboo that anyone around the organization or in the locker room can agree on, it’s that their power play needs to improve if they want to achieve their goal of winning the Calder Cup this season.

“We've got to get ourselves in a spot where our power play is winning games for us,” head coach Scott Gordon said after a recent game.

Through 23 games, Lehigh Valley’s power play has scored at an abysmal 12.5 percent rate. That’s good -- or bad -- for 25th overall in the league at the time of this writing. This reared its ugly head in Springfield on Wednesday night when the team went 0-7 with the man advantage.

In a situation like that when a team can’t generate anything on the power play, it often leads to a shift in momentum that favors the opponent.

Maybe it’s a confidence thing, maybe it’s just about poor execution but whatever it is, if this team has an Achilles heel that derails their season, this will more than likely be it.

Struggling Veterans

As impressive as the youngest players on the team were early in the season, some of the veterans have been pretty underwhelming to this point.

While he’s second on the team in points at the moment, Cal O’ Reilly, one of the team’s captains, had a very slow start to the season. After netting just one goal and five assists in the team’s first 12 games, he’s found the scoresheet in four of his last six, posting a goal and six assists in that span.

Forward Nicolas Aube Kubel is another player who has really struggled to put points on the board. A year after averaging .56 points per game, the Sorel, Quebec, native has tallied just .3 points per game on the season (4G, 3A). He’s been getting chances but appears to be snake bitten. When he’s on his game, Aube-Kubel is one of the most electrifying players on the current roster and him finding his way as we get to the middle of the season will be extremely important.

And then there is defenseman T.J. Brennan, who is having what appears to be the worst season of his career. Brennan scored his first goal of the season, an overtime winner against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, in game 21. He has a total of seven points on the campaign but, has also had a tough time in his own zone as well.

Until these players, along with some of the other veterans on the team, find more consistency in their game, it’s going to be tough for the Phantoms to create much offense as the games get tighter and the intensity ramps up.

The Goalie Tandem

A year after the Flyers organization turned into the pro goaltending carousel that it was, there has been a steady tandem between the pipes in Allentown.

Long-time Phantom Alex Lyon and newcomer J-F Berube have split the goaltending duties almost right down the middle so far this season. Through the first 16 games, the two netminders alternated duty until Lyon was given three straight starts from November 16-22.

After that stretch, there is plenty of reason to believe that starts won’t be so evenly distributed going forward.

Lyon’s numbers through 13 games this season are much stronger Berube’s output. For reference, Lyon has posted a 2.35 GAA and a .918 SV% to Berube’s 2.75 GAA and .903 SV%. It appears that coach Scott Gordon has noticed this as he has started the Baudette, MN, native in six of the team’s last eight games.