Rock Bottom: Lehigh Valley Last In Eastern Conference After Loss In Laval

It's no secret that the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (12-17-5) are struggling.

With just two wins - and 16 total goals - in their last 12 games, it's quickly entering make or break territory in terms of salvaging the 2019-20 season from being labeled "a transitional year" for the Philadelphia Flyers' top minor league affiliate.

After Friday night's shutout loss in Laval - their second consecutive game without a goal and fifth game this season they've been held without a goal - the team took an overnight bus ride to Belleville on a five-game losing streak as the last place team in the American Hockey League's (AHL) Eastern Conference.

"The season is full of peaks and valleys and we're in a valley right now," Phantoms' co-captain Nate Prosser said after a recent loss last weekend. "We've got to find a way to dig ourselves out. You know, no one feels bad for us. The thing about it is, we're gonna have to dig ourselves out and it's going to come from inside this locker room."

While Morgan Frost and Cal O'Reilly returned to the Phantoms' lineup Friday night in Laval, helping restore a depleted AHL forward core - particularly down the middle - the benefit of having two key cogs back in action didn't yield instant results. Lehigh Valley managed no more than seven shots on goal in any period Friday in yet another game where scoring chances were hard to come by.

The Phantoms' recent offensive woes - a 1.33 goals-per-game average in their last 12 games - have undoubtedly put more pressure on the team's goaltenders to be at the top of their game knowing they are likely to lose if they allow more than a goal or two.

A former goalie himself, head coach Scott Gordon didn't see it that way when asked about it last weekend.

“The  job doesn't change. You're just worried about the next save. And whether you're scoring or not you, you have to think more in terms of what you need to do to be successful and you can't worry about whether your team scores or not, can't worry about if a defenseman doesn't do his job or the forward doesn't get a puck deep, your job is to stop the puck," Gordon told InsideAHLHockey.com, referring to Hershey's team not scoring a lot of goals but their goaltender Vitek Vanecek still able to be successful.

"The bottom line is you play up to your abilities, Worry about yourself. And don't worry about the offense, it’s out of your control.”

So what about the offense? There are certainly more questions than answers at this point.

“Right now, we’re making it harder on us and part of that is pressing," Gordon explained. "You know, sometimes you have to simplify things. We made a lot of soft plays, soft passes, whether it was on entrees, whether it was coming out of our zone. Those opportunities to make plays to the net, or trying to make a play that's through three sticks and four pairs of skates. That's where we're at.”

Expecting the Phantoms to get out of their funk on the road this weekend is a tall task in of itself. Lehigh Valley has the league's worst road record entering Saturday's game in Belleville, at a paltry 3-12-2. Prior to their last road win on December 21st in Charlotte, the Phantoms had gone ten straight road contests without a win.

With games in Belleville and Toronto this weekend, and a road contest in Utica next Friday to kick off another 3-in-3 weekend there are plenty of opportunities for Lehigh Valley to either turn things around or accelerate their current nosedive.