Phantoms Post-Game EXTRA! 2/04/21

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms put in a pretty decent showing in their lone preseason game before they embark on a 38-game regular season this weekend, shutting out their rival Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 2-0 on Thursday night at the PPL Center.

Thursday night's game story -> https://insideahlhockey.com/article/phantoms-shutout-penguins-in-ahl-preseason-action

Post-Game Reaction

Forward Sam Morin.

On getting into tonight's game and how he felt:

I think the more the game got going I was doing better. Obviously, it's my second game as a forward so a lot of stuff to learn. But I enjoy it so much right now, playing hockey again. It's been a tough road for me the last couple years Just being with the boys and being on the bench with the team and just enjoying myself it's so fun. I'm really confident, I think I did a pretty decent job tonight I was forechecking hard. Try to have a good stick. The more the game was going the better I was I thought.

My game is pretty simple. I need to be a grinder., grinding. That's something I have in me. The willingeness to throw my body out there. That's what the direction AV wants from me, so yeah I'm just trying to get better everyday.

On playing a few shifts on defense on the PK and late in the third period:

Hahah, yeah. Me and Gordo have a really good relationship. He coached me for all those and knows what I can be defensively and what I can do. And he just give me a chance on the PK. I'm so grateful. Gordo has been really good to me all those years, and I'm happy he gave me a chance there. I just want to help my team win, and we won tonight so I take that as a positive.

Defenseman Chris Bigras

On getting a preseason game in:

It's good to get a game in before the regular season kicks off. It's definitely been a long time - I think it's been 10 and a half months now since the last one - it's good to get in there before things really kick off.

On managing the breakdowns/simple mistakes that occur:

I thought there was a lot of good things out there. We've had a good couple weeks of practice and video and going over systems and everything like that trying to get it dialed in. I thought we did a pretty good job of executing most of them tonight. Like everything, they'll be some teaching clips coming out of any preseason games but for the most part there were a lot of good things out there.

On his goal:

It was a good hunt [by Sushko] coming out of the box. Incredible patience, he waited for quite awhile. Good job by Cal driving the net, kind of sucked two guys to him and left me open. I was lucky enough to get a bounce back onto my stick to finish that.

Head coach Scott Gordon

On the penalty kill tonight:

The guys did a good job. We probably put in a little more time this year than we did last year. We've really struggled the first 15 games every year that I've been here with the penalty kill somewhere between 60-70%. I don't know what it is about the 15th game but it starts to click. We made a couple adjustments on the forecheck. It was just one game, but it was good to see.

On Morin's game tonight, and his usage on defense:

For Sam it's an adjustment obviously moving to forward but I thought he did a pretty good job. I think the biggest thing he has had to work on is breaking out of the zone, and being in the right place. He's working on that adjustment. My intention was to get him as much ice time I could. I didn't know how the special teams were going to go.

I don't know how long he'll be here for but should he leave I just wanted to make sure he got some minutes. Adding in the PK, I think he killed two penalties - maybe three. Then we had him out in the last minute and a half 6-on-5 just to give him some reps on defense.

On liking the amount of chances the team generated tonight:

We weren't happy with the way we played offensively last year. Myself, when I evaluated the season I just felt like the whole offensive zone package just wasn't the right mix. We put a lot of emphasis this year on modifying what we're doing in the offensive zone. The thing I really liked tonight was where we were getting those shots from.

Full unedited post-game press conference for your viewing pleasure below.