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If the Pittsburgh Penguins organization disciplines Derrick Pouliot for last Sunday’s incident that led to him being charged with public drunkenness, it will be handled internally and he won’t miss any games, according to head coach Mike Sullivan.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defenseman was cited after police responded to a verbal dispute at 1:10 a.m. on Sunday in Wilkes-Barre. After Thursday’s practice Pouliot spoke about the incident, apologizing to everyone involved, his teammates and the Penguins organization.
“It was a mistake. It was a bad decision,” Pouliot said. “Hopefully I’ll use it as a learning experience, move on and continue to help this team win.”
Pouliot didn’t play in Wednesday’s 5-2 win over St. John’s due to a lower body injury that he suffered in practice on Tuesday, according to Sullivan, who stressed the injury was not related to the incident.
“I think it was a hard lesson that he learned. I think our whole team should heed the lesson and I believe they have,” Sullivan said. “He made a mistake. He’s owned up to it and he wants to move by it and focus on playing hockey and continuing to develop as a player.”
As far as Pouliot’s health, the 21-year-old was a full participant in Thursday’s practice and Sullivan said he responded well to treatment the day before.
“We’ll see how he responds after practice today. If all goes well we’ll make a decision (Friday),” Sullivan said. “He’s certainly made improvements.”
NOTEBOOK
– D Barry Goers, who has been sidelined all season due to an injury, could be out for an extended period and may need surgery. “It’s one of those one step forward, two steps back type of injuries,” Sullivan said. “At some point in the near future we’re going to have to try to make a decision on what’s best as far as his rehab is concerned.”
On the prospect of Goers having surgery, Sullivan said: “It’s a possibility. Obviously he doesn’t want to go there so we’re trying to exhaust every means possible from a rehab standpoint.”
– When D Will O’Neill was asked what he thought about being a healthy scratch against Hartford last weekend, he simply said it was a coach’s decision. In his first game back on Wednesday, O’Neill posted three assists. It was a response Sullivan liked to see and knows O’Neill wasn’t pleased with being a healthy scratch.
“He was not happy with the decision that I made to take him out of the lineup. I don’t blame him,” Sullivan said. “He wasn’t deserving of coming out of the lineup. A lot of guys haven’t been.
“But my challenge is we have an abundance of players here now and I have to do my best to keep everybody in the mix. I have to make some hard decisions.”
– Despite winning Wednesday’s game 5-2, Sullivan said his team needed to do a better job in the third period, particularly in the area of puck management which allowed St. John’s to sustain offensive pressure at the end. Sullivan pointed to St. John’s scoring chances as an example. He said the IceCaps had five scoring chances through the first two periods and 13 in the third. Of those, 11 were in the last 11 minutes and six occurred in the last three minutes.
“At the end of the day our first two periods were pretty solid. I don’t think our puck management was nearly as diligent in the third period as it was in the first two,” Sullivan said.
– F Ty Loney was reassigned to Wheeling on Thursday. Loney was recalled by the Penguins on Oct. 24 and had two assists in two games.