Chirps from Center Ice
A fan blog about the AHL's Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins
Category Archives: Pittsburgh
Seven on the Floor
Here are a septuplet of topics on a Wednesday afternoon:
– The Penguins will be opening the 2013 Calder Cup Playoffs on the road in either Syracuse or Binghamton on April 27. Both clubs announced that the Conference Quarterfinal begins April 27 with Game 2 on April 28. Mark your calendars accordingly.
– The Peter Merth Effect is back in Wilkes-Barre. Merth signed a PTO this week and is yet another depth defenseman the Penguins have in their arsenal.
– Pittsburgh signed goaltender Eric Hartzell to a one year contract for this season. Hartzell just completed a season at Quinnipiac, runners-up to champion Yale in the Frozen Four which was held in Pittsburgh last week.
– Wilkes-Barre signed a pair of players to ATOs this week. They are forwards Anton Zlobin and Matia Marcantuoni. They will practice, get a taste of what it is like to be a professional hockey player and likely take that knowledge home with them for the summertime.
– The AHL announced more award winners. Sportsman of the Year and Coach of the Year. Neither one play in the Eastern Conference.
– You like outdoor games? Next year is your year then, as the NHL will be announcing a “Stadium Series” next year to be held in outdoor baseball or football stadiums. The Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks are scheduled to play at Soldier Field next March.
– Dollar Drafts are back this Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena. Drink responsibly.
Look for the next blog update Friday, which will be the Gameday setup for that night’s game vs. Worcester.
Let’s Go Pens!
Moving. Shaking. Not a Lot of Bacon.
Yeah, I have no idea how that headline correlates with this post.
Anyway, gobs of moves in Penguins land. You all by now know about some guy by the name of Iginla. So I am not going to bore you with the details on that acquisition. To start…
– Jeff Zatkoff was recalled to Pittsburgh. A well deserved call up to a player who had never dressed for an NHL game. It’s expected that he backs up Tomas Vokoun tonight.
– Marc Andre-Fleury took morning skate today and was still “questionable” to back up tonight. I feel much better seeing him take the skate this morning than say, 36 hours ago after the initial injury happened. That would lead me to believe that Zatkoff’s stay will be a brief one. He could be back as soon as this weekend, if not Friday.
– In the wake of the Zatkoff recall, Wilkes-Barre recalled Scott Darling to a PTO. Darling was on an ECHL contract with the Wheeling Nailers. He’s 13-12-1-2 with a 2.80 GAA and a 0.906 SV% in 31 appearances this season in the ECHL.
– Evgeni Malkin is off of injured reserve and will presumably play tonight, therefore Beau Bennett was returned to Wilkes-Barre. Now it is perceived that Bennett could hypothetically return to Pittsburgh after the trade deadline when there is no roster limits. But with the new arrivals of Brenden Morrow and Jarome Iginla, I don’t see it. Bennett on a fourth line would be a waste of his talents. Pittsburgh has made it clear that they are “all in” for a Stanley Cup. While Bennett is in the long term plans, the short term chance of winning a Stanley Cup is too much to pass up for the Penguins who are serious contenders.
Time, as it has in the past, always tells.
Gameday for tomorrow’s giant test vs. the Providence Bruins will be up at 3 p.m. Friday.
Let’s Go Pens!
Famine to Feast
Man.
I go from having nothing to blog about for two weeks, to having content I have to hold off on because I have too much too soon (see today’s East Division Blogger Summit Part One)
Anyway, there’s a couple of things that happened today that need the blog’s attention. Off we go:
– Pittsburgh made another trade today. Douglas Murray comes over from the San Jose Sharks for draft picks.
– Now, there’s a plethora of bodies on the PIT blueline and an overage once bodies heal of roster spots. What will likely happen is best summarized by the Great Jonathan Bombulie here. The cliff notes version is that Beau Bennett and Simon Despres, both waiver exempt, return to Wilkes-Barre.
If I am Wilkes-Barre head coach John Hynes, I am beating down Pittsburgh’s door to return Bennett and Despres, if only until before the trade deadline. (April 3) after that, they go back up and stay up cause there are no roster limits at that point. These next four games are crucial for the Penguins playoff chances. Binghamton twice, Providence and a Norfolk team on the rise. In my opinion, they can only afford to lose one of these next four. They need all the help they can get.
– Some help is on the way in the form of Trevor Smith, who was sent back today.
– I was at the Penguins Season Ticket Holder Meet and Greet tonight. I took pictures of the locker room and other random things I don’t ever remember taking pictures of. I will have those probably up on Facebook at some point this week.
– Syracuse Crunch head coach Jon Cooper was named the eighth head coach in Tampa Bay Lightning history. Rob Zettler, Cooper’s assistant in Syracuse, takes over for the Crunch as head coach.
Underestimate the Syracuse Crunch at your own risk. In my opinion, the departure of Cooper only makes them collectively stronger.
– Finally, any speculation that John Hynes was leaving the Pens to take the Boston University job have apparently died. Colorado Avalanche assistant coach David Quinn is taking the job and apparently this will be announced Tuesday.
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Make sure you check out Part Two of the East Division Bloggers Summit Tuesday at noon.
Let’s Go Pens!
Morrow for Morrow
This tweet from TSN’s Bob McKenzie sums up the days news nicely:
If you draft well, gives you currency to make trades, like PIT’s Morrow for Morrow. PIT could move Joe M because they have so many young D.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) March 24, 2013
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The Penguins traded Joe Morrow for Brenden Morrow today. Joe will go to Dallas, practice with the team and get acclimated. He may end up in the AHL, playing with ex-WBS D-man Carl Sneep in Austin, Texas for the Texas Stars.
From a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins fan perspective, a move like this for a rental player in Brenden Morrow seems questionable at best especially when you have a team in Pittsburgh which has won eleven in a row. Why fix what isn’t broken?
I would surmise that the immediate impact for Wilkes-Barre will be Cody Wild sliding into the lineup more frequently on the defensive side and Trevor Smith getting sent down very soon, if not immediately. There’s also talk that if all bodies heal in Pittsburgh they are one over the roster limit. Could that mean a return of Beau Bennett or Simon Despres? We will see.
While I am thoroughly disappointed to see Morrow go, you have to remember that this is a business and Pittsburgh is in the running for a Stanley Cup. The pipeline of D-men for Pittsburgh is plentiful, so the Pens are fine in the department. But the immediate impact of a loss like this may be felt for a while.
Grades Are Due, But First the News!
Third Quarter Grades will be out today at 3 p.m., but first the news of the day:
– Pittsburgh signs Tom Kostopoulos to an NHL contract. He was placed on waivers at noon today. If he clears, he’ll then be re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre.
– On waivers, the Nashville Predators claimed Zach Boychuk from the Penguins. That really has no direct bearing on the everyday goings on at Coal Street.
– The direct effect on Wilkes-Barre was the recall of Beau Bennett, if you even want to call it that. Bennett was moved off of the NHL roster last night to make room for Evgeni Malkin’s return. Now that Boychuk is out of the picture, Bennett was returned to the NHL roster.
Alright. Grades will be up at three o’clock. Check back then or afterwards.
Let’s Go Pens!
Gotta Go Down to Go Back Up
Few things to note on an otherwise quiet Monday:
– Pittsburgh put Zach Boychuk on waivers. Since the Penguins claimed him off of waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes, Carolina has the right of first refusal to claim him back and assign him to their AHL affiliate, Charlotte. That said, there is little to no chance Boychuk ends up in Wilkes-Barre.
– Beau Bennett was re-assigned back to Wilkes-Barre. But before you rejoice, Seth Rorabaugh from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette had a series of tweets that explain a bit further the Bennett move.
My takeaway from this is that regardless what happens with Boychuk, it does Bennett no good to play third or fourth line minutes toiling in and out of the lineup night in and night out in Pittsburgh. Let him be a point a gamer here in Wilkes-Barre before he goes up and stays up. I will continue to beat this drum.
– Binghamton got help from Ottawa, in the return of Derek Grant.
– The AHL Playoff Primer is back. The Penguins magic number to make playoffs is 37. Their pace points is 84, slotting him where they are now, at the seven seed. I may be math inept, but I love this information put out by the League.
– Third Quarter Grades are coming together nicely. In the 19 games, Philip Samuelsson leads the Penguins in +/- with a +7, Chad Kolarik is at the bottom of this list at -7. Of players that have played more than 10 of the 19 games in the quarter, only six players have a positive +/-.
The plan is to have the Grades here on the blog sometime tomorrow. Stick with me on Twitter for the latest on this front.
Edit: The Third Quarter Grades will be up Tuesday at 1 p.m., after waiver moves are announced at noon.
A Captain, A Blog, A Poll, and A Move
The Penguins have a Captain. Finally. As reported by Jonathan Bombulie this afternoon, Joey Mormina was named 18th captain in Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins history.
In my analysis, long overdue for the Penguins, who at times lacked a direction in my opinion especially in the month of December. We’ll see how this goes with Mormina wearing the “C” for the rest of the season.
In the news from Jonathan about Mormina’s election to the captaincy, was an update on Chris Collins and Alex Grant who are ready to go tomorrow vs. Norfolk. We are getting bodies back.
Speaking of bodies, Mark Eaton was signed by Pittsburgh on Monday. This gives Pittsburgh an overage of defensemen on the roster. One of those defensemen is Simon Despres, who does not require waivers to be assigned back to Wilkes-Barre. So I present another poll question:
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Blog reader JC was in Bridgeport and sent me some video of the shootout round from Sunday. Everybody talks about Jayson Megna using the “Datsyuk move” so here it is. Thanks to JC for sending this into the blog.
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Finally, I was informed this afternoon that this very blog was featured today on PA Live! as the nepablogs.org “blog of the week” – all I can say is “Wow” as I didn’t ask to be featured and didn’t enter a contest to be featured yet the blog was on television this afternoon. If I get a link of the video I will toss it up here or mention it on Twitter or Facebook. I thank Harold Jenkins from nepablogs for featuring me. Nice to know that this hobby I call a blog gets recognition on television and elsewhere.
Update: Here is the video that ran on PA Live! in case you missed it, like I almost did.
Gameday for tomorrow’s contest vs. Norfolk will be up on the blog at 3 p.m. tomorrow. Let’s Go Pens!!
