PORTLAND – One thing the the Portland Pirates hope to do better this season is to turn the other cheek.

Last season, the Pirates were plagued by bad penalties, something coach Tim Army is adament about changing.

“We were a very undisciplined team last year,” said Army. “I think our personnel is different and it will change.”

The Pirates were sixth in the American Hockey League last year with 1,808 penalty minutes, an average of 22.6 per game.

“For not being a physical team, we were one of the tops in the league in penalty minutes,” said Army.

It was something that hampered Portland all season long. Army points to the decisive third game in the playoff series with Manitoba.

“When you look at some of our undisciplined penalties, we were 2-2 with Manitoba in the second period and on the power play,” said Army. “We had a holding-the-stick penalty, a very undisciplined holding the stick penalty because a player was frustrated. He went into the box and they scored on an abbreviated power play. That changed the game at that point.”

Army also points to that Saturday afternoon brawl with Providence in March. It all began with an intentional slash. Portland had two players suspended after all the dust settled and the Pirates were never the same again.

“That day completely disrupted the rhythm of our team,” said Army. “We never really got that group together again.”

Though Portland was among the league’s better penalty killing teams, the Pirates spent too much time and energy doing that.

Starting slow

Four goals in the first four games, all losses, isn’t exactly what the Pirates had in mind to start the year.

“It’s a long season,” said forward Colin Forbes. “You definitely don’t want to get off to a start like this but that happens. We’re just going to fight through it. We’re going to become a better team because of it.”

The Pirates offense has been less than prolific and that has the team pressing as the club averaged just one goal per outing.

“It’s definitely not easy,” said Forbes. “We get down 2-0 (Friday), and you could see a little panic in us, little things that we don’t usually do that we were doing because we were gripping our sticks a little tighter.”

Army says the team just needs to stay patient and work through the early season problems.

“Everybody has to be prepared to simplify their game in certain situations,” said Army. “That’s what we’re not doing right now. The tendency when you’re not having success is to try to do too much. You’re better off to do less rather than more. You end up taking chances you don’t normally take.”

Army has tried shuffling his lineup, sitting those players that aren’t playing well.

“We’ve just got to keep pulling together and keep playing well and keep working on simplifying situations and we’ll turn the corner,” he said.