Morin, Laberge, Kase, Bardreau, Knight & Willcox 2/18/19
ALLENTOWN, PA -- Following the Lehigh Valley Phantoms' 4-3 regulation loss to Hershey Sunday, concluding a three-in-three weekend with three out of a possible six points in the Atlantic Division Standings, head coach Kerry Huffman provided an update on some of the team's injured players at the end of his post-game press availability.
The Good News - Samuel Morin & Pascal Laberge
Morin returned to game action Friday against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and, all things considered, played decently well for a guy playing his first game in over nine months.
Inside AHL Hockey spoke with Morin after Friday night's game and admitted he was cramping up pretty badly in the third period, but as expected considering the lengthy injury absence. More on Morin here for our subscribers.
While it wasn't surprising that Morin didn't play the next night in Hershey, it initially seemed odd that Huffman was non-committal about Morin being a lock for Sunday's lineup either.
"Yeah, he wasn't going to play [tonight]," Huffman said after Saturday's shootout loss in Hershey. "Tomorrow. we'll see how he is in the morning. I guess we'll see how everybody is. We're still evaluating things."
After not playing Saturday or Sunday, here's what Huffman had to say on Morin's status moving forward after Sunday's game.
"Not 100% sure. We'll see where he's at. He's definitely going with us to Charlotte and hopefully with a good week of practice here we can ramp him up & get him ready to play both of those games down there."
While it's not the end of the world that Morin only played one game on the weekend, it's best to hope he gets a good week of practice in and can be able to play at least one game against the AHL's top team this upcoming weekend when the Phantoms fly down to Charlotte and take on the Checkers in a pair of games on Friday and Saturday night.
As for Pascal Laberge, who has been skating and nearing a return, he might make his Phantoms' debut this weekend in Charlotte, according to Huffman.
"Pascal could be available for us with games. He's another guy that's just gotta ramp up practice and get some physicality and see how reacts," Huffman said. "But he could be available to us in Charlotte."
The Not So Good News - Cole Bardreau & David Kase (?)
On the not-so-good news on the injury front, forwards Cole Bardreau and David Kase have both been out of the lineup since early December. Neither are expected back in the short term.
"He's probably more of a mid-March type thing," Huffman said of a potential target return date for Bardreau, who Inside AHL Hockey previously reported had a minor procedure done before the end of the calendar year. He's been essentially shut down and inactive to allow his upper body ailment to fully heal before being able to resume activity.
Kase, who was initially thought to have been nearing a return leading up to this weekend's 3-in-3, might be a little further off.
"David? I'm not sure. I think he's going to get a couple more tests and see where he's at," Huffman said, adding, "We'll know more in a couple days."
Reece Willcox, Corban Knight
It was learned Sunday evening that defenseman Reece Willcox missed both Saturday and Sunday night's games due to injury. Head coach Kerry Huffman spoke Sunday of not planning to play all three of the team's veteran defensemen - David Schlemko, Philip Samuelsson and T.J. Brennan - but had to because they were the only defensemen available to play.
Corban Knight was a 'healthy' scratch Sunday, head coach Kerry Huffman confirmed after the game. The weekend seemingly went as planned.
"With Knighter, the plan wasn't to play him in all three games coming back from an injury like that," Huffman said. "He played two really good games for us and he was hurting a little bit. We have to be smart long term, right?"
More in-depth story on the lineup challenges later this week!
