Chirps from Center Ice

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced today that they have recalled Brad Thiessen from Wilkes-Barre / Scranton.

Pittsburgh states that Brent Johnson is out with an “upper body injury” and is day today.* Pittsburgh plays in Philadelphia tonight and hosts New Jersey tomorrow.

Have to assume that the Thiessen recall means Curry starts tomorrow in Binghamton. Depending on whether Patrick Killeen starts Saturday in Adirondack, will tell the tale on whether we get Thiessen back by Sunday in Hershey. No way Curry, coming off of a minor injury, starts three consecutive games.

So basically, if Killeen starts Saturday vs. the Phantoms, Curry starts Sunday in Hershey and Thiessen is lost for the weekend because Pittsburgh hosts Florida Sunday.

This, from a sheer Wilkes-Barre fan perspective, is absolute worst case scenario type news. If Brett Sterling is known as “the Ticket” to a Calder Cup, then Brad Thiessen is known as “the Golden Goose.”

Stay with me over on Twitter for up to date information. Go Pens.

* – per the CBA, NHL teams are limited to 4 non-emergency recalls after the trade deadline. In the event of an “injury” an NHL team can call up as many bodies as they need. I have seen all over Twitter that Brent Johnson’s wife is expecting a baby. If so, he’d want to be with his wife for this. Pittsburgh doesn’t want to waste a recall for this reason, thus the always nondescript “upper body injury.” Call shenanigans if you wish, but that’s how all the NHL teams operate.

Edit: Wheeling is in Florida for the weekend. Any Kileen recall would need to be made 15 minutes ago to get Killer up here and on the bus to Bingo tomorrow afternoon. I will be watching and will probably post something later if it’s announced that Killeen is indeed on his way up.