SACO — The quirky nature of the Portland Pirates’ early-season schedule has mad it hard for the coaching staff to find any sort of rhythm in the team’s overall game play. Hard, considering the Pirates have played exactly two games this season.
“One thing about playing games, you get into a rhythm,” Pirates head coach Ray Edwards said. “You could see, even in our game Saturday, there was some good, there was some bad. It’s consistency, and that’s our struggle right now. We need to find consistency in our game, and we talked about that in our video session.”
The team took some time off from the ice Wednesday and held regular dry-land sessions.
“The day, as far as conditioning and training, that doesn’t change,” Edwards said. “It allows them to take a mental break from the ice. We’ll still have four practices this week, two before (Wednesday) and two after. This allows us to break it up into agendas. The first two days, it was development, conditioning, and the next two days will be preparing for Hartford.”
The Pirates host the Hartford Wolfpack on Saturday in their annual Pink in the Rink game at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. In their first two games of the season, they dropped a shootout decision to Manchester, and then a 5-2 decision to the Providence Bruins, both on home ice.
“There were a lot of good things about the game,” Edwards said of the team’s effort against the Bruins. “We out-chanced them, we had numerous opportunities, especially in the first period. Really, it could have been two or three or four to nothing, and we have to understand, when we have those opportunities, we have to find a way to score.”
Reinforcements have arrived
With the Phoenix Coyotes’ signing Jeff Halpern last weekend to an NHL deal, the team made room by sending Brandon Yip back to the Pirates. Yip has played fewer than 10 games in his pro career in the American Hockey League, spending most of his time in the NHL with Colorado and Nashville. He’s been called up to the Coyotes twice this season, but has yet to play in a game.
“We’re just trying to get him up to speed. It’s a new organization for him,” Edwards said. “We’re just trying to get him comfortable with how he has to play, the identity he has to play with. It’s important for us to get him in some games, so he can get there.”
Chris Summers arrived in time from the Coyotes to play in Saturday’s tilt against the Bruins, and will continue to be a part of the team’s lineup — for now.
“In this business, you never know what you’re lineup’s going to look like this far out with Phoenix playing, but they’re both out here and preparing to play,” Edwards said.
The team also signed Gilbert Brulé last week to a PTO. He also has been practicing with the team this week and is a possibility for this weekend’s lineup.
Injury bug
The Pirates have already faced an early-season battle with injuries.
Tobias Rieder, who scored two goals in the shootout loss to Manchester, was on crutches and out of the lineup for the game against Providence, and he was still on crutches and in a cast Wednesday.
In the game against the Bruins, rookie defenseman James Melindy left the game hobbled, unable to put weight on his left leg.
“We lost James Melindy, another first year player, for at least a couple weeks, as well,” Edwards said. “It’s too bad. Tobi really had a good first game, and we have such high hopes for him. You can see he’s still out there, riding the bike. That’s part of being a pro, managing that stuff. Those two guys have to keep their mind right and be ready to go when they’re healthy.”
Edwards said both have “lower-body injuries.” Rider’s injury, he said, is more long-term than Melindy’s.
“We got good news (for Melindy), and it’s only going to be a couple of weeks right now,” Edwards said. “It could have been a lot worse.”
Already thin on the blue line, Summers’ return helped shore that group up.
“With Chris (Summers) coming down, we had seven, so we still have six,” Edwards said. “We also have the luxury of having Mark Louis back who we can use if we need to. But we’re committed to working with him up front, and we don’t want to be shoving him back and forth at this point. But if we had to, we have that option.”
The team’s schedule starts to pick up after this extended break. The Pirates host Hartford on Saturday, travel to Worcester on Sunday and to Hartford and Albany the following week before returning home for a game against St. John’s on Oct. 30.
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