March 29-31

Sunday morning: brought Jenny and Helen into town, at 12:00 noon Marty met us and we hit the road for our first-ever visit to PPL Center in Allentown. The Flyers established the AHL Phantoms franchise in 1996, for its first thirteen seasons the team played at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. When the building was closed and ultimately demolished in 2009 the club was moved to Glens Falls, NY on a temporary basis where it played as the Adirondack Phantoms. The long-term plan was to move the franchise to Allentown, it was expected to happen by 2012 but it took until the fall of 2014 before the arena officially opened. On this day the Lehigh Valley Phantoms hosted the Manchester Monarchs, the Los Angeles Kings' AHL affiliate. When the Phantoms schedule was released in August I looked for an afternoon game on a weekend when the Royals were away at a time in the season when weather issues would not be a major concern, this 3:05 game on the fifth Sunday of March was made to order. The arena's listed capacity is slightly less than 8600, this game was a sellout (I ordered our tickets online back in January to be on the safe side) and I saw quite a few Royals fans there. The Phantoms are on the playoff bubble, the Monarchs have the league's best record and a postseason berth already clinched. Top Flyers prospect Scott Laughton put the Phantoms up 1-0 in the first period but that would be the lone LV score as Manchester rallied for a 3-1 win, veteran goaltender Rob Zepp (a one-time Florida Everblade) suffered the loss for the Phantoms. There was a lot of irony to the fact that the Manchester Monarchs were the opponent we saw on this day. When the Royals started in 2001 we were LA's ECHL affiliate, the Monarchs were our original AHL partner. In January it was announced that in 2015-16 the AHL and ECHL are trading some franchise cities around. The Kings are moving their AHL club to Ontario, California and Manchester will be joining the ECHL as a divisional rival of the Royals. It's all part of a movement for the NHL's western clubs to have their AHL affiliates in the same region of North America and it makes sense. Case in point: if the Flyers need a player from the Phantoms it's a short drive from Allentown to Philly, conversely the Kings have to fly a man cross-country from New Hampshire. One thing is for sure: the landscape of minor league hockey is changing and in the long run it's for the better. Nothing much going on Monday or Tuesday, except for some afternoon rain on Tuesday the month went out like the proverbial lamb. Take care, thanks for reading.