Wilkes-Barre can't recover from another slow start

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has had the same problem through its first two games.

Slow starts.

In both the season opener -- a 4-3 overtime loss to the Binghamton Devils -- and Thursday's 3-2 overtime loss to the Bears at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, the Penguins were outshot 12-6 in the first period.

"We had a slow start," coach J.D. Forrest said after the game. "We didn't get our legs going until halfway through the second there. Some guys found their legs, some guys didn't. It's hard to win a game like that when you don't have your legs under you at the beginning of the game."

"There's no reason in particular, we just have to come out of the chute a little faster," said forward Tim Schaller. "Whether it's a pep talk by me or one of the captains, we have to kick each other in the butt here and get going faster so we can get a lead and hold onto it."

I asked Forrest if there's anything he can say to the team as coach to prevent slow starts like this one.

"It can just be a point of emphasis from now on," he said. "Everyone says it, but you really have to prepare the right way mentally to be ready to go as soon as that puck drops. It's nothing that guys are doing on purpose, for sure. We've got to have a little bit of focus on that and make sure that when it's game time, we don't wait 10 minutes before we get going. I think that's more of a message to focus on more than anything else."

Despite the shot disparity, the game was tied, 1-1, after the first period. The Bears' Matt Moulson (yes, that Matt Moulson, he's 37 now) opened the scoring just 1:22 into the game when Emil Larmi misplayed the puck behind the net and couldn't get back to his crease in time.

Last game, captain Josh Currie called Larmi "definitely our best player from the start to finish." And despite that early flub, Larmi responded well and had a strong game with 33 saves on 36 shots.

"That's a big step for him," Forrest said of Larmi's play after the early goal. "I'm sure he'd be the first to say he'd play that a lot differently if he could have. But after that, he really was strong back there. Our guys are playing confidence knowing he's going to make the save, we just have to do a better job of cleaning up some of the other opportunities for him. He's been real dependable, we like what we see."

Schaller, who recently signed a full AHL contract with the Penguins, scored the first period's tying goal, his first as a Penguin.

"It felt really good," Schaller said. "(Nick Schilkey) made a nice play up the wall. I had a shooting mentality all the way down, I didn't think I was going to try to shoot that early. But I tried to use the D-man as a screen, and I ended up getting a good piece of it in the top corner."

Another veteran forward, Currie, has easily been the Penguins' top skater through these two games. He scored a power play goal, his second in as many games, early in the second period to give the Penguins a brief lead. He has a wicked shot on the power play:

"He's been dangerous out there," Forrest said of Currie. "Our power play has been pretty good, we had a lot of opportunities tonight, aside from the goal. We did a great job supporting each other, covering loose pucks."

Rookie defenseman Cam Lee picked up the primary assist on Currie's tally, his third assist of the season. Running that clip back, Lee had great play to keep the puck in at the blue line as well.

"He's shown why we wanted him out of college, with the way he can break a forecheck by himself, beat one or two guys just with his deceptiveness and skating, and playmaking abilities," Forrest said. "He's been really strong on the offensive side of things. It's just managing that risk-reward calculation, and I think that'll come from him. It's only his second pro game. But he's got so much ability out there, there's not many players who have the types of skills that he has as far as the combination of his puck-handling, skating, elusiveness, all that."

The only lineup change for the Penguins this game from the opener was putting Jan Drozg on the second line, replacing Michael Joly, after Drozg missed the first game while on the COVID Protocol list.

After Wednesday's practice, Forrest spoke about what he was looking forward to seeing from Drozg when Drozg got back into the lineup, saying that Drozg has "speed, and the ability to handle the puck in tight spaces there and make some individual plays that not everybody can do."

Drozg nearly scored in the second period, striking the crossbar on a power play. When Wilkes-Barre was down by a goal in the third period, Drozg was one of the players who saw a lot of ice time as the Penguins were looking to tie it. That skill that Forrest spoke of and Drozg's confidence this season was evident in plays like this one:

"He has that offensive ability," Forrest said. "He started winning some of those battles and showing some of his skill in the offensive zone. I thought it was a good game for him, especially his first game in a long time in North America. I liked what I saw from Janny. We're just going to continue to build on that with him, a lot of that comes down to just believing in himself. It looks like this year, his confidence is in another spot. It's good to see."

In both of these first two games, there have been a hand positive takeaways with the play of individual players, or the power play's performance. The entire team needs to start coming together for more than just a period or two, though, to finally get a win.

"Our game is going pretty well right now, we just have to have a full 60 minutes," Schaller said. "We can't take any shifts off. ... It's a learning process for us, we can move forward going on."

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Video highlights
• AHL scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics

THE THREE STARS

As selected at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza:

1. Mike Sgarbossa, Bears
2. Garrett Pilon, Bears
3. Emil Larmi, Penguins

THE INJURIES

• Forward Sam Miletic is day-to-day with what Forrest simply called a "medical issue." He participated in Pittsburgh's camp but was absent for the final three days.

• Defenseman Zach Trotman underwent right knee surgery Jan. 14 to repair a torn meniscus and is expected to be out 4-6 weeks. He's still technically on Pittsburgh's injured reserve, but physically in Wilkes-Barre, so he figures to start the season in the AHL when he's healthy.

• Defenseman Jesper Lindgren left the first preseason game after sliding into the boards and is out indefinitely with an injured shoulder. Forrest said it wasn't yet clear whether Lindgren would require surgery

• Defenseman Dylan MacPherson is day-to-day recovering from a broken finger.

THE LINEUPS

Forrest’s lines and pairings:

Tim Schaller-Josh Currie-Nick Schilkey
Justin Almeida-Radim Zohorna-Jan Drozg
Jordan Nolan-Jordy Bellerive-Kyle Olson
Jonathan Gruden-Chase Berger-Zach Nastasiuk

Jon Lizotte-Will Reilly
Cam Lee-Billy Sweezey
Matt Miller-Josh Maniscalco

And for Spencer Carbery's Bears:

Joe Snively-Mike Sgarbossa-Garrett Pilon
Matt Moulson-Connor McMichael-Kody Clark
Brett Leason-Shane Gersich-Damien Riat
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby-Matt Weis-Steve Whitney

Lucas Johansen-Paul LaDue
Eddie Wittchow-Martin Fehervary
Rob O'Gara-Reece Willcox

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins play the Syracuse Crunch on the road on Saturday evening.

THE CONTENT

Visit our team page for everything.