The first game after any holiday break is always a "cross your fingers and see what you get" type of affair. Especially with the type of practice the Phantoms had the day prior. The coach was under the weather and the enthusiasm on the ice was almost non-existent. But the Phantoms powered through it.
In the end the Phantoms came out with plenty of zip and speed. The opponents bench was already devastated by the cold bug as they were missing 5 regular players from their line-up. This gave the Phantoms the cushion they needed to not be at their best on the first game back from vacation. The instructions were to keep it simple and just get the puck out of the Phantoms end. Spend more time in the opposition end and good things would happen as was the case.
The Phantoms got deeper on defence over the break as Naryan was asked to fill in a few times during the tournament as a result of injuries to regular defencemen. He not only performed well, he exceeded expectations. He will join the defence rotation for the remainder of the season. The Phantoms have been using a rotation of 5 players on defence. 4 defencemen per game. Now, the coaches are more than comfortable using the 6 man rotation and may move to 7 shortly. This will do nothing but make them stronger and more versatile for the tournaments and playoffs.