With all the trades going down on Friday, March 7, it’s easy to forget who plays where in the American Hockey League (AHL). Even the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, the affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins, moved on from a key player when they traded Jonathan Gruden to the New Jersey Devils. Yet, the AHL team is left unfazed.
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The Penguins look like the best team in the Atlantic Division, and it showed in their first game back from the trade deadline as they beat the Hartford Wolf Pack 7-1 in a comprehensive romp. The Penguins are in a tight race with a few other teams at the top of the Atlantic Division, yet they look like a team that can win it all, and it starts with their offense.
The Penguins Score & Score in Bunches
The Penguins trailed after the first period in their latest game, 1-0, but scored three goals in the second period and four in the final frame to put the game out of reach. “They’re really offensive and have a great power play,” Alex Belzile noted after the Wolf Pack’s 6-3 win on March 5 against the Bridgeport Islanders, a game that was supposed to prepare them for the Penguins. “If we try to go run and gun with them, we’ll just shoot ourselves in the foot,” Belzile continued.
The Wolf Pack tried to slow the game down, but it still didn’t help them out. The Penguins moved the puck up the ice and got quick shots on the net to make a struggling Wolf Pack defense look hapless and a good goaltending duo look like a weakness. The latest win wasn’t an oddity either.
All season long, the Penguins have run up the score. They scored seven goals against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Dec. 21 and scored nine goals on Jan. 29 against the Hershey Bears. The Penguins score, and they score in bunches, allowing them to make a close game out of reach in a matter of minutes.
The Penguins Offense
The Penguins average 3.47 goals per game, and it comes from a well-built offense from the top down. They move the puck up the ice and make quick passes, but more importantly, they find open skaters near the net. It comes from an aggressive mindset, but also with the players moving into scoring positions when they don’t have the puck.
The offense is impressive because they have a mix of veterans and prospects leading the way. They also have a mix of star power and depth, reflected in the fact that nine skaters have 10…
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