It wasn’t a very fun weekend if you were a Philadelphia sports fan. The Sixers dropped their home opener to the Brooklyn Nets in disappointing fashion. The Flyers, although it was a pretty good game all-around, fell short to the Florida Panthers 4-2. The Eagles….well, the Eagles are just a bad football team, we all knew that.

Ryan Ellis was back at practice today, a really nice sight for Flyers fans. Through his first 3 games as a Flyer, Ellis has put up 1G-3A-4P, playing alongside Ivan Provorov. It’s been really fun watching those two work alongside each other, and why it was even more a shame seeing Ellis miss a game.

Getting Ellis back possibly for this road-trip is huge news. Braun played well in his absence, but you don’t want him there too long. You can get away with playing a guy like Braun up in the line-up for a game, but when those games start snowballing, that’s when you find yourself getting into trouble. Nothing on Braun, he’s been fine this year where he’s been slotted, but he’s just not that type of player anymore.

Ellis did leave towards the end of practice when the Flyers amped up the more physical side of things. I’m assuming him coming out those parts of practice is just precautionary. We’ll see if Ellis is ultimately ready to go Wednesday @ EDM.

Carter Hart gets the nod Wednesday @ EDM and Martin Jones will go Thursday @ VAN. Hart is currently 1-1-1 on the season, recently coming off that 4-2 loss vs FLA where he looked extremely comfortable. He currently holds a 2.64GAA and a .914sv%. Martin Jones is currently 1-0-0 on the season with his only start coming on October 20th vs Boston in that 6-3 win.

The last time Carter Hart was in EDM, he let up 4 goals on 14 shots and was pulled for Brian Elliott in that embarrassing 6-3 loss in AV’s first year as head coach. Lets hope Wednesday’s game has a different outcome.

Patrick Brown might get a look in one of these upcoming games according to AV. Brown didn’t travel with the team to EDM because he has to fly separately due to Canada’s covid requirements. I’m excited to see what he can bring, Thursday against Vancouver is my guess.

Projected Lines vs EDM on Wednesday

Giroux – Couturier – Konecny

Farabee – Brassard – Atkinson

Lindblom – Laughton – JVR

NAK – Thompson – MacEwen

Provorov – Ellis

Sanheim – Ristolainen

Yandle – Braun

Hart

Well, the Phantoms aren’t very fun to watch

0-4-0 to start the season.

I can’t really say I’m surprised that they’re winless through 4 after watching all of the games for some unknown reason. The only line that was able to get anything past the redline was the Willman – Frost – Foerster trio. No speed through the neutral zone, couldn’t breakout of their zone without battling for half the shift. It just hasn’t been fun to watch.

This weekend, the Phantoms dropped both their games consecutively on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday against the Wolf Pack, the same issues as I mentioned above were present throughout the entire game. Sloppy passes, no speed, and no execution. Morgan Frost on the PK was the only one who could make anything happen, intercepting a puck and sending Max Willman in on the breakaway for the goal.

Sunday was another game with the same old story. The Phantoms went 0/6 on the PP, getting the looks and chances but not being able to finish anything. At one point during one of the six power plays, Frost set up 3 separate chances in the same shift and nothing came of it.

It’s only 4 games so you want to give a team break, especially with a rookie coach at the helm in Ian Laperriere. They play three times this week instead of only two, so we’ll save the possible rants for another time as they have a chance to turn this thing around a little.

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