Filip Hallander said in the Penguins' development camp that he was "here to take a spot" from someone during the Penguins' main training camp.
Things didn't go quite as planned for Hallander.
Hallander missed the first four days of training camp with what Mike Sullivan called a "nagging lower-body injury" at the time. He rejoined one of the Penguins' practice groups in a non-contact jersey for another practice before finally being a full participant on Day 6. By then, he had missed all of the early training camp scrimmages, and wasn't quite ready to be thrown into those early preseason games. He played in the final two preseason games, then was sent down to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for the AHL training camp.
"It was tough to get that injury," Hallander told me Friday. "It was bad timing for me. I'm really happy with camp, I got two (preseason) games, and I think it was nice to get those two games and get a feel of how the speed is up with the big team. I take a lot of experience from those two games."
Hallander came into Wilkes-Barre and debuted on the top line in last week's season-opener, then was bumped down to the second line for the second game a day later. He didn't record a shot on goal in either of the two games.
"I think that the first two games, I haven't been so satisfied with my play," he said. "I've talked a lot with coaches about how to play over here and how to translate my game to play on smaller rinks. It's a bit of a different style to play, it's more North-South. It's faster, and it's more chip-in, chip-out."
Hallander was shifted to the third line for Friday's game against the Hartford Wolf Pack, a move head coach J.D. Forrest said was part due to the strong play of Kasper Bjorkqvist and a desire to move him up, and part wanting to help Hallander find his game.
"We thought maybe it would just drive his focus a little bit to playing a certain way," Forrest explained. "And it seems like it did that for tonight."
It sure seems like it did.
Hallander scored his first AHL goal in Friday's 2-1 overtime win over the Wolf Pack, driving to the net through Hartford defenders in the first period and putting in the rebound from Nathan Legare's initial shot:
"Obviously, really nice to score my first," Hallander said afterward. "A nice pass by Nathan, and nice to get the rebound in."
It was the kind of hard-nosed, Patric Hornqvist-style type of play that the Penguins want to see from him.
Reflecting more on his earlier games with Wilkes-Barre last week, part of what plagued Hallander wasn't just adjusting to the style of North American hockey, but rather his nerves from the pressure of his debut. He didn't yet have the confidence to make those kinds of plays.
He came into this game with the confidence of that guy in development camp who said that he was going to "take a spot" from someone on the NHL roster, and showed more of what made him so successful in Sweden. That was the difference-maker for him.
"I was more nervous and was thinking too much out there," Hallander said of his first AHL games. "I need to have the confidence that I know I can have. I scored a couple of those goals last season in Sweden, and I think I have a good shot. I just need to have the confidence to take the puck to the net, and not be the guy who is always chipping it down or passing to other teammates."
Forrest called Hallander's performance on Friday a "strong game" overall from him, and thought that Hallander benefitted from just simplifying his mindset coming into the game.
"We tried to just give him a few thoughts to have in his head out there as he's playing, and not so much thinking about the systems that we're playing but how we want to play," Forrest said. "I thought he did a great job tonight. The goal was him driving that net hard for that rebound."
Hallander's goal is still to take that spot in Pittsburgh. But for now, he's relishing the opportunity to learn and continue to add more confidence at the AHL level first.
"Even though I got sent down, I'm seeing this as an opportunity to learn and to be able to win games down here," Hallander said. "I think we have a really, really special group with a lot of young guys coming in with good energy, and a couple of veterans as well. We have a good mix, and it's going to be a fun season."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Wilkes-Barre is now 2-1 to start the season after the win.
• There were two lineup changes for the game, with Kyle Olson replacing Sam Houde at forward and Chris Bigras replacing Niclas Almari on defense.
• Only the top line of Sam Poulin, Radim Zohorna and Valtteri Puustinen and the top pairing of P.O Joseph and Taylor Fedun remained intact from last game, every other combination was shuffled to some degree.
• Cam Lee played on the right side of the defense for the third of three games this season. I wrote about him making that adjustment last game.
• This was the first overtime game of the season for Wilkes-Barre. Juuso Riikola, Puustinen, and Michael Chaput started the three-on-three overtime, followed by Poulin, Zohorna, and Joseph. The third trio of Bjorkqvist, Jordy Bellerive, and Lee teamed up for the game-winner, with Lee making a pass through traffic that popped right out to Bjorkqvist:
"It was nice poise by Lee up top," Forrest said of the play. "He has that in his game, he's hard to read. It looked like he was going to shoot, then he got around the guy. But just prior to that, Kasper made a play to Bellerive there and the puck went in the corner. If we don't get that puck back, that goal doesn't happen. They were actually first on it, but Bellerive was there to strip them of the puck and made the play up there to Cam. Then he made that nice move, so it started with that puck battle that went in the corner."
• The top power play unit was Riikola, Poulin, Puustinen, Zohorna, Legare
• The second power play unit was Joseph, Chaput, Bellerive, Bjorkqvist, with Fedun and Lee alternating as the second defenseman.
• The first penalty-killing unit was Bigras, Matt Bartkowski, Bellerive, Bjorkqvist.
• The second penalty-killing unit was Olson, Jonathan Gruden, Fedun, Hallander.
• Wilkes-Barre went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill and 0-for-4 on the power play.
• After missing the first two games of the season with a lower-body injury, goaltender Louis Domingue was a full participant in practice this week. Rather than throw him right into a game yet, they opted to have him back up Filip Lindberg in this game.
• Lindberg now has two wins in his two appearances this season, making 30 saves on 31 shots in each game:
"A lot of confidence, and really solid," Forrest said of Lindberg's play this season. "I thought he settled into the game at the beginning, some of those pucks were bouncing on him but he's the type of guy that's going to find a way. The tighter it got, the further along it went, the better he got, the more comfortable he got. We've touched on it before, just his tendency to rise to the challenge. I think he felt better when things got tighter, actually."
• Kain Tisi, one of the Penguins' two goaltending development coaches, is in Wilkes-Barre and joined the broadcast at intermission to talk about Lindberg, among other things.
"The thing that strikes me first and foremost is the kind of person he is," Tisi said of Lindberg. "He's such a good human being No. 1, obviously being a national champion himself. With that kind of pedigree, you don't win a championship without having that mental focus and strength within him. The first thing that strikes me with him is also his competitiveness, he can be in any situation, whether it's his first NHL exhibition in Pittsburgh, his exhibition game here with us and then his first pro debut in the regular season. He's confident, he's calm, he's got swagger, and to me, he just breathes confidence throughout our whole lineup and our coaching staff for sure."
• Legare is still searching for his first goal through three games. The assist on Hallander's goal was his first pro point. He led the team with five shots on goal tonight, and hit a post on a breakaway in the third period.
"He's a real dangerous shooter," Forrest said of Legare's play so far. "He's not shy as far as being physical. He's best when he moves his feet. When he's turning it over out there, and he's getting himself open in spots, and then also being tough to play against down low, that's when he's had the most success. It's just about finding some consistency with those habits."
• Poulin is also searching for his first pro goal, having already earned his first pro point with an assist in the opener. He hasn't been short on opportunities though, like this attempt set up by Legare that was stopped by Keith Kinkaid:
Even though Poulin has yet to find the scoresheet, Forrest has liked what he's seen from Poulin so far. The challenge for Poulin is learning what he's able to get away with at the pro level after coming from such a stacked QMJHL team in junior, where he wouldn't get burned by bad decisions so easily.
"When he gets pucks down low, he really is able to make some plays and protect pucks, dominate, and make it tough on other teams, especially the D," Forrest said of Poulin. "He just has to adjust a little bit the decision-making in certain areas of the ice, and it's only because he's been able to do that for a long time now. Now we're just at a level where things get tougher and tougher, so you've got to play to your strengths. He's been great, he's been real coachable. He's committed to getting better at the areas that he needs to get better at. But he's got such a good set of tools that we want to make sure he maximizes those, and he's been able to do that. I'm sure he will find the score sheet here soon."
• Forrest has been impressed by what he's seen from Riikola, who has two points in three games and quarterbacks the top power play unit.
"I've had some good conversations with Juuso," Forrest said. "He hasn't played a lot of games in the last year and a half. So I think he's excited to find some consistency down here with his play. I thought in the third period tonight, he was really good. He can be a game-changer for us when he's really on, because he's got that great shot. He can play physical, there's a lot of attributes that he has that we really like. He's an NHL defenseman, he really is. But he needs to continue to play some games here, get his timing, get all those things where he wants it to be. But it's nice to have him on the back end."
• AHL-contracted goalie Tommy Nappier, who is still on the roster as the third goaltender and started in the second game of the season, got his new Penguins mask for the season:
daveart / Instagram
• In a story in the team's game day program, Bjorkqvist was asked if the Finns (there are five) are taking over Wilkes-Barre.
“Are we taking over? That’s a good question,” Bjorkqvist said with a laugh. “There are actually a couple Finnish holidays coming up, the first being Independence Day. We don’t have a game that day, so we’ll see if we can get anyone to celebrate with us. Then we’ll know.”
I asked Hallander, the lone Swede, about being outnumbered 5-1 by the Finns. Mark him down as a "maybe" for the Finnish Independence Day party.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza
1. Kasper Bjorkqvist, Penguins
2. Filip Lindberg, Penguins
3. Filip Hallander, Penguins
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Forward Anthony Angello is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
THE LINEUPS
Forrest's lines and pairings:
Sam Poulin - Radim Zohorna - Valtteri Puustinen
Kasper Bjorkqvist - Michael Chaput - Felix Robert
Filip Hallander - Jordy Bellerive - Nathan Legare
Jamie Devane - Jonathan Gruden - Kyle Olson
P.O Joseph - Taylor Fedun
Juuso Riikola - Matt Bartkowski
Chris Bigras - Cam Lee
And for Kris Knoblauch's Wolf Pack:
Tim Gettinger - Jonny Brodzinski - Lauri Pajuniemi
Ty Ronning - Tanner Fritz - Anthony Greco
Patrick Khodorenko - Justin Richards - Alex Whelan
Pierre-Cedric Labrie - Mike O'Leary - Austin Rueschoff
Anthony Bitetto - Zac Jones
Matthew Robertson - Braden Schneider
Tarmo Reunanen - Zach Giuttari
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will play their first road game of the season on Sunday at 3:05 p.m. in Lehigh Valley.
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.
