Penguins forward Drew O'Connor looking for way back into lineup
Having been recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Sunday, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Drew O’Connor has been a healthy scratch the past two games despite veteran forwards Brian Boyle and Bryan Rust each being sidelined with undisclosed injuries.
Regardless, he is happy to be back on the NHL roster and realized the two weeks he spent with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in November was for his benefit.
“Obviously, I want to be here and playing here,” O’Connor said to media in Edmonton on Tuesday. “But I think having a positive outlook on going down there and kind of making the most of the opportunity of maybe playing a bit more, playing in different situations, that was kind of my outlook, I guess. I just tried to make the most of my time there.”
O’Connor has been deployed at center and wing this season and even skated on the second line at times.
“He needs to continue to grow his overall game,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said to media in Vancouver on Friday. “He’s getting so much experience whether it’s here or in (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton). He’s had a great training camp. He played extremely well when he was in our lineup. We’re looking for guys that can help us win games. The way Drew can do that is by using his size and his speed on the forecheck. He can take defensemen wide. He has a bit of a scoring touch. When he shoots the puck, he’s helping us generate offense if not scoring himself. Those are some aspects of it. We’re trying to incorporate him in the penalty kill. That’s an important evolution of, I think, his growth.”
While in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last month, O’Connor spent time on that team’s penalty-killing unit.
“Penalty killing is a big thing,” O’Connor said. “It’s something that I’ve done a lot in the past, in college and things like that. (It is) something that I’d like to be able to contribute here to the team. That was an area that I worked on. Playing center there, working on faceoffs, that was another aspect. Just finding ways to be able to play in different situations in the lineup, that will help me down the road.”
O’Connor, a rookie, opened the season on the NHL roster. In 12 NHL games, he scored five points (three goals, two assists) while averaging 11 minutes, 2 seconds of ice time per contest.
Appearing in five AHL games this season, O’Connor has five points (two goals, three assists).
W-B/S postpones weekend games
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ games this weekend were postponed for what the team deemed “covid-19 protocols.”
No specifics were offered. A team spokesperson declined to comment when reached via e-mail.
Previously, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had a road game against the Syracuse Crunch on Friday and a home contest against the Charlotte Checkers on Saturday scheduled. No makeup dates for those games have been determined.
In a statement, the team said, “the Penguins organization will be following enhanced protocols at the direction of team medical staff and the AHL.”
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is the latest team in the AHL’s Atlantic Division to deal with disruptions because of covid-19. The Hershey Bears, Hartford Wolf Pack, Providence Bruins and Springfield Thunderbirds have all had games postponed this week because of the virus.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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