Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Managing the holiday season requires a bit of care for American Hockey League head coaches and their players.
Between the social events, the cakes and cookies, a lack of practice time, and the change to the standard weekly schedule, all sorts of potential traps exist. Even being off the ice for two or three days can disrupt some players’ sense of routine. Mix in travel back home or hosting guests as well.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins went into their break looking quite solid, dispatching the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at home, 7-2, on Dec. 21, and then shutting out the Hershey Bears on the road a day later.
But the schedule in hockey only slows down temporarily, and the Penguins had a tough – yet familiar – path coming out of the other side of Christmas: Another home game against the Phantoms, another trip down the interstate to Hershey the next night.
So head coach Kirk MacDonald had some decisions to make on how to structure the week for his players. With the AHL/PHPA collective bargaining agreement requiring a three-day break, McDonald opted against a late practice Dec. 26 and reconvened his club with a morning skate on Dec. 27 instead. Last week was for time with family and friends and some dietary latitude.
“The guys deserve some time off,” MacDonald reasoned.
When last Friday morning came, MacDonald’s players arrived ready to work. They banged out a 3-2 win in the rematch with the Phantoms, then broke two Bears leads and managed to get a point in a 3-2 overtime defeat in Hershey. And they did it with some lineup shortages on defense, too: Mac Hollowell was away at the Spengler Cup, and Nate Clurman had been recalled to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It’s nothing new, really. Recalls and injuries have hit the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton roster for much of the first half of this season.
“I thought it was a great hockey game. Fans got their money’s worth,” MacDonald said after Saturday’s OT loss. “Credit to the guys. It’s hard to come back after the break and play with some intensity.”
It’s hardly ideal to deal with injuries, recalls and outside distractions for a hockey team. But those factors are offset by the Penguins playing the sort of hockey that they will need to make second nature down the stretch and into the Calder Cup Playoffs. As Pittsburgh president of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas and his staff continue to put their imprint across the organization, MacDonald came to Wilkes-Barre in the offseason as a key hire to help make the AHL affiliate a Calder Cup contender again. After all, this is a team that qualified for the Calder Cup Playoffs 16 years in a row before missing out in 2019. Once a deep-spring postseason staple, the Penguins have only won one playoff series since 2016.
But MacDonald’s club is playing that type of tight hockey now that they will need later. They’ve gotten at least one goal from a rookie in six of their past eight contests. The penalty kill is 12-for-13 in the past six games.
The Penguins open the 2025 portion of their schedule with another challenging slate, as Charlotte and Hartford come to town this weekend. Then comes a four-game, eight-day trek through Toronto, Belleville and Laval.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (17-8-0-2) sits five points behind first-place Hershey with five games in hand on the Bears. They have played the fewest games of any team in the Atlantic Division. That means a chance to make up ground, but also a heavier schedule.
The Penguins have set themselves up well. Their head coach gave them some leeway last week, and they did not let distractions disrupt their play.
“The mindset,” MacDonald said, “was outstanding.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.