Chirps from Center Ice

When I write my “Why you should care” blurbs in my Gameday posts, they usually I have seen ring true to what actually comes true for the game that night. Call it what you want, that I know my team top to bottom or beginners luck in blogging, but let’s have a look at what I wrote for tonight’s 3-1 loss to the Syracuse Crunch:

This Crunch team beat Wilkes-Barre the last time the teams met but have only won 5 games since. This is a game on paper the Pens should easily win, but it has “trap game” written all over it. Truly elite teams have no problems dealing with inferior competition. Are the Pens truly an elite team? I guess we get a chance to find out tonight.

The answer to the question, in my opinion, is a resounding no. You just do not let a 7th place team in your division, a 14th place team in the Conference and an overall 29th place team run over you in a 3-1 victory. They talk about gimmicks in the AHL to get fans in the seats, well tonight the Crunch staff and their radio guy wore garlic necklaces and the staffers taped “lucky” pennies to the seats at the War Memorial to sort of change the luck of a team which got blown out to a mediocre Binghamton Senators team 7-0 last night.

John Curry vs. JP Levasseur tonight. No lineup changes from last night.

First period: First 5 minutes in, it’s all Syracuse. Only after a scrum in front of Curry’s net does Brian Strait and Patrick Maroon fight. Seconds later, Captain Ryan Craig gets credit for a goal which was kicked in by Syracuse’s Joe DiPenta. As that happened, Keven Veilleux went off the ice and to the dressing room with an apparent upper-body injury. Radio called it a hand, Bombulie called it a hip injury, we’ll have to see. He did not return. Very late in the period, after an Eric Tangradi goaltender interference call, Joe Vitale and Ryan Craig skated in shorthanded on a 2 on 1 but did not score after what looked like the puck in the net with Craig too. I was not at the game, rather watching on AHL Live, and the home angle for Syracuse was not the greatest. The period would end 1-0 Penguins.

Second period: First ten minutes, not much of anything from WBS, the Crunch hung around. I tweeted something to this effect and seconds later, Steve Wagner and Corey Potter have a mixup defensively and the Crunch tie the game via a goal from the recently demoted Dan Sexton. The second period would end that way. I was still at that point waiting for the Pens to wake up and put this game away.

Third period: Dustin Jeffrey would hit the post twice this period and did not score. I recall Eric Tangradi having a frustrating night a few weeks ago I think against Binghamton and look what happened to him of recent. It’s hard when you have the skill set of Dustin Jeffrey to not be frustrated when you hit two posts in the third period of a tied hockey game to not be upset. Then, Carl Sneep unintentionally screens John Curry and Trevor Smith makes it 2-1. Less than two minutes later, Trevor Smith again and it would end 3-1. The Pens would get a late power play on a Syracuse delay of game and I really though head coach John Hynes should have pulled Curry to give the Pens a 6 on 4 advantage with 3 minutes to go but he did not, and we go into the Christmas break having lost 3-1 to the 29th best team in the 30 team league. Merry Christmas.

I love to compare this team to the Hershey Bears of last year, when the Bears were just murdering teams. Does last years Bears team put this Crunch team out of its misery in the first period tonight? I want to say yes. With this loss, this is three straight losses to division opponents. Not good when you have the pesky Norfolk Admirals which, oh by the way we haven’t beaten yet in three tries, breathing down your necks.

It’s just one game. It happens to the best. Yadda yadda. It stinks though because this sour taste is going to linger until next Sunday when the Pens are back on the ice vs. the Albany Devils at home.

Around the Division: Break up the Adirondack Phantoms. Winners of two straight in a long, long time. They beat the Abbotsford Heat 2-1 tonight. The Hershey Bears have lost three straight games. They were defeated by the Providence Bruins 2-1 in Hershey tonight. The Binghamton Senators, who last night destroyed this Crunch team as you know 7-0, lost to the Charlotte Checkers 4-2. I may spend all this week trying to explain that one. Finally, those pesky Admirals defeated the Albany Devils by a score of 5-1. I suppose the good news here is they can draw no closer to us as they too are off until December 26 as well.

Standings: WBS holds onto first with 46 points. Norfolk with the win is 42 points out. Charlotte is in third with 38 points. Hershey is in fourth with 33 points. Binghamton is in fifth with 30 points. Albany and Syracuse have 24 points apiece good for sixth and seventh respectively and the Phantoms are in last place with 14 points.

Can the Pens get caught sitting idle? No. As I mentioned Norfolk doesn’t play until next Sunday. Charlotte has a game tomorrow in Hershey. Binghamton is in Rochester tomorrow and the rest are too far back to matter so the Pens will remain first in the East.

Going to probably be quiet here on the blog this week with no games. Will probably check in with news and notes and stuff from around the league as best I can.

Let’s Go Pens!