ALLENTOWN, Pa – On Monday morning, the Phantoms’ named former New York Islanders’ bench boss Scott Gordon as the ninth Head Coach in Phantoms’ history, filling a position that was left open when Terry Murray joined Dan Bylsma’s staff in Buffalo. Gordon, 52, a native of Brockton Mass, has a successful AHL coaching background. From 2000-2008, He was a coach with the Providence Bruins. In his five years as head coach from 2003-2008, the Bruins compiled a record of 218-138, making the playoffs every season. 
Following his years in Providence, he went to Long Island, and then spent three seasons as an Assistant Coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. A former Goaltender, Gordon appeared in 10 games with the Quebec Nordiques in 1989, posting a 2-8 record. Assistant Coach Riley Cote, a mainstay of Terry Murray’s years, will remain with Gordon.
Gordon met the media on a media conference call Monday afternoon. Some of the highlights of the call follow.
On how quickly this all came together: “Ron (Hextall) called me Thursday afternoon. We spoke for a little bit and talked about the job. He had mentioned to me that he had had a list for a while, it was a short list and he was going to attack it once he had taken care of things prior to speaking with me. From there, it came together pretty quickly.”
On what attracted him to the Phantoms’ and the Philadelphia organization: “First and foremost, I wanted to get back to being a Head Coach. I Spent eight years in Providence, five of it as the Head Coach and I missed the teaching part of it that you get in the American League versus the NHL. The NHL does have some teaching, but it’s mostly preparation. I missed that in the AHL you’re at it every single day trying to get the players better. You spend more time as far as practice, and that’s something I wanted to get back to. With the Flyers and the Phantoms, there’s a lot of history there. I had the disappointment of losing to the Phantoms during the lockout in 2004, now I’m glad to be on their side.”
On the great group of prospects the organization has: “It really is exciting. I didn’t know a whole lot about the existing roster. I did watch one game from last year before my interview and when I was speaking with Ron he went through what they had coming in and what they had coming back from last year. Two things had him really excited, the defense corps that’s here now, and then the prospects that are coming up next year. As a coach, that’s exciting to know that a lot of quality players are coming and hopefully it’ll be a situation where ideally, and I know Ron had mentioned this, you’d like to get to a point where you’re like Manchester and they go primarily with prospects and win a Calder Cup.”
On how much of the Phantoms’ system will be his, and how much will be what Dave Hakstol is doing with the Flyers: “That was a topic of conversation when I interviewed. We didn’t talk about it in great depth, but we did talk about what my feelings were and having been on both sides of it, it is an important part of it. You’d like to be able to have the same language that the NHL team has down with your American League team. There’s some tweaks based on personnel.”
On what parts of his time with Toronto he can bring to the Phantoms: I never really thought about that, obviously, I have a better point of reference what it’s like to be in the NHL, what’s needed to do to prepare to get there and stay there. Those are conversations you’ll have with players when…over the course of a season, if they’re not doing something you can reference it. I think every player, when they’re drafted, particularly the guys that are gonna play in the American League are coming out of college or major junior. I think they think, by nature, it’s probably a little bit easier as far as getting there and the process and it isn’t as involved as it is. I myself, having played, thought that the American League was below college hockey. I found out pretty quickly that wasn’t the case.”
On what he can do to help the development of Anthony Stolarz, having been a former Goaltender himself: “Well I know one thing, I can’t tell him about the experiences of being 6’6, he’s got that on me. I was fortunate; a lot of the stuff us goalies of the past learned and did is kind of antiquated. I was fortunate enough to work with some good goalie coaches in Long Island and particularly Toronto with Francois Allaire in learning all the techniques. It’s really amazing when you have all that information, how much easier the job gets. I know Ron is really excited with the new goaltending coach hire and I’m looking forward to working with him. At the end of the day, it’s something that he’s been put in place to do, and anything I can do to compliment that…that would be my objective.”
On if Riley Cote will be his lone assistant: “We talked about it briefly, I don’t think there’s been any final decision on that, so until I have more conversations with Ron, I don’t know.”
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