1) The Flyers took a complete off-day on Sunday. On Monday, the team will hold a 10:30 a.m. practice session at the Skate Zone in Voorhees in preparation for Tuesday's game against the Florida Panthers at the Wells Fargo Center. On Sunday, a five-goal outburst by the Panthers in the second period, including Aleksander Barkov's 4th and 5th goals of the season, spurred Florida to a 5-1 home win over the Ottawa Senators.2) The Flyers' current 5-0-1 stretch has the team in second-place in the Metropolitan Division despite Philly's dismal 4-7-0 start to the season. The Flyers are just one point behind the Columbus Blue Jackets, who visit the Dallas Stars on Monday. In the meantime, the Flyers are only six points ahead of the Eastern Conference cellar dwelling New Jersey Devils, who hold two games in hand on Philly. Welcome to the current-day NHL, where a good/bad week to 10 days can vault you or sink you. That's especially true in the Metro.3) Over on the Flyers' official website, I take a look atfor the Flyers' 3-0-1 road trip and 2-0-0 start to the current five-game homestand. For example, over the last six opening periods, the Flyers have outscored opponents by a 9-2 margin. In five of the last six games, the Flyers have not trailed at any point of regulation. While the performances have by no means been spotless, including in some of the first periods during the stretch, the greatly improved starts to games have clearly been a huge boost for the team.4) Prior to Saturday's game, we also examinedof Dale Weise so far this season. When James van Riemsdyk returns to the lineup, Weise figures to return to the 4th line (one would assume the very sparingly used Nicolas Aube-Kubel will go back to the Phantoms) barring any other injuries to the forward corps. In recent days, JVR has started skating with the team rather than on his own. However, he has not yet taken contact drills. That will likely happen this week as he nears his return from a lower-body injury sustained late in the first period of the second game of the regular season.5) Phantoms rookie center German Rubtsov, who has posted 10 points (six goals, four assists) in his first dozen games in the AHL and is already an all-situations player for Scott Gordon's team, was unable to play on Saturday. It was for injury-related relations. He is apparently nursing a lower-body injury, but it not believed to be anything serious.6) Second-year Phantoms defenseman Mark Friedman left Saturday's 7-4 loss to Charlotte after blocking a shot in the second period. He did not return for the final stanza. If Friedman is unable to play come Wednesday night's rematch with Charlotte, James de Haas could get into the Lehigh Valley lineup.7) One of the bright spots for the Phantoms in Saturday's loss was the continued strong play of rookie winger David Kase, who is using his combination of speed and moxie quite effectively so far. Offensively, Kase has posted nine points (four goals, five assists) in 10 games. He was sat out of a couple of early-season games not for performance-related reasons but because he still wasn't 100 percent yet from injury rehab.8) Unlike Rubtsov and Kase, who have hit the ground running, fellow rookie forwards Carsen Twarynski (who had a strong NHL training camp to the point of being one of the final cuts) and Connor Bunnaman are feeling their way through the adjustment to the pro level. If Tyrell Goulbourne is suspended as a result of a slew-footing match penalty incurred late in the third period of Saturday's game, Bunnaman could return to the starting lineup.9) It appears that the Phantoms have, at least for now, made a decision that their goaltending trio of Carter Hart, Alex Lyon and Anthony Stolarz will be a duo. Stolarz is the odd-man-out barring injuries (either at the NHL level, prompting another Lyon recall, or to one of the AHL goaltenders). After missing the 2017 Calder Cup playoffs and virtually the entire 2017-18 regular season, Stolarz has appeared in two games for Lehigh Valley, relieving Hart in a 7-0 loss to Springfield and getting one start.10) Flyers 2016 second-round pick Wade Allison, who suffered a torn ACL back in January, finally played his first game since the injury. The junior season power winger scored a goal and collected a pair of minor penalties in Western Michigan's 7-2 win against Omaha on Friday. Another Flyers draftee, junior UN-O goaltender Matej Tomek came into the game in relief of starter Evan Wenniger after the first period. Tomek gave up three goals (including Allison's) on 14 shots. In Saturday's rematch, a 4-2 win for Omaha, Allison did not play and Tomek returned to his usual backup role.11) Wisconsin sophomore defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk scored his fifth goal of the season on Friday and chipped in an assist on Saturday as the Badgers split their home weekend set against the University of Minnesota. He has 11 points (5G, 6A) through the first 10 games of the season.12) This past week wasn't a great one either for 2017 Flyers first-round pick Morgan Frost or for his Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds team. After an eight-game surge where he was playing with excellent pace and racking up points at a dizzying clip (20 points in that span), Frost has been just OK in most of his recent outings, including a quiet night as a member of Team OHL in the CHL-Russia series game on Thursday. On Friday, the Greyhounds got severely outworked and lost on the road to the lowly Flint Firebirds. That was followed up on Saturday by a road loss in Saginaw. However, in the third period of the Saginaw game, Frost did score a nice goal off a strong individual effort on the rush (his 13th of the young season) after generating a power play assist. Nonetheless, the Greyhounds comeback bid fell short.