CRANBERRY, Pa. -- The Penguins' practice on Tuesday opened with a loud, long ovation of players tapping their sticks on the ice.
That was in recognition of Ty Hennes resuming his usual position in front of the Penguins' whiteboard to draw up a drill, marking his return to practice for the first time since exiting the COVID-19 protocol.
"I think he got a welcome return from the players today," Mike Sullivan said after the session. "We're certainly thrilled to have him back."
Hennes, 42, is in his seventh season working with the Penguins, and his fourth as the full-time skating and skills development coach. He typically leads a portion of each practice, as well as the morning skates and the individual skates with injured players. The team put Hennes right back to work in his first day out of protocol. He led a pre-practice session for Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust as they work their way back from injury, then led the entire session, which consisted of a lot of fast-paced, fun drills and small-area competitions.
"He brings a lot of energy," Danton Heinen said of Hennes' return. "He's always got a smile on his face. It's great to have him back for one before the break."
That word "energy" kept popping up when I was asking about the impact of Hennes being back, and that energy could not have been more evident from watching that session. He just added a massive boost to the team.
"It's good to have him back," Sidney Crosby. "He brings a ton energy. We've kept him busy this year with the amount of guys that have been out and have to come back, especially with the virus and things like that. It's not easy getting guys ready to play in a day or two after sitting around for 10 days. He's so valuable for us as far as getting guys ready and the energy he brings."
"I think the guys really like Ty," Sullivan said. "He brings a lot of energy to the ice. He's just so enthusiastic, he brings so much passion to what he does. And he's really good at what he does."
Pre-COVID times, Hennes would make about 40 trips a year to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to do the same work with the prospects in the Penguins' system, usually when the parent club was on the road. This season, Hennes' job has evolved. He travels with the team more, and works behind the bench for home and road games with the assistant coaches for the first time in his career.
"Ty is helping with systematic and individual player stuff that when they come off the ice," Todd Reirden explained of Hennes' role during games earlier this season. "I think that that's been a really good thing for him in terms of the growth of his career as a coach. I think a lot of him and what he brings to our team, and I think that this is just the next step for him. This has worked out to be great experience for him and his growth."
Hennes, a 5-foot-9, 176-pound former forward, had a four-year minor-league hockey career from 2004-08. During his second minor league season he began attending the Parker College of Chiropractic Medicine, where he eventually earned his doctorate degree in 2011. Prior to his brief minor league hockey career, he was a pre-med student at Boston College, and scored 16 goals and 26 assists in 152 games over four years, eventually serving as alternate captain in his senior year.
Hennes' co-alternate captain his senior year was another senior, defenseman J.D. Forrest. Forrest, now head coach of Wilkes-Barre, said that he couldn't have pictured Hennes ever growing into a skills coach role like this at the time, but he's also not surprised to see Hennes work to get to where he is now.
"I wouldn't have considered him a skilled player," Forrest told me in the offseason. "But he just worked so hard. He's delved deep into it after he was done with school, on skill acquisition on the science about it. Not many people know that he's actually a doctor, he's a very intelligent man. From that perspective, it's not surprising to see him just pick something and become an expert at it. He is the best at his job that I've ever seen."
Hennes played with a number of future NHL players on those Boston College teams, including Stephen Gionta, Patrick Eaves, Ben Lovejoy, Brooks Orpik, and Rob Scuderi. One of his teammates in his senior season was a 19-year-old freshman forward, Brian Boyle.
Boyle reflected on Tuesday about Hennes' impact on his own career as he made the transition to college hockey.
"He was such a hard worker, he was a really good player," Boyle remembered of Hennes. "But the way he conducted himself was a great type of leadership for us coming in, the younger guys. He showed us how to almost be professional at that college level, come out of high school, he was a huge asset for us."
Now reunited in Pittsburgh with Hennes as one of his coaches, Boyle sees similarities between the way Hennes leads Penguins practices with the way Hennes helped lead Boston College's team 18 years ago.
"The way he goes about his day and his business now is the same, he's a extremely hard worker and a really positive guy," Boyle said. "He just brings so much energy, and his warmup games and stuff like that, they're really fun. They're effective, too. He's just a great guy."
During Hennes' brief time away from the team while in COVID protocol, the void he left was clear, both in the pre-practice skates and the energy boost he adds to the full sessions.
Seeing the reception Hennes got from the team in his return, it's clear that they couldn't be happier to have him back.
