Chirps from Center Ice

I spent an evening tonight with the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins Booster Club at the Annual Player Awards Banquet.

A good time was had by all. With the Awards Banquet comes seeing all of the players. From what I was told, all of the players were basically fine and ready to go for the weekend. I saw Zach Sill, who left the game in Syracuse on Sunday with a leg injury and he was walking fine. I only saw Tim Wallace with a brace on his leg.

I was lucky enough to be at a table with two players, Chris Collins and Brian Strait and his lovely girlfriend. Some of the players had their wives / girlfriends with them tonight. I should have played hockey.

Regardless, last year I tweeted the Awards for the Players. I figured this year, I’d make it a blog special. So here goes after the jump:

Head Coach John Hynes had some opening words for the booster club and thanked them for their support. One of the things he mentioned was that he and his players “will go to war for you” going forward. He didn’t mention the Calder Cup by name which I found interesting.

Booster Club President Vicki Silva presented the booster club “real” awards.

Booster Club Center of the Year: Joe Vitale

Booster Club Winger of the Year: Tim Wallace (also presented with a “300 games” t-shirt celebrating Wally’s 300 games in a WBS uniform.

Booster Club Defenseman of the Year: Robert Bortuzzo

Booster Club Goalie of the Year: Brad Thiessen

Seventh Man: Zach Sill

Booster Club Player of the Year: Dustin Jeffrey

They also presented John Curry with a “100 wins” t-shirt commemorating his 100 AHL wins.

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Alright, onto the “fun” awards:

Tom Grace – Since Grace was in Canada for the Abbotsford / Winnipeg trip and missed St. Patrick’s Day, they gave him a big green leprechaun hat.

Scott Stuccio – Stoosh wasn’t in attendance but they gave him a “net” so he can practice his (catching) butterfly stance (since he’s a goaltender in Men’s League)

Chad Spencer (Tux’s Manager) – Since Tux is the biggest cheerleader, they gave him a pom-pom.

Head Coach John Hynes – Since the Pens clinched the East Division title in Hershey on March 27, the Club went on and had March 27 declared “John Hynes Day” in Hershey. They also gave him some Hershey chocolate.

Assistant Coach Alain Nasreddine – They gave him some “certificates” for players to coach them up.

Corey Potter – He is apparently a good poker player on the bus, so they gave him the “Best Bluffer Award” and a silly necklace.

Joey Mormina – He looks like Lenny from the Simpsons. Lenny wears suspenders, so they gave him suspenders.

Zach Sill: They gave him a “Zach Attack” doll. Yeah, no idea. Moving on…

Carl Sneep – Players call him “Shrek.” Apparently Shrek is tired in the morning, so they gave him an air horn and an energy drink.

Viktor Ekbom and Paul Thompson – since they are new guys they just gave them pocket hockey games and welcome leis (like the ones they give you in Hawaii)

Brian Strait and Robert Bortuzzo – their nicknames are “hammer and nail” because they are such an effective D pair. They gave Bortuzzo a hammer and Strait some nails.

Andrew Hutchinson – Apparently Hutch is a funny guy so they gave him a pirate hat and a hook. No clue.

Brett Sterling – They call him “Gnomeo” so they gave him a lawn gnome. Guys I talked to like my “Ticket” nickname.

Chris Collins – Collins has bad luck. His car broke down once. So they gave him a car sun shield that says “Emergency, need help!” on it.

Geoff Walker – They gave him and ice scraper and some CD cases because one time he tried to scrape ice off of his car with a CD case. What an idiot.

Brad Thiessen  and Jesse Boulerice – They gave Thiessen an “All Star Sandwich cutter” (a cookie cutter in the shape of a star. And they gave Boulerice pigs feet because he thought that one of the booster club members was eating pigs feet at a luncheon once.

Bryan Lerg and Jason DeSantis – they have known each other since age 10 so they gave Lerg a plastic golf club and DeSantis a toy sailboat. Ooookay.

Steve Wagner – Wags was an auto engineering major in college and apparently has a nice car he calls the “Batmobile” so they gave him body armor and told him when he wears it he can have Chris Collins call himself Robin.

Ryan Craig – uses an ARP Machine – which apparently is a device which warms up your muscles. He carries it with him everywhere. So the booster club gave him a tiny backpack to carry it around with him.

Tim Wallace – Apparently is a good dancer so they gave him a tiny elf that dances.

Joe Vitale – Is a bad DJ apparently so they gave him a rock and roll CD and a DJ notepad.

David Marshall – he likes to text like a 13 year old so they gave him a back up cell phone.

John Curry – Doc Emrick at the all star game pushed hard for Curry to be the All-Star MVP in Hershey. OK. His goalie pants rip a lot so they gave him a sewing kit.

Nick Petersen – he likes to look sharp all the time. So they gave him a mirror, comb and hair bands.

Ben Street – his girlfriend is a good cook (and also extremely hot) so they gave him a cook book and a colander and a cooking lesson with Zach Sill who is apparently a good cook.

Keven Veilleux – Keven isn’t a morning guy so they gave him large sunglasses to cover up the sun.

I talked to Strait and Collins a bit about who they did not want to see in the playoffs and collectively they said Binghamton because they don’t like playing up there for whatever reason. The fact they haven’t won there all year could have something to do with that.

So that’s basically it. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed putting it together for you.

Let’s Go Pens!