Who's Here?

- Lukas Kaspar has heeded our advice to all of you and given up on his dream of becoming an NHL player. According to the Glen Falls Post-Star the former first round draft pick and the Phantoms mutually agreed that he was never going to make it back to the NHL and that it'd be better for both parties involved if he were to pack his steamer trunk and head over to Finland where he could be a big fish in a small pond. Kaspar is survived by 16 games, 2 goals, and 2 assists in the NHL - a modern day set of singed but not burnt wax wings for him to hang on the wall of his new Finnish home.

- David Sloane's prison sentence was lifted early as Sloane was recalled to the Phantoms yesterday from the Kalamazoo Wings of the ECHL. I thought that the Phantoms already had like 9 defensemen but apparently Kevin Marshall was tired of playing steady QB during their pregame football matches, which would make sense seeing as he's a defenseman. This is great news for Sloane, who's salary will increase from 300 bucks a week to about $1,500. Cheddar comin'!

- Speaking of the ECHL, on Saturday afternoon David Laliberte became the 413th league alumnae of the maybe 10,000 players that have played in the league to reach the NHL. Laliberte is said to be living "in a constant state of total amazement" since being called up. He has 2 goals and an assist in his two games with the Flyers, and in the process fed me a healthy serving of crow.

- The Phantoms are currently doing a pretty solid impression of their parent club with a 5-4-1 start in the Adirondacks. They've more or less been alternating loss-win so far in their young season. Center Jonathan Matsumoto has been the lone offensive bright spot for the club with 10 points so far this season. The Phantoms have the least goals scored in the league so far with only 24. You'd think a group of guys whose central preoccupation in life was scoring goals would be able to offer their back end a little more support.

- And now I've found out that David Sloane was called up because Logan Stephenson was slapped with a one game suspension for instigating a fight during the last 5 minutes of the Phantoms last game. I'm still not sure how he made the team. I assume Bartulis will be returning to Philadelphia for Friday's game tomorrow but that still leaves Marshall, Bourdon, Mormina, Curry, Lehtivuori….and I guess Sloane! May you live to be a 1,000 years old, sir!

- Former Phantom Randy Jones has made a not so good number choice and gone with #12 for the Kings. I can't picture that. He's such a single digit kind of guy. He has yet to make his NHL debut this season although he's skated with the team 4 times. Coach Terry Murray didn't have a promising update for the Kings Insider: "Right now, he’s our seventh guy. I like the way our six players have played. They’ve done a good job. Randy

— and I talked to him — gives us the depth now, with an NHL player, that we feel good if something happens, through some kind of an injury or a decision by the coach to get him in, that we have that player available." Although he's not playing he's said to be loving L.A. Reportedly his conversation with the driver that picked him up at the airport went like this:

RJ Jones: I've never been to L.A. before.

Driver: What do you think?

RJ Jones: It looks fake. I like it!

Now, only the nerdiest, most astute, and biggest fan of the movie Joe Versus the Volcano would have picked up on the references to the movie that I inserted into each of the above snippets. If you have not seen this movie and work in and office you have got to see it. It's been one of our favorites here for years and that means it should also be one of yours. There are some slow parts like any 80's movie, but if this scene isn't enough wet your appetite enough to throw it on Netflix you are in the wrong place.