Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had as close as its had to a fullly-healthy lineup in months for this past weekend's set of three road games in three days, paying a visit to the AHL's top-ranked Utica Comets on Friday and then games against the Hershey Bears on both Saturday and Sunday.
Sam Poulin and Nathan Legare were each scratched for one of those games, with Poulin sitting on Saturday and Legare in Sunday.
Both players are healthy, and the scratches weren't a matter of giving players rest in the condensed schedule.
Rather, the scratches were a result of some ongoing lapses that the team is trying to help both players correct, as head coach JD Forrest told me after Wednesday's practice.
"For Poulin, it was some repetitive, I would say game growth that needs to happen from him," Forrest said. "There's a few things that happened in the game in Utica that I would say were repeat offenses."
Poulin was on the ice for two of the Comets' goals in Wilkes-Barre's 6-5 shootout loss, the second of which was a direct result of Poulin's turnover in his own end:
Players are going to be held accountable for things like that.
"The way to hit home most with guys right now is ice time," Forrest said. "And we don't want him not playing. We want Poulin to play. That message for us, it's hard to do it. And for him, I know it's hard to take."
Poulin was back in the Penguins' lineup Saturday, and while the Penguins lost 3-2 to the Bears, Forrest thought that Poulin had a strong individual game. Poulin didn't record any points, but he wasn't on the ice for any of the Penguins' three goals against either and did more of the little things right that could potentially help him be successful at the next level.
"I think Sunday's game in Hershey was one of his best, if not the best game of the year for him," Forrest said. "He was on the puck, he had more chances, he did the right things in a lot of the areas that we've been talking about. He just played a cleaner game. He didn't put himself in tough situations, he put himself at the advantage by getting pucks in the areas where he can really operate, he's tough to play against. So I thought his response was fantastic. If he can build consistency with playing that type of game, he's going to really help us. He's going to make a lot of strides forward."
Legare was scratched in Sunday's game. Though he wasn't on the ice for any of Hershey's three goals the night before, Forrest said the reasons for Legare's scratch were similar to Poulin's situation. Wilkes-Barre had practices on Tuesday and Wednesday and doesn't play again until Friday, so Legare has to wait a bit longer to have a response like Poulin did, but Forrest thought that Legare's responded well just in those practices so far.
"I think he knows where we stand and why we make the decisions that we do," Forrest said. "So for us, the response is we see it in practice, and we see it in the next game. When he's put in those same scenarios, when it's the same situation, is he going to have the same decision? Is he going to stick to the gameplan? Which direction are we going here? So I think we'll see more of his response on Friday. I thought he had a good few days of practice here, some good meetings. But all that stuff, he's got to take that into game situations and be able to apply it."
Forrest said he finds that making these adjustments is sometimes tough for players coming out of juniors or college. The game isn't as fast, the players aren't as skilled at those levels, so bad decisions aren't nearly as costly as they are in the professional game. That's perhaps especially true for Poulin and Legare, who are coming out of the offensively-minded QMJHL, and are coming from a strong team that possessed the puck more often than not.
Moving forward, the Penguins are just looking for more consistency in good habits from Poulin and Legare.
"That's really what we want to see from from those guys, especially the younger guys, is daily improvement and a commitment to playing the game that's going to help them be successful instead veering in and out of it," Forrest said.
