Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) - Lawrence Pilut started to struggle a little bit and then he had a bad outing in St. Louis. Pilut sat out after that game, but returned on Thursday against Florida. Phil Housley liked the response he saw, "I thought being off a little bit that he was a little rusty early, but he found his game as the game wore on. He came out of the game a plus-3 I believe which was a great result for him and it was good to see him get his swagger back."
Pilut was just happy to be back in, "I thought I got into the game pretty well, of course it took a couple of shifts to get back into it, but I felt like I found the flow and I just want to build off that."
Pilut has started to get some power play time with the second unit. He said the PP is different than what he was used to in Sweden, "It's a little tighter all over and you've just got to react a little quicker and that comes with the power play.
"I'm trying to get more and more comfortable out there because I love playing the power play, so I just take every chance I get out there and try to make the best of it."
Housley said Pilut will learn that he has to make plays quickly, "I think he can make some quick adjustments in his game. I just thought like early in the game in a power play situation he had the puck and he was just waiting there and guys were closing on him and as the game wore on, he knew he had to move the puck quicker."
Housley thinks that once Pilut gets that down, he'll be better on the power play, "One you get your five-on-five game down it'll transfer onto the power play where he'll have a little more time.
"It's a smaller ice surface, there are bigger players, it's tighter and those things he's learning through his development and he did a good job of recognizing that early and then he started moving the puck quicker."
Pilut has been selected to play in the AHL All-Star Game. He is very excited to be selected, "It's a great honor to represent Rochester and Buffalo's organization, so it's really cool and I'm really honored."
The other Swedish rookie, Rasmus Dahlin has been playing under 20 minutes the past three games, but the last two games have been very good ones for him. Dahlin had a four or five-game slump and Housley said they keep an eye on him, "It's who we're playing against. A heavy team like Florida, especially when we're trying to get a heavy matchup against Barkov and that's the way it's going to go as we move forward.
"He's a young man, we're going to feel him out as the game progresses and I know he was playing a lot more four or five games ago, but that's a game by game factor."
Vladimir Sobotka missed practice on Friday with, what Housley described as, a maintenance day. Housley said he expects the center to play Saturday in Boston. Housley had already announced that Jack Eichel won't be playing in Boston.
