Blandisi Aims For Return To NHL

ALLENTOWN, Pa. --  Decimated by injuries and call ups to begin the 2019-20 season, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (5-4-2 entering Wednesday night's game against Lehigh Valley) are starting to receive the benefit of the organization starting to get healthy.

Guys like Sam Lafferty, Adam Johnson and Joseph Blandisi all spent time in the NHL with Pittsburgh, but have since returned to AHL Wilkes-Barre ready to make an impact and get back up top. (EDIT: Sam Lafferty was recalled by Pittsburgh Tuesday)

"It's huge. You get guys who have been playing in the NHL back.," Penguins head coach and GM Mike Vellucci told InsideAHLHockey.com last weekend. "Blandisi, Lafferty and Johnson - that's a whole line that was up in the NHL. It helps us a lot, especially with as many young guys as we do have."

It's always a mixed bag in the AHL. The roster consists of young up and coming talent as well as experienced veterans ready to fill in at the NHL level with the quick ring of a phone.

For Blandisi, floating between the NHL and AHL level is nothing new.

"I've been doing that up and down game for a couple years now so I'm getting used to it but this experience this time is definitely pretty special," Blandisi said of beginning the season in the NHL with Pittsburgh. "Getting to learn off of some pretty special players so I'm excited for the future and looking forward to bring what I learned up there back down here."

Blandisi, appearing in his first AHL game of the season since opening night last weekend against the Phantoms, waited until the shootout to make an impact - scoring the deciding goal last Friday night and giving the Penguins a shootout win over Lehigh Valley. On his goal, Blandisi picked the same corner on Phantoms' goalie Alex Lyon that his Penguins' teammate Stefan Noesen scored on moments earlier.

"I had my move planned before I want down there," Blandisi said. "I try to stick to having something planned before that way I'm bot thinking too much on the way down. But if I can make it look as easy as he makes it look I'm doing something right," Blandisi added about Noesen, the team's leading scorer with 11 goals in his first 11 games.

While the reassignment to the AHL always come with disappointment, the returning players on the AHL Penguins' roster have come down with the right attitude.

"For us, we look at ourselves as leaders on this time so we just want to bring what we laerned up there back down here and hope everyone can pick up off of it," Blandisi explained of his current situation in the Penguins organization.

Vellucci, in his first season with the Penguins organization as the AHL affiliate's head coach and general manager, said it's never easy because the players want to be up in the NHL.

"The only way they are going to get back up there is if they play the game the right way - play it like they know they have to when they're up there," Vellucci said. "That was my message."

So far, the returning players have heeded the message from their coach. Blandisi tallied two goals the next night in Springfield, and even when he's not scoring he's making an impact in other areas of the ice. He especially loves playing against rival teams like the Phantoms and Hershey Bears.

"Yeah, this is my type of game. They play right into my hands, this team. That's why I love playing them," Blandisi told InsideAHLHockey.com of playing against the Phantoms. "That's why I love playing teams I'm in a rivalry with. I think whenever we come here it's not hard to get up for these games and I'm sure they feel the same."

For now, Blandisi is focused at the task on hand - helping the AHL Penguins breakthrough after a tough opening schedule will see them play nine of their opening 13 games on the road.

"There are 82 games in that league, there's 76 on our side - that's a lot of games," Blandisi said. "To try to stay consistent over that period of time is hard to do so that's my main focus right now."