Over 10 months ago, Riley Barber scored an overtime goal to give Wilkes-Barre/Scranton a 2-1 win at Lehigh Valley.
That was on March 11, 2020. At the time, the Penguins couldn’t have known just how long it would be until they would be back on the ice for a game again.
On Friday, they finally got their answer.
The Penguins will officially make their long-awaited return on Feb. 6 when they play their first of 32 games of a shortened season when they host Binghamton at 5 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, however, will prevent fans from attending.
All Wilkes-Barre/Scranton season ticket holders will be able to watch the games free online through a complementary subscription to AHLTV.
As for the team, there’s plenty of work to be done and hurdles to overcome, starting with Monday’s opening of training camp at Toyota SportsPlex.
On top of managing COVID-19 protocols to prevent the spread of the virus throughout the team, the Penguins will have to deal with a more limited player pool and a third new head coach in as many seasons. Assistant J.D. Forrest was promoted to the head job to replace Mike Vellucci, who is now an assistant with parent club Pittsburgh.
And Pittsburgh’s roster issues have already affected Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s depth for training camp. The AHL Penguins had just six defensemen on their initial 23-man camp roster.
Four blueliners in the organization are already out with injuries in Mike Matheson, Marcus Pettersson, Juuso Riikola and Zach Trotman.
A mainstay for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season, Pierre-Olivier Joseph made his NHL debut for Pittsburgh on Friday night. Another AHL regular, Kevin Czuzcman, has been recalled to Pittsburgh as part of the taxi squad. All NHL teams are allowed to carry six-man taxi squads this season to help with coronavirus-related depth issues.
With goalies Alex D’Orio and Maxime Lagace on the taxi squad, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is in line to open camp with two goalies in Emil Larmi and Shane Starrett.
In all, Forrest will only have a handful of familiar faces to work with, as only seven of the 23 players on the camp roster played for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season — Larmi; forwards Anthony Angello, Jordy Bellerive, Chase Berger, Jan Drozg and Justin Almeida; and defensemen Jon Lizotte.
Of that group, Angello is the leading returning scorer with 25 points in 48 games last season, good for fifth on the team. The No. 4 scorer from 2020, Sam Miletic, is still with the organization but recovering from an injury.
During the offseason, the Penguins were able to bring in a group of veteran AHL forwards that includes Josh Currie, Frederick Gaudreau, Nick Schilkey and Zach Nastasiuk. A more recent addition is winger Jordan Nolan, a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Los Angeles Kings. Tim Schaller has joined the group on a tryout deal.
Younger forwards turning pro include Jonathan Gruden, Kyle Olson and Luke Stevens. Czech import Radim Zohorna is with the team after attending camp in Pittsburgh.
Rounding out the blue line candidates are Cam Lee, Jesper Lindgren, Josh Maniscalco, Will Reilly and Billy Sweezey.
All of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s games will be played against four teams — Binghamton (three home, three away), Hershey (five home, five away), Lehigh Valley (five home, five away) and Syracuse (three home, three away). Binghamton will be playing its games in Newark, N.J., at the home of the parent New Jersey Devils.
The Penguins are set to play an exhibition game next Friday against Lehigh Valley and another on Feb. 1 against Binghamton before starting the regular season, which will run through May 16.