Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's Olympian is back.
Christian Thomas returned to the team this week after winning bronze with Canada in PyeongChang, something he called an "unbelievable experience".
Thomas said attending the opening ceremonies made it really click how incredible it was to be a part of everything.
"When all of the Canadian athletes get together, they call out 'Canada', you walk out on the floor, and it almost gives you goosebumps," he said.
Thomas recorded one goal in the tournament, the game-winner against South Korea:
"It was unbelievable," he said of the feeling when he finally scored. "It was the third game. It was nice to put one in. Now I can say I have a goal in the Olympics. It was a moment I'll never forget."
While in PyeongChang, Thomas said that his schedule was busy enough that he wasn't able to make it out to too many other events. He did get to catch the mixed doubles curling gold medal match, one of the Canadian women's hockey team's preliminary games, and the nail-biter of a gold medal game between the American and Canadian women.
"It was a very exciting game," he said of the women's gold medal game. "So much fun to be in the building, the building was going crazy with the Canada and U.S. fans. Going into the shootout, it was pretty fun to watch."
One of Thomas' favorite parts of the experience was the Olympic Village, where all the athletes lived and spent their free time. He was excited to meet so many world-class athletes from other countries and other sports, but the food was near the top of his list, too.
"There's a McDonald's in the cafeteria. It's free McDonald's, it's a full McDonald's, you can get anything 24 hours," he laughed. "When we had a day off the next day, or we just had a practice the next day, the guys would have some chicken nuggets or a McFlurry. It was pretty cool."
The team in Wilkes-Barre was incredibly supportive of Thomas during his time away, as he left the team for three international tournaments this season -- two pre-Olympic tournaments in the Karjala Cup and Spengler Cup, and the Olympics. The Penguins were excited to follow Thomas' games with Canada while he was away, but they're happy to have him home.
"They were excited when I got back," Thomas said of his teammates in Wilkes-Barre. "I brought the medal in and the guys were all checking it out. It was cool to catch up."
One teammate, Pat McGrath, took a selfie with the medal on:
"A bunch of the guys were taking Snapchats, and trying it on," Thomas laughed. "Patty, I think he Instagrammed one. He's funny like that."
Thomas said that even though he was gone for so long, he didn't find it difficult to slide back into his old spot in Wilkes-Barre's lineup. In this weekend's three games, Thomas recorded two assists. While he didn't score any goals, he had this nice move in Sunday's shootout loss:
Now that he's back, he said that he wants to focus on getting more pucks on net and hopefully increasing his goal total.
Oh, and maybe bringing home more hardware.
"We have a really good team here," he said. "We've had a good stretch around the last 25 games, we can put ourselves in a good position to win the league. It'd be a pretty good year for myself, going through Spengler (Cup), bronze at the Olympics and winning a Calder (Cup). We're going to work towards that."
MORE FROM WILKES-BARRE
• Mar. 2: at Grand Rapids, 4-2 win
• Mar. 3: at Rockford, 3-0 loss
• Mar. 4: at Milwaukee, 3-2 shootout loss
• With Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith in Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre signed goaltender Étienne Marcoux to a tryout contract to back up Anthony Peters. Marcoux comes to Wilkes-Barre after earning a 16-11-1 record, a 3.07 goals against average and .917 save percentage with the ECHL's Indy Fuel this season.
• Marcoux started one game this week, Saturday in Rockford. He made 19 saves on 21 shots in the loss.
• On Tuesday, Wilkes-Barre reassigned Reid Gardiner to the Wheeling Nailers.
• Adam Johnson has really been improving as of late. He has six points in his last seven games, which doesn't fully reflect the number of chances he gets or sets up. His speed has really been evident as well.
• Josh Jooris, acquired in the Greg McKegg trade just before the NHL trade deadline, scored his first goal as a Penguin on Sunday. It was his first point in three games with the team.
• Wilkes-Barre's low goal totals the past few games aren't a result of not getting any chances. They outshot their opponents in all three games this week, most notably in Sunday's loss, outshooting the Admirals 40-23, with 20 coming in the first period alone. They missed on a number of quality chances, including a Daniel Sprong breakaway late in the game.
• Lines and pairings from Sunday:
Adam Johnson - Jean-Sebastien Dea - Christian Thomas
Garrett Wilson - Gage Quinney - Tom Kostopoulos
Jarrett Burton - Josh Jooris - Joey Cramarossa
Thomas Di Pauli - Teddy Blueger - Daniel Sprong
Chris Summers - Ethan Prow
Kevin Schulze - Kevin Czuczman
Jeff Taylor - Jarred Tinordi
• After this week, Wilkes-Barre remains in second place in the Atlantic Division, trailing Lehigh Valley.
• The Penguins (33-17-4-2) will have another road game this week when they see the Binghamton Devils (19-30-6-3) on Friday, then host the Grand Rapids Griffins (31-21-1-6) on Saturday.
GOALS OF THE WEEK
Adam Johnson's moves led to a goal against Grand Rapids on Friday:
Teddy Blueger made Grand Rapids pay and capitalized on a turnover:
Jooris' first goal as a Penguin was a good one:
BEYOND THE AHL
Forward Jan Drozg, the Penguins' fifth-round pick in 2017, is in his first season of junior hockey in North America.
Drozg, 18 is the first Slovenian-born player drafted in the NHL in 11 years, and only the sixth overall. His selection in the fifth round was the second-highest for any Slovenian-born player, behind only Anze Kopitar.
Drozg has represented Slovenia in international tournaments in some capacity every year since the 2014-15 season, and his most impressive showing was the U18 tournament in 2017. Slovenia played in the Division 1 B group, the third tier of the World U18 Championship, but Drozg won MVP of the Division 1 B tournament with five goals and eight assists in five games.
Drozg moved to Sweden at age 16 to play junior hockey for Leksands to improve his main weakness in his game, his defensive play. He explained his decision by saying that Slovenian hockey focuses more on offense, but the Swedes focus more on defense, which is why Leksands was the best choice for him. His offensive abilities, though, are why he was chosen by the Penguins.
"He's an offensive player, he's very slender, needs time to put on strength," then-director of amateur scouting Randy Sexton said of Drozg in 2017. "But we're excited to have him because he brings some offense."
Currently, Drozg is the leading scorer on the Shawinigan Cataractes in the high-scoring QMJHL. The Cataractes are next-to-last in the league standings, but Drozg has recorded 15 goals and 34 assists in 55 games despite a less-than-stellar supporting cast.
At only 18, Drozg is still a few years away from even being in a Wilkes-Barre uniform, and the QMJHL is not the optimal league for a player like Drozg to develop the defensive side of the game. If he can improve that area of his game, he projects to be a bottom-6 type player once he turns pro.
TOP PICK TRACKER
• Defenseman Zachary Lauzon (second round, 2017) recorded an assist this week, his first point since returning to action for Rouyn-Noranda on Feb. 14. It was his third assist of the season.
• Forward Kasper Bjorkqvist (second round, 2016) and Providence College are preparing for the Hockey East Quarterfinals, which begin on Mar. 9.
• Defenseman Connor Hall (third round, 2016) played only one game this week, and was scratched in Kitchener's other game this week in order to get some rest in. He was a minus-1 in the game, bringing his season total to an overall plus-15.
WHEELING WATCH
This week I'll speak with captain Derek Army, back in Wheeling after another long stint in the AHL.
PROSPECT FUN THING
Chris Summers had some control of the team Twitter account during the latest road trip, and provided some insight on what it's like to travel with an AHL team:
Southwest Airlines baggage policy:
1st bag - FREE
2nd bag - FREE
112th bag - $5,348
#55 pic.twitter.com/TT84Tvq2sE
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) February 28, 2018