For players who were rookies in the AHL last year, this season really is their first real, full, AHL season.
With no NHL taxi squads to deplete AHL rosters, the AHL is much more competitive this season. Unlike last season, teams are now playing outside of their division and going on real road trips. There will once again be a postseason for teams to compete for the Calder Cup.
So while players like Penguins right-handed defense prospect Will Reilly did make their AHL debuts last season, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach J.D. Forrest says that it's still as if players like Reilly are "almost a rookie this year."
With that comes some growing pains, something Reilly is no stranger to this season.
Reilly, the Penguins' 24-year-old 2017 seventh-round pick, made his professional debut last year and skated in 26 of Wilkes-Barre's 32 games, spending time on the right side of each of the three defense pairings throughout the season and quarterbacking the second power play unit, a role he had during his time in college at RPI. His three goals were tied for the team-lead among defensemen, and his six points ranked fourth among the team's defensemen.
With a deeper blue line in Wilkes-Barre this year, Reilly's been in and out of the lineup, mostly rotating in in a third-pairing role. With the healthy scratches combined with a bout of COVID earlier in the season, Reilly's appeared in just 28 of Wilkes-Barre's 62 games.
"From sort of the beginning of the year there to recently, it was pretty tough being in and out," Reilly told me of his season on Thursday.
Reilly was briefly assigned to Wheeling in late November to get playing time, where was thrust into a big role and scored two goals and four assists in just three games.
"He came down, is playing penalty kill, power play and maybe not the same minutes he's playing at Wilkes Barre, but it's important for his development," Nailers head coach Derek Army told me at the time. "(Pittsburgh) wants to see him grow and develop as a player. It's very important for him."
While that stint in the ECHL was helpful for Reilly's development and confidence this season, he said it was "tough" for him to be sent down.
"Going down there, I think something I wasn't really expecting coming into the season," he said. "But I tried to just tell myself that I've got to be where my feet are. I went down there and tried to have a positive attitude. I just worked as hard as I could every day to try and get back here."
With Reilly now back in Wilkes-Barre, he's still not quite a lock to be in the lineup every single night. But he's been playing more regularly lately, and the Penguins do like the tools he brings when he is in the lineup.
"He's a good skater," Forrest told me of Reilly earlier in the season. "His shot is pretty dangerous. He's a heavy guy to play against."
Reilly's taken on more of a defensive role this season, and entered Thursday's game with just three assists in the AHL this year. He netted his first goal of the year in the second period of Wilkes-Barre's 5-1 win over Hartford, a goal that would stand as the eventual game-winner and earn him No. 1 star honors:
"I just saw the open area there backdoor," Reilly said of that goal. "Drew (O'Connor) had it. He's a great player, so I knew he'd see me back there, and it's just a great pass by him. All I had to do was just finish it. It's just good play by Drew there."
Forrest said that it was "great to see" Reilly get his first of the year, and said that he feels like there will be "more to follow."
"He snuck down the side there, a great pass from (O'Connor)," Forrest said. "He was able to bury it. He's had a few looks like that this year that have just kind of gone off to the side or bobbled at the last second."
It's continued growth in other aspects of the game that will help Reilly solidify his spot in the lineup, though.
"That consistency night in and night out is not something that everyone just has," Forrest said. "He's been able to find that lately. He's also helped us on the penalty kill, which is another area we think that we need him to step up in. He's been doing that lately, he's been blocking shots and just some nice plays on the PK. So if he continues in those areas, he's got a chance to be in every night."
Reilly's also found a consistent defense partner as of late in Juuso Riikola, and he feels like that pairing has really helped his own game.
"He's a great player," Reilly said of Riikola. "He's an elite skater. He's an NHL player. For me, I'm just trying to read off him a lot. He helps me a lot on the bench, I think we do a good job of communicating. He's awesome to play with, a really poised player. I think I feed off well from him."
Though Reilly's sophomore season hasn't always gone as smoothly as he may have hoped for, he said that it does feel like more of a "real season" after the way COVID impacted his rookie year. And he's looking forward to his first push for the playoffs as a pro.
"Last year was a lot different with no playoffs," he said. "This year it feels more real. It's a lot of fun. It's a real season, real hockey. Hopefully we can just keep pushing and position ourselves well for playoffs."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Penguins were outshot 12-6 in the first period but entered first intermission with the game still scoreless. It looked like this one was going to be a close game, then the Penguins outshot Hartford 13-6 in the second period and scored four consecutive goals, with Hartford getting one of their own with 62 seconds left in the frame.
"I think in the first period we started a little bit slow," Forrest said. "They came out with some energy there and put a lot of pucks on our net, and we weren't able to generate too much. The second period, we just found our legs. They did a good job in their D-zone taking away a few things. We made a couple of tweaks in some areas we thought we could look for, and our guys did a great job executing and coming out with some real good energy in the second and the third. They have a goalie too that's not easy to put stuff by him. So I thought our team did a nice job of that."
• Kasper Bjorkqvist opened the scoring with his seventh of the year, assisted by Kyle Olson:
• Reilly's goal extended the lead after the setup from O'Connor and Valtteri Puustinen.
• The Penguins got a power play late in the third. Two Wolf Pack players lost their sticks, allowing O'Connor to easily set up Sam Poulin, who was left all alone at the left circle. It was Poulin's 13th goal of the year:
• Just 42 seconds later Felix Robert made it 4-0 with his 14th goal of the season, picking up the rebound from a Nathan Legare shot:
• Michael Chaput scored the lone goal in the third period, his eighth goal of the year:
• Louis Domingue earned the win with 24 saves on 25 shots. Since getting healthy and getting sent back down to Wilkes-Barre, Domingue has a 5-3 record, and really only one of those losses could be considered a rough game from him. He has a 2.64 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage in those eight starts since his return.
"Since he's been back down here we're a different team," Reilly said of Domingue. "He's an NHL goaltender. Just him playing the puck, it helps our whole team really so much. I think that's pretty evident. I feel like we're a lot better at breaking the puck out. He's really good at communicating back there for a goalie. He's a leader. He's been great for us and hopefully we can just keep going here."
• I've written about how Puustinen is not (and never has been) a liability defensively what feels like a million times now, but here's another example for good measure. Love the effort from him here to force the turnover, and then immediately set up O'Connor for an opportunity up the other way
• The power play went 1-for-3, and the penalty kill went a perfect 4-for-4.
• Wilkes-Barre improved to 29-26-4-4 with the win and moved back into a playoff spot. The top six teams in the eight-team division get in, and the teams from No. 4 to No. 7 are all very tight. Hartford is the team that sits in the spot directly above Wilkes-Barre, so this was a massive win.
"We've been scratching and clawing for months now," Forrest said of his team's spot in the standings. "So this is nothing new for us going back to early January there. We had a tough December that put us in a hole. Our guys have been great ever since as far as the effort every night and just the urgency that they play with."
• Other than forward Corey Andonovski (who went back to Princeton earlier this week to finish his final semester) none of the Penguins' recent college free agent signings have played yet. Defenseman Clayton Phillips, who is only on an AHL tryout contract, is in Wilkes-Barre and just practicing so far. There's no timetable yet for when the two players signed to entry-level deals with Pittsburgh might play. Defenseman Colin Swoyer just arrived in Wilkes-Barre Wednesday night and is expected to practice Thursday. Forward Ty Glover is expected to make it to Wilkes-Barre Thursday evening.
• Earlier in the week Wilkes-Barre traded AHL-contracted veteran defenseman Chris Bigras to the Chicago Wolves for future considerations, clearing a spot in the lineup for one of the younger defensemen to play.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza:
1. Will Reilly, Penguins D
2. Louis Domingue, Penguins G
3. Sam Poulin, Penguins C
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Goaltender Filip Lindberg is out "longer-term" with an ankle injury sustained during the game on Nov. 12. Director of player development Scott Young told me that they don't expect Lindberg to play again this season.
• Defenseman Taylor Fedun is out "week-to-week" with a lower-body injury. Forrest said Wednesday that they expect Fedun to remain sidelined “probably a couple more weeks here at least.”
THE LINEUPS
Forrest's lines and pairings:
Filip Hallander - Drew O'Connor - Valtteri Puustinen
Jonathan Gruden - Sam Poulin - Alex Nylander
Felix Robert - Michael Chaput - Nathan Legare
Kasper Bjorkqvist - Jordy Bellerive - Kyle Olson
P.O Joseph - Mitch Reinke
Juuso Riikola - Will Reilly
Cam Lee - Matt Bartkowski
And for Kris Knoblauch's Wolf Pack:
Nick Merkley - Maxim Letunov - Lauri Pajuniemi
Matt Lorito - Tanner Fritz - Austin Rueschhoff
Ty Ronning - Patrick Khodorenko - Anthony Greco
Christiano DiGiacinto - Mike O'Leary - Alex Whelan
Brandon Scanlin - Zac Jones
Jarred Tinordi - Hunter Skinner
Matthew Robertson - Zach Guittari
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will have a practice day on Thursday, then play the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on the road on Friday then host the Bridgeport Islanders on Saturday. The Phantoms and Islanders sit No. 7 and 8 respectively in the division race, so these games provide the Penguins the opportunity to solidify their hold on a playoff spot.
THE CONTENT
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