If you thought this season's NHL schedule was interesting with the Penguins playing the same seven opponents all year, the AHL schedule will be even weirder.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton kicks off the 2020-21 season on Feb. 6, and they'll play 32 games over 99 days.
And with the AHL's division alignment this season, Wilkes-Barre will only be seeing the same four opponents. They'll play the Binghamton Devils (three home/three away), Hershey Bears (five home/five away), Lehigh Valley Phantoms (five home/five away) and Syracuse Crunch (three home/three away).
That dynamic could make the games that much more intense.
"You play the same teams a number of times, you kind of develop a hate for them," forward Jordan Nolan said of the schedule.
"I think it'll ramp up for sure," Jordy Bellerive said. "I think when you're seeing those teams so many times and so frequently, it's going to extend the rivalry from what it was before. I think it's going to be a lot of physical games, and both teams are going to have to make their own energy. It's going to be a lot of talk on the bench, a lot of noise, and big hits."
That'll be especially true with Wilkes-Barre's top two rivals -- the Bears and Phantoms, affiliates of the Capitals and Flyers respectively -- who the Penguins play 10 times each this year.
"I don't think there's ever been a secret about how everybody feels about each other on the ice," head coach J.D. Forrest said about the Penguins' rivals. "Maybe it gets amplified a little bit if you have these games closer together. But that's what you want, we want highly-competitive hockey for the time that we have it. It's kind of the old-school scheduling. I like it."
Forrest said that the schedule could help with pre-scouting and video work, since there's only four teams to focus on this year.
"But at the same time, given the amount of times we play each other, everyone is going to look to change a little something here, a little something there, add a wrinkle just to throw the team off their scent of what they're really trying to do," Forrest added. "It's that little cat-and-mouse game of you want to stick with what you believe in, but you also want to throw in a wrinkle there because we're seeing each other so often."
There's not much time for preparation before the season gets underway. Wilkes-Barre opened camp on Friday, a few days late, due to coronavirus concerns. With teams having short camps even under ideal circumstances, and the Penguins and other teams in their division already missing some on-ice days as a precaution, the first few games of the season could look a little rough.
"You see it in the NHL," Forrest said. "You just can't touch on every single area of the game. You've just got to do the best that you can. Try to condense some of the meetings, and just get guys playing. It's been such a long time since a lot of these guys have been in a five-on-five, highly-competitive environment. That time off, you get a little rusty. Then all of the sudden you're out there with 10 guys moving around, it's a lot visually to take in. It's that comfort level being out there with the speed, the physicality, and just the amount of bodies. It just takes some time. If the NHL, as far as I can tell from the games, that hasn't been as buttoned-up and well-executed as it typically is. I anticipate the same in the American League. You just have to be patient with it and know that it's going to come a little bit at a time here."
Unlike NHL teams, Wilkes-Barre will have the benefit of two exhibition games before the real action gets underway. The first preseason game will be on Sunday at 4 p.m. against Binghamton, and the second will be on Tuesday at 7 p.m. against Lehigh Valley.
"It's tough," Bellerive said. "We only get a couple of skates here before we open the exhibitions. We have to do a good job of using the exhibition games as a bit of a training camp for ourselves, get ourselves in shape and get our compete level up. We're trying to do that now, but in such a short period of time that's going to be difficult. We're just working as hard as we can on and off the ice, getting ourselves in the right headspace. I think we'll be alright, we've got a really solid working group here. We're excited for it."
"The games are going to be interesting, the first couple," Justin Almeida said. "Guys haven't played a meaningful game in so long. It'll be fun though."
MORE FROM DAY 2
• Almeida said the pace of camp continues to improve.
"The coaches are on us, they want us to play fast," he said. "Today compared to yesterday, I think guys had their legs under them more. We're getting up to top speed, and it's really competitive."
• With only one assistant coach this year in Kevin Porter, I asked Forrest how responsibilities will be divvied up with position groups and special teams.
"Ports is running the penalty kill, and I'm running the power play," Forrest said. "I'll continue to work with the D, and Kevin will work with the forwards mainly. We will have some crossover there, just because on the bench in the games I'll be on the forward side to run the larger portion of the team, and he'll be on the D side. So we want to make sure there's some crossover there. We can help each other out in those aspects. And we have some different system responsibilities between the two of us."
• Player development coach Tom Kostopoulos and goalie development coach Andy Chiodo still will be heavily involved with the season.
"Both of those guys will be in and out of Wilkes-Barre as often as they possibly can, given the circumstances," Forrest told me. "We utilize those guys to their fullest. They might be behind the bench, they might not. It depends on the scenario of the game and if they want to be on the bench. Maybe they'd rather watch from up top. They're great at their jobs, and they're a really good resource for our players. It would be foolish to not involve them as much as we could."
• With David Warsofsky being traded to Toronto in the Kasperi Kapanen trade, Wilkes-Barre is looking for a new captain. Forrest said that they'll name a captain sometime before the season starts. For now, they're focusing on getting to know some of the newer leaders on the team before they name their captain and alternate captains.
• It took some time for players to nail down matching names to masked faces around the rink.
"It's a little different seeing guys walking around with masks," Almeida said. "You're not sure who's who. You introduce yourself to one guy, you see him a couple of hours later with a mask on, and it's tough to recognize him. It's definitely a bit different. ... But I think we've done a good job here. Everybody gets along, and everyone knows each other with their masks on and masks off now."
MORE FROM WILKES-BARRE CAMP
• Day 1: Wilkes-Barre opens camp motivated, even with AHL's postseason plans unknown
• Day 1: Jordan Nolan hopes to make Penguins make 'tough decision' on NHL deal
• Day 2: Jordy Bellerive faster than ever entering sophomore season
