Radim Zohorna still isn't sure why he was sick for long.
He missed a day during Pittsburgh's training camp for what Mike Sullivan said was a "non-COVID" illness. Five days later, he mentioned in an interview after the morning skate that he still didn't "feel so good."
Later in Pittsburgh's camp, Sullivan said that they wanted to see Zohorna improve his fitness level, and mentioned that in his experience, sometimes it just takes bigger players a little bit longer to get into game-shape at the start of the season.
Five games into Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's season, Zohorna is still working toward getting back to his usual level of conditioning, which was impacted by being sick for so long entering the season.
"I don't know what I had, but I was sick, like for one month," Zohorna told me after Wilkes-Barre's game Wednesday. "My first two, three, four games, it wasn't so good, I felt like I was still sick. But I hope it will be better. I need to work on my conditioning, because I think I lost it when I was sick."
When I asked Zohorna what the message from Pittsburgh's coaching staff was after he got sent down from training camp, he made it sound like getting that conditioning back and recovering from his illness was the primary goal.
"I need to work on my conditioning, because of how I said I didn't feel so good on the camp," he said. "I was still sick, so I need to I need to do more condition work, work with (Wilkes-Barre strength coach Mike Joyce), and I hope I will play good for the team."
Zohorna went scoreless in Wilkes-Barre's first four games of the season, only recording a combined six shots on goal in those games.
In Wednesday's 4-2 win over the Phantoms, he started to look like himself again with a two-goal performance.
Zohorna scored the go-ahead goal with 2.4 seconds left in the first period off of this harmless-looking shot from the left circle:
Early in the second period, Zohorna extended the Penguins' lead with a power play goal, a shot from the slot off of a feed from Valtteri Puustinen:
"I scored two goals, but most important is to win," Zohorna said after.
Head coach J.D. Forrest said that he started to see Zohorna show more energy and look like his old self last game, and that just compounded into tonight's game.
"The bigger bodies just seem to take a little bit longer to get going and to be able to to keep that pace up for extended stretches, whether it's a full 60 minutes or a bunch of games in a row," Forrest said. "He did miss a little bit of time, and I feel like tonight he must have been feeling a little bit better. It looked like he had more jump, more energy."
Forrest thought that energy translated into Zohorna moving his feet more on the ice, and being more engaged in the plays.
It paid off.
While Zohorna's conditioning still isn't where he'd like it to be after his illness, he seems to be enjoying himself much more this season. He feels more comfortable living and playing in North America, and it's almost surprising how much better his English got over the summer.
"I feel like my English is a little bit better, but still not so good," he said with a grin. "And I feel more comfortable than last year. For me, it was the first year here and I was so scared from everything. It's so much more different here than back home. But I love it. I love the guys and I love hockey here. So it's pretty nice. Very fun to be here."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Wilkes-Barre is now 4-1 to start the season after the win.
• Jordy Bellerive returned to the lineup after missing last game with a non-COVID illness. He took the spot of Kasper Bjorkqvist, who remains on recall to Pittsburgh. Bellerive slotted in on the left wing of the third line, and Filip Hallander was elevated from that spot to Bjorkqvist's former spot on the left wing of the second line.
• Filip Lindberg remains undefeated with three wins in his three starts. He wasn't tested quite as often today as he was in his previous two performances, which were both 30-save games. He made 20 saves tonight on 22 shots, including this highlight-reel save on Tyson Foerster:
"That was a big save there in the second," Forrest said. "Kind of a wide-open tip shot there on the side. He read that, he was right on top. Like I said last game, it seems like the tighter it gets, just the more dialed in he is. I think he kind of knew, or maybe he said to himself, 'Enough is enough' and he really took control after that. Another solid performance."
• Veteran forward Jamie Devane scored his first goal of the year, going to the net-front and redirecting defenseman Niclas Almari's shot from the point. The play started with forward Jonathan Gruden winning a battle along the boards.
• Almari's assist is his second point of the season, after also recording the game-winning goal in the season opener. The last time Almari was in North America two seasons ago, he only scored one goal and six assists in 51 games. It's a small sample size, but it seems like we'll be seeing more production from Almari over the course of the season. Beyond that, he also just seems to be more confident after spending the last year in Finland.
"He's definitely has some more confidence right now," Forrest said. "That comes with experience sometimes. He's got a little bit more of that, his ability to recover from a mistake is something that we're happy with. He seems like he's grown in that aspect of the game. As a young defenseman things are going to happen and you know how to recover, whether it's you make a pass that got tipped and now you're in a bad situation, you know where to go. So there's no panic there. I think he's taking steps in that part of his game. I think that's going to help him in the long run."
• Forward Michael Chaput scored the game-tying goal on a power play, assisted by P.O Joseph and AHL-contracted forward Sam Houde:
• Puustinen continues to be dominant, with the primary assist on both of Zohorna's goals. He has points in four of Wilkes-Barre's five games, with two-point performances in the last two games. He leads the team in goals (3) and points (6).
"I love him," Zohorna said of playing with Puustinen. "He's such a good guy, and he's really, really good player. He's on fire right now. It's fun to play with him and talk with him. I think me and (Sam Poulin) and Puusty, I think we are good together and I hope we will play together more games and it will be good."
Puustinen, who is listed at 5-foot-9 and 183 pounds, has shown no trouble adjusting to the North American game in his first season here.
"He's not the biggest guy, but he's a competitor," Forrest said. "I didn't know fully what to expect as far as that makeup, but he definitely has that. He works hard out there. He's extremely smart. He sees the ice at a really high level. So he's been able to find holes, find guys open, and then when he has the opportunity to shoot the puck he's got a real dangerous release. I'm really happy just with his commitment to the game, trying to understand exactly the differences between here and home for him, and how he can adjust. It's a short sample size but it's been nice to watch so far."
• The top power play was Cam Lee, Nathan Legare, Zohorna, Puustinen, Poulin.
• The second power play was Joseph, Bellerive, Chaput, Hallander, Houde.
• The Penguins entered this game 2-for-14 on the power play. They scored two power play goals on five opportunities tonight. The Phantoms are struggling to start the season, but the penalty kill is one area in which they were actually excelling, having only allowed one goal in 13 opportunities.
"We made a couple of nice plays, they have a really good penalty-kill, I think they were 92 percent before tonight," Forrest said. "They kind of changed a couple things up as far as their pressure and how they go about their business on the penalty kill side of things. But our guys adjusted, they took what was given to them. We didn't have a ton of looks there, but when we did get our opportunities, we made them count sometimes. On the power play, that's you have to do. If you get one to look and you make it count, that's all we're talking about is how the power play scored. So it was really good to see that element of the game contribute to a win."
• The Penguins went 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza:
1. Radim Zohorna, Penguins
2. Valtteri Puustinen, Penguins
3. Filip Lindberg, Penguins
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Forward Anthony Angello is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
THE LINEUPS
Forrest's lines and pairings:
Sam Poulin - Radim Zohorna - Valtteri Puustinen
Kasper Bjorkqvist - Michael Chaput - Felix Robert
Filip Hallander - Sam Houde - Nathan Legare
Jamie Devane - Jonathan Gruden - Kyle Olson
P.O Joseph - Taylor Fedun
Niclas Almari - Matt Bartkowski
Chris Bigras - Cam Lee
And for Ian Laperriere's Phantoms
Max Willman - Cal O'Reilly - Tyson Foerster
Garrett Wilson - Morgan Frost - Gerald Mayhew
Isaac Ratcliffe - German Rubtsov - Maxim Sushko
Brennan Saulnier - Connor Bunnaman - Jackson Cates
Cam York - Wyatte Wylie
Yegor Zamula - Adam Clendening
Linus Hogberg - Logan Day
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will visit the Wolf Pack in Hartford on Friday night, then travel to Springfield to play the Thunderbirds on Saturday.
THE CONTENT
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