Chirps from Center Ice

The dog days of summer are here. Really slow news before the AHL schedule drops (hopefully next week) so here it is:

• Norfolk has a head coach. This just leaves the Albany Devils. We’ve been told by the Devils that the announcement will be made today at the latest (Monday). Where New Jersey was going to ice an AHL team was going to be announced “this week” which ended up to be a month, then another month, then finally announced after the U-Haul trucks moved the front office out of Lowell bound for Albany.*
• Riley Cote is retiring and is joining the Adirondack Phantoms as an assistant coach, it was announced today. Phantoms beat writer Tim McManus had analysis on his Twitter feed and also his blog. AHL observer Patrick Williams mentioned today on his Twitter feed that Cote, at 28, is the youngest coach in the AHL.

Schedule wise, I had seen that it will be announced by next week. Since the AHL has Milwaukee, Charlotte, Houston, San Antonio and Lake Erie all sharing their buildings with NBA teams, this throws a cog in the process. The NBA schedule will be out Tuesday, so the AHL’s should follow soon thereafter. The problem is that prior to Charlotte’s arrival, scheduling concerns were only confined to the Western Conference. Expect an information overload from me when the schedule finally is announced, and a blog post.

I have decided to follow the Milwaukee Admirals in the Western Conference this year. As I mentioned a post down, I follow their radio guy (he followed back) their goaltender, (who just inked a new deal with parent Nashville) Blake Geoffrion and the actual team (who I reached out to lend a follow on Twitter) – never fear, this blog will still continue to be 100% dedicated to all things Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. On Pens off days I may throw up sole blogs on all things Milwaukee Admirals. Never Say Die!

Oh yeah, I changed the name of the blog. Hope you like the name. Stick-tap to Siena Slusser on the catchy name.

*= You’ll have to trust me on the U-Haul Lowell-to-Albany story. The link was old and you needed to register to see it.