Chirps from Center Ice

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a frequent commenter over at Jonathan Bombulie’s blog, Penguins Insider. After last nights win vs. Albany (a 5-4 shootout win) I made a the following comment (abridged for content purposes):

This week should be a tell-tale sign of the season, in my opinion. If we go 4-0 we are locks to win the Cup. We are already 1-0. We’ll see.

By my own admission a four-game winning streak isn’t going to automatically win you a Calder Cup, but let’s see who the Pens have the rest of this week:

• Wednesday: A Syracuse Crunch team we have yet to beat this year which has beaten us in aggregate 7-4 in two games. Neither game really in my opinion decisive enough to, at any point in the game make you turn to your buddy watching the game with you and say, “this game is in the bag.”
• Thursday: A Hershey Bears team in Pittsburgh at CONSOL Energy Center which is your parent teams brand spanking new arena in a marquee matchup in buildup to the Winter Classic game between the two teams parent clubs. WBS has defeated Hershey three times this year, 12-8 in aggregate, all one goal games. Hershey, by their own standards, is having an off-year. However things are looking up for the two-time defending Calder Cup Champions. They recently received Keith Aucoin back from injury and have now knocked out both Charlotte and Norfolk in successive games, scoring a total of nine goals over the two game span. What would appear to be a tune-up game for them tomorrow vs. the Binghamton Senators home at GIANT Center, a place the B-Sens have not had much success in at all, then the Bears probably bus to Pittsburgh Wednesday and wait for the Pens to arrive. Don’t think their players will be jacked to knock around the leagues best team in their parents living room? Guess again.
• Saturday: A Norfolk team we have not beat. The bur in the saddle so to speak so far this campaign. The Admirals are the AHL’s highest scoring team. Neither of the three prior contests have been close, a total 15-9 on aggregate.

Right now, at the present, the Pens have a 6 point cushion on the second place Norfolk Admirals and 11 points on Hershey. So if we go, say 2-2 this week we’d still be fine, but what I was getting at in my comment is that if we go 4-0 this week we could very well separate ourselves for good this year. We would be at 35 games played for the year and likely (depending on results) have a 10+ point cushion on the rest of the division. Just look at Hershey last year, they took hold of the East Division and ran away with it. Granted, that Bears team was an uber team, one you see maybe every 10-15 years or so, but still my point about having a 10+ point cushion on a division this stacked would be huge in the long run.

We shall see.