While the Philadelphia Flyers and the rest of the National Hockey League remains on holiday break for one more day and night, the 2018-19 World Junior Championships get underway in British Columbia. In addition, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms are among the American Hockey League teams that return from a short holiday break to play on Wednesday night.
The Flyers start a Florida road trip -- with a rare day-of-game flight due to a leaguewide prohibition of travel on Dec. 26 --on Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, followed by a game in Sunrise on Saturday against the Florida Panthers. In the meantime, here's a look at what's on tap for Wednesday involving Flyers-affiliated players.
WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS: DAY 1
Team USA vs. Slovakia: There's a lot of Flyers-related interest to Team USA this year. Forward prospects Joel Farabee, Jay O'Brien and Noah Cates as well as defense prospect Jack St. Ivany all earned spots on the American team. Likewise, local product Mattias Samuelsson (Kjell's son) and Cayden Primeau (Keith's son) are on the American team; Buffalo Sabres prospect Samuelsson and St. Ivany may be defense partners. Wednesday's game starts at 6:30 p.m. ET and can be watched on NHL Network.
Canada vs. Denmark: Morgan Frost, a prolific scorer in the Ontario Hockey League the last two seasons, will make his "official" Team Canada debut on Wednesday. Normally a center in the OHL with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Frost is slated to open the tourney on left wing of a line with Greyhounds teammate Barrett Hayton (Arizona Coyotes prospect) and Oshawa Generals forward Jack Studnicka (Boston Bruins prospect). The game starts at 8:00 p.m. ET.
Sweden vs. Finland: With Olle Eriksson Ek suspended by the IIHF for the first two games of the tournament, Flyers prospect Samuel Ersson could get the start in goal either in this game or Thursday's game against Slovakia. Fellow Flyers prospect Adam Ginning, 18, will start on Sweden's third defense pair. Game time is 10:30 p.m. ET.
PHANTOMS MINI-PREVIEW
The American Hockey League's Atlantic Division has often been one of the toughest in the league. This year is no exception, but the teams at the top are a little different this year than in recent seasons. Instead of a three-horse race between the Phantoms and the fellow Pennsylvania-based Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins and Hershey Bears, the Phantoms (17-9-3) currently find themselves in third place, 11 points behind the Charlotte Checkers (23-7-2) and four points in back of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (18-9-5).
In the meantime, the Phantoms are two points ahead of the Springfield Thunderbirds and Wilkes Barre/Scranton. On Wednesday night, Kerry Huffman's Phantoms are on the road in Wilkes Barre to take on the Penguins. Game time is 7:05 ET.
The Phantoms are 2-0-1 under Huffman following his promotion from assistant to head coach in conjunction with Scott Gordon moving up from Lehigh Valley to serve as Flyers' interim head coach following the dismissal of Dave Hakstol. The Phantoms sandwiched 5-0 (home) and 6-1 (road) wins over last-place Hershey around a hard-luck 3-2 home shootout loss to Syracuse in a game that, more or less, was stolen by a stellar performance by opposing goaltender Connor Ingram.
With 20-year-old Carter Hart having been moved up to the Flyers, at least temporarily, Alex Lyon started all three games last week. He played well. In the meantime, the Phantoms have dealt with numerous injuries this season as well as the promotion of reigning AHL MVP winner Phil Varone to the parent team but have started to get some players back in the lineup including second-year center Mikhail Vorobyev.
Entering Wednesday's game, veteran forward Greg Carey leads the Phantoms in scoring (15 goals, 32 points). He is followed by veteran defenseman T.J. Brennan (six goals, 27 points), veteran forward Chris Conner (10 goals, 23 points) and second-year center Mike Vecchione (eight goals, 18 points).
Second-year defenseman Philippe Myers leads the team with a plus-nine rating to go along with 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) but, prior to his promotion to the Flyers coaching spot, Gordon said that he'd like to see a little more overall consistency in Myers' game. Fellow second-year defenseman Mark Friedman has drawn praise for his improvements from year one to year but also had considerably further to go from his starting point last year. He has chipped in 11 points.
The spate of recent injuries on the roster has meant increased playing time for rookie forwards Connor Bunnaman and Carsen Twarynski. Bunnaman has been on a nice run of late with six points in the last seven games (four goals, two assists). Twarynsi has four goals in the last five games, including a tally in Saturday's game in Hershey.