Prospect embracing Phase 2 with Nhlers

It’s safe to say Matthew Phillips has made the most of every opportunity he has earned.

And with another chance to prove himself — for the next month, at the very least, as the NHL kicks off Phase 2 of the return-to-play plan — the 22-yearold Flames prospect is embracing the challenge.

Phillips will be one of a handful of players set to hit the ice at Scotiabank Saddledome on Friday, the team’s first (unofficial) official day back since the NHL was put on pause March 12 due to COVID-19. That means it’s been three months since the Flames and their AHL affiliate players received the word.

But with the majority of Flames and prospects vacating the city to their hometowns, that means Phillips, who has been quarantined in Calgary, will be skating with the Nhlers for the foreseeable future.

“It’s exciting, for sure,” Phillips said. “It’s a very unique situation. It was kind of similar, in a way, when I came up for playoffs last year. This year’s different; they’re going to have a training camp but they already have the groups. It’s cool to be a part of it.”

With the NHL and NHLPA announcing Thursday that the training camp start date is July 12, it gave some clarity to players to finalize travel plans.

However, the Flames — and other Canadian teams returning to action — are faced with the complication of a 14-day quarantine for players arriving from out of the country.

Because of that, earlier this week Flames general manager Brad Treliving said they’ve evaluated the option to have a training camp in the U.S., to ensure all players would be ready to skate together July 12.

While there were reports Thursday of a solution coming from Ottawa that would keep Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto as possible hub cities, nothing was official.

For now, that means a small group of Flames will begin skating. Calgary-based players like Mark Giordano, Michael Stone and Dillon Dube and incomers like Mark Jankowski will be the first ones on the ice as of Friday. Phillips will be joining them.

A strange feeling, on the one hand. Because at this time of the year, he’s usually settling into the off-season. On the other hand, it gives him a chance to pick up where he left off earlier this year when he was scoring at a pointper-game clip in the AHL.

“It’s really weird because it’s the start of summer, where usually you’re kind of in that day-by-day grind mode,” Phillips said. “Now, all of a sudden, we’re going to be ramping it up. It’s going to be a really weird situation. At the end of the day, everybody’s going through it for the first time. So, just have to take it all as it comes.”

Phillips and the rest of the Stockton Heat players were forced to vacate Stockton in a hurry when the AHL shut down March 12. A hectic and stressful journey across the Canadian/u.s. border landed him home in Calgary.

And like the rest of the country, province, city and his teammates, he was stuck inside his house.

“It was kind of scary because it was all you kind of heard from anyone on TV and on your phone,” Phillips said. “Obviously being in California and the population there … no one really knew what was going on or how to handle it because it was such a new thing. We kind of just shut down overnight, pretty much. We weren’t allowed to go to the rink and hung around for a couple of days before we got word to start heading home.

“But it was good we caught onto it when we did so no one was affected by it.”

So far, it’s been an eventful season for Phillips. He received his first call-up by the Flames in early December, fractured his knee cap in AHL action on Dec. 28 and had surgery. He played his first game back Feb. 15 and skated nine more times before the global health crisis put everything on hold.

Now, in June, he’s skating with the NHL club and trying to adjust to the new normal.

Since the pandemic, the right-winger has been following Flames strength and conditioning coach Ryan van Asten’s workout program at home while incorporating some in-line skating into his training.