Chirps from Center Ice

Not much to cover today.

• Brian Strait and Ryan Craig were sent back to Wilkes-Barre this afternoon. Chris Kunitz, Dustin Jeffrey and Mark Letestu practiced today and should be available by the weekend.
• The Hershey Bears signed defenseman Dmitri Orlov to a PTO. Jesse Marshall from Faceoff Factor tweeted me that he constantly attacks, is relentless on offense but is weak defensively, is not strong and has tunnel vision. Sounds like someone we all know.
• Out of Binghamton, Sens beat writer Joy Lindsay tweeted today that Pascal Leclaire will not start tomorrow. Barry Brust was held out of practice for precautionary reasons. He is expected to make the start tomorrow, but if not we may see Alex Petizian out of the ECHL.
• Joe Depto tweeted that Paul Martin will not play tomorrow. Will a call-up be needed? If so, who?
• Joe also tweeted that Arron Asham, Eric Tangradi and Nick Johnson are suffering from concussion symptoms. Johnson got destroyed in a fight last week vs. Colorado. Observers at the game said that he did not look right coming off the ice after the fight.

Out of all this, it would appear that Wilkes-Barre will get some players back finally from Pittsburgh. With Craig and Strait back, here is how I expect the demotions to come, in this order:

1. Tim Wallace
2. Joe Vitale
3. Brett Sterling

Now Sterling has been playing lights out of late for Pittsburgh and could very well get an extended look. Do I think this will be the case? No. I look at it this way, if Pittsburgh wanted him around, they would have kept him around in the beginning of the year.

After Sterling, the rest of the Wilkes-Barre recalls are injured. Assuming that they all get healthy enough to play again this year you can expect them to be sent back down in this order, in my opinion:

1. Nick Johnson
2. Eric Tangradi
3. Dustin Jeffrey
4. Chris Conner
5. Mark Letestu

Do I think we will ever see Conner / Letestu? Probably not, but if Pittsburgh gets knocked out of the playoffs and Wilkes-Barre is still playing I think you would most likely see Chris Conner and maybe Mark Letestu. “Think” “would” “could” are key words though. When the Clear Day rosters are announced by all the AHL teams it’ll be interesting to see if Conner or Letestu’s names are on it.

What started as “not much to cover” ended up being a bonafide entry. Alrighty then.

Debating live-blogging Binghamton again tomorrow, but may just tweet it then post when I get home. I am already going into work late Thursday. Stay tuned.