Sports

Paul Sokoloski

It’s always difficult to judge a book by its cover.

And it’s impossible to judge a hockey coach by the results of an ever-changing team.

Almost a quarter of the way through his first full season as an AHL head coach, Todd Reirden has a fourth-place team with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

That doesn’t make him a second-rate coach.

But it’s hard to rate him at all, with so many guys coming and going at Wachovia Arena that they’re thinking of installing revolving doors leading to the Penguins locker room.

Those doors haven’t stopped swinging since Oct. 13, when center Mark Letestu came down from the parent Pittsburgh Penguins and began a string of 13 moves between Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Pittsburgh. Add in five more transactions between the SWB Penguins and their Wheeling affiliate of the ECHL, along with a myriad of injuries that have taken some of the biggest names on the “Baby Penguins” out of action, and it’s not hard to see Reirden’s been playing shorthanded.

That’s not the way he envisioned the start of his head coaching career.

Yet, he may be the perfect guy to lead a team through this never-ending line change.

“One of my greatest strengths as a coach is dealing with these types of things,” Reirden said. “Much of my (playing career) was spent in movement, from league to league. It’s easy for me to relate to what the players are going through.

“That’s been my life for 13 years.”

His life as a player was fueled by dogged determination.

Reirden spent five years playing for eight different minor league teams before he finally made it to the NHL as a defenseman in 1988-89.

“I played close to 100 minor league games before I played in the NHL,” said Reirden, an assistant coach on the WBS Calder Cup team two years ago who became the team’s interim head coach for the second part of last year. He never spent more than two straight seasons playing in any one town during his 13-year hockey career, which included a combined 183 NHL games with Edmonton, St. Louis, Atlanta and Phoenix.

So he certainly has invaluable experience that could help steer a team through a sea of uncertainty.

But when the waves of change in those troubled waters become overwhelming, it can since a team into fourth place in the standings.

With 20 points through their first 17 games, the SWB Penguins are just a point out of second place in the East Division and six points behind Hershey for the top spot.

But with a 9-6-1-1 record, they’ve hardly looked like the playoff team they’ve been for the past two seasons.

Just look upstairs to understand why.

“Mark Letestu went right in and played on the third line (in Pittsburgh),” Reirden said proudly. “For (defenseman) Nate Guenin, he has to get his game as ready as possible. The next day, he can be going right into their lineup. That’s my job. I want to help help them get there. I want to help all these players achieve their dreams.”

Still, it has to be a nightmare for him keep filling lines with new faces.

“That’s not what the AHL is,” Reirden said of the constant changeover in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, “and it’s certainly not the Pittsburgh Penguins.”

It’s not contributing to the style Reirden wants his teams to play. What that is, nobody can say.