Watching Lukas Bengtsson play now, you wouldn't know that he's playing his first competitive hockey since January 2017. You wouldn't know about all the precautions he takes to manage a disease that at times left him too sick to skate. You wouldn't know that only a few months ago he thought he almost lost the game he loves.
You'd just see a young, fast, puck-moving defenseman with a knack for offense.
He doesn't feel like someone who's been out for that long, either.
"Lately I've been coming into it much more and more," Bengtsson was telling me this week. "In the beginning that was tough, I could feel in the Rookie Tournament and those games in the beginning that you've been away for awhile. It's such a difference to play a game than to condition without any players on the ice. It was rough in the beginning, but now the game and everything starts to come together."
Everything certainly has been coming together for the 23-year-old Swede this season, playing on Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's top defensive pairing with Andrey Pedan and the team's power-play and penalty-killing units. He's put up six assists in his ten games thus far, including an impressive five-game point streak. He's set up three of the team's 10 goals on the power play, all three of them coming when he sets up Daniel Sprong at the top of the left circle:
Bengtsson, signed to a two-year entry-level contract with Pittsburgh in 2016, is back in Wilkes-Barre for his second year of professional hockey in North America. His first season was anything but typical. He played 16 games last season, tallying a respectable five assists and netting a goal before he was shut down for the season with what was originally believed to be a recurring case of Lyme disease.
He remained in Wilkes-Barre for the season, watching the games and learning as much as he could from the stands. After months of different tests and visits to different clinics, he finally received the correct diagnosis: Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS.
POTS, a condition that affects the blood flow, can cause a variety of symptoms, and in Bengtsson's case, they included extreme fatigue, headaches, and muscle soreness. He started experiencing some symptoms after his championship season with the SHL's Frölunda HC in 2016, and they progressively became more and more debilitating. Once he was properly diagnosed, he could begin the process of managing his symptoms.
"Now I know why I was so tired last year," he was explaining to me. "Now I know if I'm a little tired, I just have stuff that I need to do to feel better. You always know why, and I feel I can enjoy hockey more and just go out there and have fun. It's different this year."
The "stuff" he needs to do to manage his symptoms is to stay active and get his blood moving.
"I gotta move," Bengtsson continued. "I wear compression socks all day to help my blood move, and I wear (compression) pants when I play games, and socks. Then before practice, practice day or game day, I try and move a little bit even before I get to the rink just to get the blood moving and get my energy better and everything starts to come together. I try to get up a little early in the mornings and just do some small drills to make the blood move and just small stuff that helps me. And then stay hydrated all the time, get a lot of water."
It seems like a lot of work, but not to Bengtsson. He has such a positive attitude about the hand he was dealt, and remains confident in his outlook for this season. If he played as well as he did in 16 games last season while he was so sick, he thinks he can play even better this season, with his illness under control.
Bengtsson's speed and ability to join the rush makes him a great fit for Pittsburgh's system. "That's the game as a faster (defenseman) you want to play," he said. "You want to follow the rush. I really enjoy it."
Pittsburgh has praise for him as well. Development coach Scott Young told our Matt Gajtka during training camp that Bengtsson, "with his hockey IQ, should be better as a pro with more structure. He has speed, a great skater, and a lot of skill.”
Growing up in Sweden, Bengtsson played as a forward. He was mainly a center, but he would play wherever his team needed players. He credits his diverse background for his offensive success today as a defenseman. "It helps to play all situations and know a little bit about how forwards think ... To play forward that long then go back to D helped me a lot."
While he enjoys watching many defensemen in the NHL, especially fellow Swede Erik Karlsson, he wouldn't say he compares himself to any one defenseman or tries to emulate anyone else. "You try to be yourself and play your game and learn from other people."
With so few games played last season, he is still technically a rookie. His goal for this season in Wilkes-Barre is to improve overall, but specifically his game away from the puck. He wants to work on being in the right places at all times, and keeping his game simple. He knows that if he can work on having good positioning without the puck, he'll be able to open lanes for himself and improve his offensive game as well.
Is Bengtsson waiting for that call from Pittsburgh, though?
"I just take it day-by-day," he said. "I was out for a long while last season, and I know those games I played, I did well and I was even sick. Now, I just try to get back and play the game. Of course the goal is sometimes to be up there but I just go day-by-day and play as good as you can down here. Then you will see."
In the meantime, he'll be playing in Wilkes-Barre with a greater appreciation for the game.
"At one point last year when I got diagnosed, I started to read about the disease, and you know that it could be worse than what it was ..." he told me. "I appreciate the game much more because at one point you thought that you maybe lost it ... It's so much more fun to just come to the rink every day. I think if you go through a rough time and you can battle through it, usually you come out even stronger from it."
He's doing just fine away from the rink, too. "You can still make Swedish food with stuff from Wegman's," he laughed. "But if I go by an Ikea I might go in there and buy something Swedish."
MORE FROM WILKES-BARRE
• Nov. 3: at Lehigh Valley, 6-5 shootout win
• Nov. 5: vs. Hershey, 3-2 shootout loss
• Casey DeSmith improved to 4-0-0-1 in the Penguins' games this weekend, his first since being re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre. Ryan Haggerty (two goals) and Garrett Wilson (three assists) were the stars of the game Friday for the Penguins. DeSmith stopped all three Lehigh Valley shooters in the shootout, and Christian Thomas scored the Penguins' game-winning shootout goal.
• DeSmith allowed his first even strength goal of the season in Friday's shootout win in Lehigh Valley. His even strength shutout streak to start the season lasted 130:54.
• Daniel Sprong scored first for the Penguins Sunday, but the Bears took a 2-1 lead in the second period. Zach Aston-Reese scored the game-tying goal in the third period, sending the game to overtime and keeping the Penguins' seven-game point streak alive. After a scoreless overtime, the game went to a shootout. Wayne Simpson scored first for the Bears, and Jean-Sebastien Dea, Dominik Simon, and Colin Smith all failed to score in their attempts, giving Hershey the win.
• Aston-Reese's goal Sunday was his first of the season:
"It was awesome," head coach Clark Donatelli said of the goal. "He's been working hard, glad to see that he got rewarded there. He got better as the game went on."
Aston-Reese impressed last season, scoring three goals and five assists in his ten games, including a four-game point streak to start his professional career. He hasn't found his way onto the scoresheet as often this season, only tallying two assists in eight games in addition to Sunday's goal. But there is more to his game than that. Watching the games, you'll see that he's been contributing much to the team's success with his two-way play and physicality and that the concern over his start to the season has been overstated. He also picked up his first fight of the season Friday, dropping the gloves with veteran Colin McDonald after Aston-Reese leveled a Phantom with a big hit in the neutral zone:
• Christian Thomas spoke with the team about being selected for the Karjala Cup, a tournament being used for Olympic evaluation. He left for Finland on Sunday:
• Line combinations and defense pairings from Sunday:
Zach Aston-Reese - Jean-Sebastien Dea - Ryan Haggerty
Garrett Wilson - Colin Smith - Daniel Sprong
Gage Quinney - Adam Johnson - Dominik Simon
Tom Sestito - Teddy Blueger - Freddie Tiffels
Andrey Pedan - Lukas Bengtsson
Dylan Zink - Kevin Czuczman
Jarred Tinordi - Chris Summers
• Colin Smith and Jarred Tinordi each played his first game of the season Sunday. Smith was previously out of the lineup with an undisclosed injury sustained in Pittsburgh's training camp, and Tinordi was out of the lineup with an undisclosed injury from a hit in the preseason. Smith had the primary assist on Aston-Reese's goal.
• Jeff Taylor (concussion), Troy Josephs (surgery, injury sustained before development camp) and captain Tom Kostopoulos (upper-body injury) remain out of the lineup. Taylor has been a full participant in practices, and Josephs has begun skating after practices. After Sunday's game Donatelli said Kostopoulos is day-to-day and that they are "just giving him some rest."
• The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins host the Toronto Marlies (9-3-0-0) on Wednesday, then the division-rival Providence Bruins (7-4-0-0) on Saturday. On Sunday they travel to Hershey (4-6-0-2) for the first time this season to take on the division-rival Bears.
GOALS OF THE WEEK
Garrett Wilson's great backhand pass set up Jean-Sebastien Dea's shorthanded goal Friday:
Daniel Sprong scored his eighth goal of the season on a redirect in Sunday's loss:
SAVE OF THE WEEK
DeSmith bailed the Penguins out on this penalty kill on Sunday:
TOP PICK TRACKER
• Defenseman Zachary Lauzon (second round, 2017) has been out of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies' lineup with an injury since late September, but he has returned to practice. In his three games this season he has one assist.
• Forward Kasper Bjorkqvist (second round, 2016) was held pointless this week, as his Providence College Friars were shut out by Boston University in their only game. In his eight games this season, he has four goals and one assist.
• Goaltender Filip Gustavsson (second round, 2016) made 24 saves on 26 shots in Luleå's win over HV71 on Thursday. He's allowed no more than two goals in three of his five SHL starts this season. Here's a look at some of his saves in the win:
• Defenseman Connor Hall (third round, 2016) was a minus-1 overall in the Kitchener Rangers' two wins this weekend. He has three assists, 51 penalty minutes and is a plus-5 overall in 17 games this season.
WHEELING WATCH
We'll be debuting a new expanded weekly Wheeling feature tomorrow! It will run every Tuesday. This week will feature the ECHL Rookie of the Month for October, Nailers' leading scorer Reid Gardiner.
PROSPECT FUN THING
Lukas Bengtsson and Dominik Simon killed it on Halloween. They went as "brocados":
JUST THE STATS 
