A personnel update first. Phantoms' defenseman Marc-Andre Bourdon missed today's practice with an undisclosed upper-body injury, coach Terry Murray said. Bourdon last skated with the Phantoms last Tuesday, before the team left for an extended road trip to St. John's, Newfoundland. Bourdon, 23, left that practice at the intermission and didn't return, leaving the Phantoms with eight defensemen.

Murray was mum on details about the injury, other than it was upper-body in nature. He didn't have a timetable on when Bourdon might return to the line-up, but said it was not a day-to-day ailment.

 “It’s longer than that," Murray said. "It’s more than that. Whether it’s a week at a time – I don’t know that. He obviously didn’t come with us on the trip, didn’t play in any of the games. I need to have an opportunity to sit down and talk to him too and see how he’s doing.”

Hoping to hear more about Bourdon at tomorrow's practice, which is at the Fire Road rink. There's a Marilyn Manson concert tomorrow night at Glens Falls Civic Center that crews need to prepare for.

Goalie Scott Munroe also missed today's practice, but said it was a scheduled day off after starting both games in St. John's this weekend. Adirondack trainer Jake Saunders took Munroe's spot between the pipes for practice -- Munroe even let him borrow his mask. Rookie Cal Heeter was there as well.

The lines at practice were the same as they were Saturday in St. John's. Full list at the bottom. Defenseman Jeff Dimmen, who'll you'll read about in tomorrow's paper, took Bourdon's spot alongside Erik Gustafsson. Murray said he didn't want to disrupt the other defensive pairings, so it was a straight-up swap.

"I consider (St. John's) one of the more veteran teams in the league," Murray said. "They're pretty strong down the middle. To put Schenn back into the middle and be able to come back-to-back with Couturier and Schenn, I think, was helpful to play the game against a veteran hockey club. Even with that, I'm still looking and still trying to get a feel for players. Still trying to get names on the faces that I'm seeing and trying to figure out their tendencies -- what their strengths and weaknesses are -- so that we can put together some lines that are going to be there for us night after night."

One of the big strengths of this team, I think, is the roster flexibility. Schenn can play center and wing. Ben Holmstrom, Andrew Johnston and Garrett Roe too. That's four that I can think of right off the top of my head That gives the Phantoms a lot of different opportunities.

"That is very important to be able to have players to adjust," Murray said. "No matter what, wherever you're playing, you're going to have situations where somebody gets knocked out of the game -- injuries happen -- people have to just step in and play. We're very fortunate to be able to do that."

Lines: Roe-Schenn-Holmstrom, McGinn-Couturier-Mangene, Rinaldo-Bordson-Zolnierczyk, Wellwood-Johnston-Harper, Brown-Ford-Testwuide.

D-Pairings: Manning-Syvret, Lauridsen-Eddy, Dimmen-Gustafsson, Konan-FitzGerald
 
Until next time,
MC