James named 15th captain in Penguins' history

With his team clinging to a 3-2 lead at the second intermission of last Wednesday’s game, Connor James pondered if there was anything he should be doing in the locker room to turn things around.

Hours earlier, James was named captain of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, a team that saw a three-goal lead vanish in a matter of minutes against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

“I was thinking, ‘Is this what I’m supposed to do now, give a big win-one-for-the-Gipper speech?’” James said after Wednesday’s game. “But everyone was calm in here, we knew what we had to do. Guys realized that we couldn’t do what we did in the second period.”

James scrapped the speech idea, and the Penguins pulled it together in the third period to earn a 5-3 victory, which eased the captain after his first day wearing the “C” on his jersey.

“It was a little nerve-racking. I haven’t done it since midget. But we’ve got a great bunch of leaders on this team,” James said. “Everyone does a great job. Not really anything changed, except for the sweater.”

Previously, James had served as one of the three alternate captains for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He took over the captaincy from Dave Gove, who has been sidelined due to injury since November. Interim head coach Todd Reirden said that naming James captain does not necessarily rule Gove out for the year.

“At this point, I really wanted to have a captain going through these final nine games and then going into the playoffs,” Reirden said. “If Dave Gove comes back, he’ll be able to have his captaincy back. It’s certainly not any slight to him.”

Once Reirden decided that a new captain was necessary, James was the obvious choice. The winger is in his third season with the Penguins’ organization and has established American Hockey League career highs with 29 assists and 46 points.

“He’s the engine that drives our bus in terms of work ethic and passion for the game and desire to get better,” the coach said. “He’s been here for three years, putting time into this organization. Certainly a guy that was a logical choice.”

James’s teammates supported the decision.

“It’s great. He’s been around three, years now. Obviously everyone gets along with everybody in the room and when he talks, everyone listens,” said winger Chris Minard. “It’s great for him.”

As they had done with James for the majority of the season, defenseman Deryk Engelland and center Jeff Taffe wore the alternate captaincies on their jerseys during Wednesday’s game. But James’s promotion distinguishes the winger from his fellow veterans in that he will be the go-to guy as the Penguins continue their playoff push.

“I think to have one final voice in the room, one guy going to the referee in those situations, and one leader amongst a bunch of leaders which we have on our team is important to have,” Reirden said. “Connor will be used in that capacity.”

And should Captain Connor need to deliver that motivational speech to his team down the road, he doesn’t have to look that far for inspiration.

“I’m going to have a tutorial with Gover there in the back room,” James said with a chuckle Wednesday. “He’s going to give me some tips.”