WILKES-BARRE - The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins' practice facility is called the Ice Rink at Coal Street.

On Thursday, the Bus Station at Coal Street might have been a more appropriate name for the place.

In a span of about 24 hours, the Penguins made eight transactions, seeing four forwards head out to Pittsburgh and four forwards come in to take their place.

Nick Johnson, Ryan Craig, Brett Sterling and Joe Vitale were the forwards called up. All four were scheduled to play their first NHL game of the year Thursday night against Los Angeles in Pittsburgh.

Craig and Sterling were set to play their first games in a Pittsburgh uniform. Vitale was to make his NHL debut.

"Usually we get a car service for the players to get from Wilkes-Barre to here, and we couldn't do that," coach Dan Bylsma told reporters in Pittsburgh. "We had to get a larger vehicle, which is a first for me."

Of the four forwards who took their place on the AHL roster, two - Eric Tangradi and Tim Wallace - were sent down from Pittsburgh on Wednesday and two more - David Marshall and Ryan Schnell - were called up from the ECHL's Wheeling Nailers on Thursday.

"The boat's not rocked," coach John Hynes said. "It's part of what we do. It's what the American Hockey League is. It's exciting. It's an exciting situation for guys to be able to go up and play in Pittsburgh. That's what these guys dream of and work so hard for all year long. As a coach, it's exciting because you get different players and it's a different challenge."

The challenge is clear: find a way to score some goals.

With Johnson, Craig, Sterling and Vitale joining Dustin Jeffrey in Pittsburgh, the local club is missing five of its top seven scorers. They have combined to score 43 percent of the team's goals this season.

There will be plenty of players asked to help fill that void, but none more so than Tangradi.

With 18 goals already to his credit, he looks like the go-to guy on offense going forward.

"I'm excited for the opportunity," Tangradi said. "I don't think I'll change my game too much. It's going to be more minutes and a heavier load on my shoulders, but it's nothing I'm not familiar with. I just have to be ready to take advantage."

Pittsburgh presumably initiated the round of call-ups to try to inject some offense into a lineup that's missing key players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz due to injury. Tangradi admitted that it stung not to be considered part of the potential solution to that problem.

"I'd be lying if I said it was all smiles," he said. "It's very frustrating. It's not something I saw coming. But those guys are all deserving of the chance to play in the NHL and from being sent down, the opportunity arises for me to step up and be a go-to guy. I'm not excited about what happened. I'm not happy about it. I'm taking a little pride in myself to try to get back there and make things different."

On the flip side of the coin, players like Marshall and Schnell were excited to receive an unexpected call-up from Wheeling.

"It's pretty crazy. It happened so fast," Marshall said. "It's a great opportunity. Three in three goes pretty quick. It's kind of better that way. You don't have to think about it. You just go out and play your game and hopefully make an impact."