I just got home from the Phantoms' "Meet the Team" party. It's so nice to welcome the new players to Philly, and welcome back the guys who are returning.

I enjoyed congratulating our goal-scorers from last night's game, too. All the front-office denizens I spoke with were happy to declare how proud they are of our guys, that we won last night's game. I can empathize, because so am I. I told Frank Miceli, our COO who is soon to leave for a HUGE career opportunity as the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for (San Antonio) Spurs Sports & Entertainment, that I was reminded of a scene from Rocky last night. Late in the movie, when the fight is on between Rocky and Apollo Creed, Rocky is taking the bout seriously and Creed still is behaving like it's all a publicity stunt. Between rounds of the fight, Creed's trainer tells him, "He don't know it's a d@mn show! He thinks it's a d@mn FIGHT!" I said to Frank that was what last night's game reminded me of. The Flyers were leaning a bit more toward the "exhibition game" aspect of the event. Meanwhile, the Phantoms were taking the game more seriously, and it eventually paid off.

Mike Thornton said that they're going to have the Phantoms cybercasts again, and he believes he'll be doing the play-by-play. I hope it's set up the same way this year as it was last season, as I was able to use my mobile phone to listen to gamecasts during games.

Amusingly enough, I wound up in a photograph on the Phantoms website today. They used a picture taken at last year's Meet the Team event to advertise tonight's event, and son of a gun, there I am right in it. Unfortunately, I can't take credit for the nearly-full-sized homemade replica of the Calder Cup that is right next to me in the picture. I'm sure that the replica is why that particular image made its way onto the Phantoms site, and I just happened to be standing adjacent to it by the luck of the draw. Still, I got a kick out of seeing a photo on the team's page that has me in it. :)

Tomorrow is going to be spent uploading all my photos to the computer, so I can clear out my memory cards in anticipation of Friday's Home Opener. Once that's accomplished, I'll be able to post some pictures to the blog.