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BREAKAWAY IS S UE
# 3
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T HE
p. 2-5..........The Tick & The Tilt p. 26-27.......................IR: Injured Returns
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
T I C K
&
T H E
T I LT
UPCOMING HOME GAMES:
SAT. | OCT. 21 ————————7:05PM————————
VS FRI. | OCT. 27
————————7:05PM————————
VS SUN. | NOV. 5
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STAFF: Editor: Brian Coe | Writer: Nick Hart | Creative Director: Jason Vogel Photography: KDP Photography/ JustSports Photography | Printed By: Bayard Printing Group
© 2 01 7 W IL K ES - B A RRE/ S CRA N TO N P EN G UI N S
T iL T E H T & K iC T e h T BENGTSSON’S PATH BACK TO HEALTH
i
ii
BY: NICK HART
Lukas Bengtsson is a lot of things. He’s a goofball, the first one to get behind a camera when his teammate is in front of it to try and make him crack. He’s a video game enthusiast, often passing time on League of Legends and he welcomes all challengers at Call of Duty. He’s also one heck of a hockey player. Last season, Bengtsson quickly acclimated himself to the smaller ice surface in North America and started budding into the defense prospect the Penguins’ European scouts knew he could become. Playing on a D-pairing with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s then-top defenseman, David Warsofsky, the two were an automatic breakout from their own end and a nightmare for opponents at the other side of the ice. As 16 games swept by, Bengtsson was looking like a stud. The coaches loved the way he was playing. His teammates loved watching him work. There was just one teeny tiny problem.
PAGE 2
“I didn’t actually know what I was doing out there,” he said. “I felt lost.” Bengtsson’s final game with the Penguins last season was Jan. 6, 2017, in which he posted a career-best plus-four rating in a 5-1 trouncing of the Hershey Bears. But he didn’t feel like a player who had a career night. He didn’t feel like a winner. He was trapped in a haze brought on by a feeling of exhaustion and helplessness. “It was pretty scary,” Bengtsson said. “I was so fatigued, and you have a feeling that you had no idea how you should play the puck. Too many passes that you could do with closed eyes, you can’t even hit, and it’s just miserable”
WBS PENGUINS — BREAKAWAY 2017-18 SEASON
This miserable state was brought on a pre-existing condition that had been puzzling the Penguins training staff and medical experts from outside the organization for months. After that game against Hershey, the Penguins shut Lukas Bengtsson down for the season with what was thought to be a persistent case of Lyme disease.
started practicing right away. Then I went over here to the States in late August. Everything felt pretty well.” However, it didn’t last that way for long. After skating on the Penguins’ side in the London, Ontario rookie tournament without much more than a few spells of nausea, he came to Pittsburgh’s training camp and immediately hit a wall.
What he eventually learned was that the disease he was battling wasn’t Lyme disease at all. He was about to become a poster boy for a condition he and most people had never heard of before: Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, also known as POTS.
“I did a bike test in Pittsburgh… and the same [symptoms] happened, but worse,” he said. “I was out cold. Like, after the test I remember my legs were in so much pain and it took like 40 minutes to get back to normal. I kept practicing, but then the next day I started feeling worse.”
THE TICK Bengtsson played a bevy of different sports while growing up in Stockholm, Sweden. Obviously, he played hockey, but he also participated in floorball, soccer, swimming, even dabbled in gymnastics. Like most hockey players, he likes to spend some time in his offseasons golfing. While golfing with friends in Sweden during the summer of 2016, Bengtsson drove one into the rough not far from the fairway and went on a hunt for his ball. His search and rescue expedition didn’t take long, and he axed his ball back into a more reasonable field of play. When he went to putt to finish off the hole, he looked down and saw a new member had joined their group. It was a tick. When Bengtsson got home, he took out a tool designed for safe tick removal and brushed it off. No problem, right? Well, that bug set off a chain of events that he would have a hard time brushing off for a year. It wasn’t long after this that Bengtsson started feeling tired, and not your normal I-slept-funny or I-stayed-out-too-late tired. This was a consistent, constant, ever-present malaise. His parents simply wrote it off as a young adult being lazy. His trainer thought he might be working too hard. But after a few days of non-stop fatigue, Bengtsson sought the advice of a doctor. Given his run in with the tick on the golf course, the diagnosis was swift. “They said I was positive for Lyme disease after one test,” Bengtsson said. “I took some antibiotics and thought, ‘Move on,’ so like I
At this point, Bengtsson alerted the team doctors, and they started working on a solution. Once again, a series of tests were run, and they came back positive for Lyme disease. He was prescribed 21 days of antibiotic treatment and sentenced to limited physical activity until things cleared up. Following a minor setback that extended his antibiotic treatments, Bengtsson started practice with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the late fall, and was playing games for the AHL club by winter. Which brings us back to the scene on Jan. 9. Bengtsson thought everything was fine until all of his problems came rushing back to him in avalanche-like fashion. To the casual observer, his play hadn’t regressed at all. But to Bengtsson, the overwhelming fatigue was near-debilitating. “It was almost like a concussion,” he said. “You don’t really know what’s happening. You are two steps behind a situation instead of ahead of the situation. It was scary.” Just like that, Bengtsson was back to square one. Back on antibiotics and prevented from participating in physical activity for the foreseeable future. At this point, Penguins brass decided to bring in the heavy artillery, and shipped Bengtsson up to Boston to see a Lyme specialist. It was there that the doctor theorized that what was ailing the defenseman wasn’t Lyme disease at all. In fact, he probably never had Lyme in the first place. “So that opened up other options,” Bengtsson said. “But I’m sitting there thinking, ‘What now?’”
WBS PENGUINS — BREAKAWAY 2017-18 SEASON
PAGE 3
THE TILT Bengtsson was sent to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for researchers to determine his next course of action. Operating under the assumption that Lyme disease was completely out of the picture, doctors at the century-old medical practice facility ran him through a series of tests to see what could be the cause of his nausea and never-ending fatigue. Eventually, after nearly two weeks of examinations, they came to something known as “the tilt test”. For 20 minutes, Bengtsson laid flat on a hospital table and doctors took his blood pressure and pulse multiple times to get a base reading. Then, the table tilted somewhere between 70 and 60 degrees upwards. After just three and a half minutes in the tilted position, Bengtsson’s blood pressure significantly decreased. His pulse skyrocketed from 63 to 140. “If they kept me one more minute, I would have just fainted,” Bengtsson said. “There they started to know that I probably have POTS disease.” POTS is a condition that is defined by The POTS & Dysautonomia Treatment Center as a heart rate increase of 30 or more beats per minute from the lying down to the standing position within 10 minutes or less caused by a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. Basically, if Bengtsson is lying around for too long and stands up, blood returns more slowly to his heart and the organ goes into overdrive trying to pump it back. This can be particularly exacerbated during or after extraneous physical exertion, like say a bike test during an NHL training camp. The cause of POTS is hard to nail down, but scientists believe it can be brought on by some sort of unrelated trauma or viral illness. Bengtsson had a bout with
mononucleosis when he was 17-yearsold and caught shingles the year prior. While there is no way to be certain, one of those two instances or both could have triggered the emergence of POTS symptoms. But if it was POTS all along, why did multiple tests for Lyme disease come back as positive? That’s rather simple, actually, Dr. House. When Bengtsson was bitten by the tick in Sweden, it likely carried Lyme that his body fought off naturally without incident. When his immune system generated the necessary defense to defeat it, tests detected the mere presence of those anti-Lyme antibodies as a sign that the disease was still in his system even though it’s long gone. “They explained it to me like some tests can be positive like if you take, for example, an immunization shot,” Bengtsson said. “You take a shot and you get a little bit of the virus in you to fight off and then you get a little immune. So that (Lyme disease) test will probably be positive my whole life.”. POTS is not degenerative, but there is no cure for it, either. The 23-year-old blueliner has had to learn how to adjust his lifestyle so that he can not only live comfortably, but continue to make a career as a high-functioning professional athlete. Most of the changes are simple. He wears compression socks all day to help maintain a consistent blood flow and compression pants underneath his gear when he plays hockey. He’s had to cut out caffeine; something he says hasn’t been too difficult for him. He will often have a bottle of water within reach, as he’s constantly monitoring his hydration. He now sleeps at a slight reverse incline, so that his feet are positioned above his head. Lastly, he has to stay active. Pretty much all the time.
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN
PAGE 4 WBS PENGUINS — BREAKAWAY 2017-18 SEASON
“If they kept me one more minute, I would have just fainted. There they started to know that I probably have POTS disease.” “I’ve got to move,” he said. “Because if I’m not moving, the blood is not moving and the blood pressure will go down. “I have to be my own doctor, because the doctors can’t tell how I’m feeling. I know how I’m feeling. ‘Do I feel alright?’ Yeah. ‘Do I feel bad?’ Yeah. ‘Okay, why?’ When I get some small symptoms, I’ve learned how to treat it.”
THE TRAIL AHEAD Bengtsson’s made the necessary adjustments to his lifestyle, sleeping, eating, exercise and all, and he’s back on the ice with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, playing like he never missed a beat. However, his life with POTS has only just begun. Bengtsson is confident he’ll be able to safely monitor his symptoms and that it won’t negatively impact his game play or his overall health away from the rink. Plus, if he’s going to live with this condition, he wants to raise as much awareness for it as possible. If you visit Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome’s Wikipedia page, there’s no tab for famous patients or “In popular culture”. A Google search for celebrities battling POTS yields only rumors and heresy with very little confirmation. If Bengtsson’s career trajectory continues as expected, he very well may end up as the most n otable patient of this rare disease. Bengtsson wants to provide an example and support to those who struggle with POTS. He knows what it’s like to be written off as simply tired or lazy. He knows firsthand the confused looks people shoot back when
he mentions the condition. He knows the confusion he felt before navigating his way to an eventual diagnosis. “When the news came out in Sweden, I think I got like 20 calls from people that their sons or daughters have it,” he said. “They said thank you and we’re not alone in this now. It’s crazy.” Dysautonomia International says there are anywhere from 500,000 to 1,000,000 people with POTS in the United States alone. Due to POTS’ undistinguished status in the societal zeitgeist, Bengtsson believes there are probably even more people worldwide living with the condition, but write it off as simply being tired or sleeping funny. “I want to help as many people I can,” he said. “I’m lucky I don’t have a real bad POTS disease. There are people who have it worse, but I didn’t know what was wrong with my body for so long, it was a relief to get an answer and start to attack the symptoms. “I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to play hockey again. Now I appreciate the game so much more and have fun every day. I’m so grateful that I got the help.” Bengtsson is a lot of things. He’s a young man with a colorful sense of humor, he’s an exceptional athlete, and he’s living with POTS. And if there’s someone out there living with POTS, too, he’s someone who wants you to know that you’re not alone.
WBS PENGUINS — BREAKAWAY 2016-17 SEASON
PAGE 5
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2017 - 2018 SEASON
Dear Fans, It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2017-18 American Hockey League season, the continuation of a tradition of excellence that spans more than eight decades. The AHL remains proud of its role in developing more than 88
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT —— DAVID A. ANDREWS PRESIDENT & CEO, AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE
percent of today’s National Hockey League players, as well as the vast majority of the NHL’s coaches, general managers, training staffs, broadcasters and officials. Last year, we cheered on players like Jake Guentzel, Zach Werenski and William Nylander as they graduated from the AHL and made remarkable impressions on the NHL. Since 1936, our loyal and passionate fans have been able to watch more than 100 future Hockey Hall of Famers as well as over 100 Calder Cup champions who now have their names engraved on the Stanley Cup as well. As we begin our 82nd season in 30 cities across North America, we welcome our new fans in Laval and Belleville and wish all of you who cheer for our clubs the best for another exciting season. On behalf of all of our teams, players and staff, thank you for your continuing support of the AHL. Sincerely,
TheAHL.com
DAVID A. ANDREWS PRESIDENT & CEO | AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE
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HOLDING
Using hands on an opponent or his equipment
HOOKING
Using the stick or blade to hook an opponent
MISCONDUCT
Called for various forms of unsportsmanlike conduct
HIGH STICKING Carrying the stick above the shoulder against an opponent.
ICING
Shooting the puck across the opponent’s goal line from behind the center red line allowingthe opponent to touch the puck first
INTERFERENCE
Having contact with an opponent not in possession of the puck.
WASHOUT
Disallowing of a goal when signaled by a referee. No offside or icing when used by linesman
ELBOWING
Using the elbow to impede an opponent
UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT Challenging or disputing the rule of an official and abusing the line of respect.
CROSS CHECKING
Hitting an opponent with both hands on the sticks on the ice
KNEEING
Using the knee to impede an opponent
BOARDING
Driving opponent into the boards
ROUGHING
Engaging in fisticuffs or shoving.
SLASHING
Swinging the stick at an opponent
SPEARING
Using the stick like a spear
TRIPPING
Using the stick, arm or leg to cause the opponent to trip or fall.
CHARGING
Taking three or more strides before checking an opponent.
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BY THE NUMBERS
88%
A TRADITION OF
Percentage of all NHL players in 2016-17 who were graduates of the AHL
867
Former AHL players who skated in the NHL last season
THE BEGINNINGS Marking its 82nd season of play in 2017-18, the American Hockey League is continuing a tradition of excellence that began in 1936 when the Canadian-American Hockey League merged with the International Hockey League to form what is today known as the AHL. Eight teams hit the ice that first season, playing in Buffalo, Cleveland, New
Haven, Philadelphia,
81st championship
Pittsburgh,
was captured by
Providence,
the Grand Rapids
Springfield and
Griffins last spring.
Syracuse. From those roots, Frank Calder, the
the American Hockey
National Hockey
League has grown into
League’s president
a 30-team league that
at the time, was
provides fans with
instrumental in the
exciting, high-level
forming of this new
professional hockey
league, and his name
while preparing
would be given to its
thousands of players,
championship
coaches, officials,
trophy. The first
executives, trainers,
Calder Cup was
broadcasters and more
won by the Syracuse
for careers in the NHL.
Stars in 1937; the
353
AHL players who also played in the NHL in 2016-17
237
Former 1st- and 2ndround NHL draft picks who skated in the AHL in 2016-17
23
AHL alumni who played for the 2017 Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins
F R O M L E F T T O R I G H T: B R A D E N H O LT B Y, S H E A W E B E R , R YA N M C D O N A G H , J A K E G U E N T Z E L , N A Z E M K A D R I
THE PLAYERS
THE LEGENDS
THE COACHES
In today’s National
For the past eight
At the start of the 2017-18 season, the National Hockey
Hockey League more
decades, the American
League featured 23 head coaches who were former
than 88 percent of
Hockey League has
AHL bench bosses, including two-time Stanley Cup
the players are AHL
been home to some of
alumni, including 2017
the greatest players in
Norris Trophy recipient
the history of our sport.
Brent Burns of the
In fact, more than 100
San Jose Sharks and
honored members
Selke Trophy winner
of the Hockey Hall
Blashill, Minnesota’s Bruce Boudreau, Toronto’s
Patrice Bergeron of the
of Fame have been
Mike Babcock and 2017 Jack Adams Award winner
Boston Bruins. The 2017
affiliated with the AHL
John Tortorella of Columbus also spent time in the
Stanley Cup champion
during their careers.
AHL before making the jump.
Pittsburgh Penguins
All-time greats like
were stocked with
George Armstrong, Toe
AHL graduates again,
Blake, Gump Worsley,
among them 2015 AHL
Terry Sawchuk, Glenn
Rookie of the Year Matt
Hall, Brad Park, Ken
Murray and 2017 AHL
Dryden, and Brett
All-Rookie forward Jake
Hull came through
Guentzel.
the AHL ranks and
winner Mike Sullivan, 2016 Calder Cup champion Jared Bednar and 2015 Calder Cup finalist Travis Green, who was promoted by the Vancouver Canucks from Utica. Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper, Detroit’s Jeff
now find themselves During the 2016-17
enshrined in Toronto,
season, a total of 867
and the coveted Calder
AHL alumni played in
Cup is inscribed with
the National Hockey
the names of legendary
League. There were 353
AHL alumni like Patrick
players who skated in
Roy, Larry Robinson,
both leagues last year
Gerry Cheevers, Andy
alone, including Pontus
Bathgate, Tim Horton,
Aberg and Frederick
Al Arbour, Emile
Gaudreau of the
Francis, Doug Harvey,
Western Conference
and Billy Smith.
champion Nashville Predators (Milwaukee Admirals). In addition, nearly 240 former first- and second-round NHL draft picks developed their skills in the AHL last season, including Jesse Puljujarvi, Alex Nylander, Kyle Connor, Jake DeBrusk, Alex Tuch and Josh HoSang.
“I WISH EVERY PLAYER COULD PLAY IN THE AHL... I WOULDN’T TRADE IT FOR THE WORLD.” - P. K . S U B B A N N A S H V I L L E P R E D AT O R S
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STAY CONNECTED. THEAHL.COM IS YOUR ONE-STOP SOURCE FOR ALL THE LATEST HIGHLIGHTS, NEWS, STATS, AND LIVE UPDATES FOR ALL 30 TEAMS
WATCH
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Three members of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins experienced extremely shortened seasons last year due to injury or illness. Thomas Di Pauli was limited to 21 games due to a myriad of injuries, including mid-season back surgery. Lukas Bengtsson played in only 16 contests amidst a battle with his then-undiagnosed POTS. Zach Trotman skated in only nine games during his first and only season with the Ontario Reign. All three players had a shared experience spending a majority of 2016-17 on the shelf, but they came out of their respective injuries/illness with different perspectives.
PAGE 26 WBS WBS PENGUINS — BREAKAWAY 2017-18 SEASON PENGUINS — BREAKAWAY 2016-17 SEASON
HAVE YOU EVER HAD ANY INJURIES AS SERIOUS AS THE ONE(S) YOU HAD LAST YEAR? Trotman: “My first year, I went through some concussion issues that took me out for a little while. But that was towards the end of the year, luckily. It wasn’t the beginning of the season and didn’t take me out for a full year.”
Di Pauli: “Nope.”
Bengtsson: “I think I was 17 or something and it was my first and only [concussion]. It was bad, and I didn’t know what to do. So all day I would just play video games, and that’s bad for the head. Then I tried to go back and fight through it, and then I was miserable for like two months.”
WHAT WENT THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN THE DOCTORS SHUT YOU DOWN? Trotman: “It was pretty devastating. I put a lot of work into the summer, and I was really hoping to have a big year. So to get shut down that early was disappointing. It was tough to wrap my head around at first.”
Di Pauli: “Relief, actually. I said, ‘Thank goodness’. My back was so bad that I wasn’t living, I was just barely surviving. I knew that it would be a long time, but when I came back, I’d be 100 percent. That was definitely one of the best things that has happened to me last year for sure.” Bengtsson: “My thought was just that I gotta get healthy cause I can’t play like this. You know this is not right, something’s wrong, but you keep going because you want to be out there playing. It was tough, but I knew that I had to get this fixed to even be able to play the game.”
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE THE WORST BEHIND YOU, AND BE BACK ON THE ICE PLAYING AGAIN? Trotman: “It’s great. It’s nice to be in a flow again, and you know just being in the locker room with the guys before games and after wins and stuff. It’s nice. It’s a different feeling when you’re sitting in your stall after a game and celebrating with the guys.”
Di Pauli: “Fantastic! I feel happy, I feel strong, even a little lighter. It’s all good.”
Bengtsson: “I appreciate the game so much more. When you thought you lost it, it’s way different now because you know that it almost disappeared from you so you appreciate every day more and more. Especially now that I have more energy, it’s so much more fun to play the game.”
WBS PENGUINS — BREAKAWAY 2017-18 SEASON
PAGE 27
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Plains Pub 37 E Carey St, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18705 (570) 829-5228
See Valley Chevrolet for details/qualifications. Competitive Owner Cash must show proof of ownership of a 1999 model or newer non-GM vehicle. Total based on $49,860 MSRP. Must finance with GM Financial. Some customers will not qualify. Not available with special financing, lease & some other offers. Take new Retail delivery by 4/2/2018.
Total Value When You Finance with GM Financial
$5,000 Total Cash Allowance $2,928 Price Reduction Below MSRP $2,500 Competitive Owner Cash +$750 Optional Package Discount
For Current Competitive owners
SHOWROOM: 570-821-2772 SERVICE : 570-821-2778
601 Kidder Street Wilkes-Barre, PA