Chirps from Center Ice

A fan blog about the AHL's Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins

Monthly Archives: June 2011

Congratulations

Comments Off on Congratulations Posted by on June 7, 2011

Congratulations are in order to the Binghamton Senators, winners of the 2010-2011 Calder Cup Playoffs in the AHL’s 75th year of existence.

The East Division’s fifth place team who crossed over into the Atlantic Division and vanquished the Manchester Monarchs in seven games in Round 1, six games needed to defeat the Portland Pirates in Round 2, a four game sweep of the Charlotte Checkers in the Eastern Conference Finals for Round 3 and defeated the Houston Aeros in six games tonight in Game 6 by a 3-2 score tonight via two power play goals in the third period.

It is the city’s first ever Calder Cup in 29 years of being a tenant to an AHL franchise.

Robin Lehner, who by all accounts will most likely be back in between the pipes next year for the B-Sens, was named playoff MVP.

Congrats to the city of Binghamton, one of my favorite cities to visit on the road. Now, they become the team to beat next year.

The AHL

Hynes / Nasreddine Extended 6/7

Comments Off on Hynes / Nasreddine Extended 6/7 Posted by on June 7, 2011

Good news out of Pittsburgh today advising that Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins Head Coach John Hynes and Assistant Coach Alain Nasreddine were signed to multi-year extensions today.

Pittsburgh presser here. Wilkes-Barre’s here.

No brainer here. Coach of the Year with the best team. Hynes was in his first year of professional head coaching, was given a dynamite team and ran wire-to-wire from the beginning of the AHL regular season to the end of it. Best record ever in the history of the franchise. Sent five guys to the All-Star Classic in Hershey. If Pittsburgh didn’t re-sign he and Nasreddine there would have been many unhappy people.

So far, you have Zach Sill the grinder who has some offensive polish and Nick Johnson who is a proven scorer at this level back for next year. With the young core of existing players and the promising freshmen coming in next year, now that the coaching staff is in place good things are happening on Coal Street.

And the summer and free agent frenzy hasn’t even started yet. I hate to abuse this term, but get your popcorn ready.

Go Penguins.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Monday Notes 6/6

Comments Off on Monday Notes 6/6 Posted by on June 6, 2011

Not much these days to tweet about. This is the last week of AHL hockey as Game 6 of the Calder Cup Finals is tomorrow. The Binghamton Senators can close out the Houston Aeros with a win tomorrow in Texas. If the Aeros win, Game 7 will be played Thursday from the Toyota Center.

Why these Calder Cup games are not on television, is beyond me.

Elsewhere, as per Dmitry Chesnokov, Pens goaltender Alexander Pechurskiy is headed back to the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Per Chesnokov, he is headed to Metallurg Magnitogorsk who owns his rights.

Finally, Hershey announced today that they re-signed Boyd Kane for another year to another AHL deal. Kane has scored 48 goals in the past two seasons. However, Kane was a 2-1-3 and a -7 vs. WBS this year in 9 games.

Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL, WBS

Johnson Re-Signs 6/3

Comments Off on Johnson Re-Signs 6/3 Posted by on June 3, 2011

According to Renaud P Lavoie from RDS (the French speaking version of TSN) Nick Johnson has re-signed with Pittsburgh. Here are the details:

http://twitter.com/#!/renhockey/status/76798831152467968

 

 

EDIT: Pittsburgh makes it official here.

Good news. Now the question becomes whether Johnson spends the crux of his time with Pittsburgh or with Wilkes-Barre in 2011-2012. We’ll see.

Go Pens.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Blog Beat

1 Comment Posted by on June 3, 2011

Below is a list of bloggers I follow on Twitter who cover AHL teams. I tried to include those who were credentialed by the team they cover and included those who cover teams which don’t have any coverage otherwise. I left off other Pens blogs who cover WBS. Why go anywhere else than right here for your WBS coverage? 🙂

If you are a blogger and on Twitter and want in on this list please let me know and I will add you. Here you go:

Name Twitter Handle Blog Beat
The Third Intermission @3rdIntermission Houston
Hundred Degree Hockey @100degreehockey Texas
Let’s Go Amerks @LetsGoAmerks Rochester
Maine Hockey Journal @MEHockeyJournal Portland
Something’s Bruin @something_bruin Providence *
Admirals Roundtable @adsroundtable Milwaukee
Sweetest Hockey on Earth @sweetesthockey Hershey
Chasing Checkers @ChasingCheckers Charlotte
Power Play Post Show @PPPShow Binghamton **
The Peoria Rivermen Blog @LetsGoRivs Peoria
Marlies HQ @MarliesHQ Toronto
Thoughts Inside the Box @tel915 Albany

* – Click the “Providence” tab to be brought to coverage for the P-Bruins.

** – The Power Play Post Show is credentialed in Binghamton, but also has a weekly radio show which covers the whole AHL.

The AHL

Know your beat…

Comments Off on Know your beat… Posted by on June 2, 2011

If you follow me on Twitter, you will occasionally see my retweet different people on different issues I find interesting. Sometimes people wonder who these people are and what team they cover. For the most part that information is in the persons Twitter bio and sometimes it isn’t.

I decided to make this post as a handy guide for anyone who is interested in the AHL beat guys I follow. This will move into a tab above as a page as soon as the next blog idea rolls around, so here goes:

Name Twitter Handle Team Beat Newspaper
Jonathan Bombulie @CVBombulie Wilkes-Barre / Scranton The Citizens Voice
Tim Leone @timleone Hershey Harrisburg Patriot-News
Tim McManus @PSPhantoms Adirondack Glens Falls Post-Star
Pete Dougherty @Pete_Dougherty Albany Albany Times Union
Bill Cain @Bill_Cain_ Albany The Daily Gazette
Joy Lindsay @PSBJoyOnTheSens Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
Lindsay Kramer @PSCrunchHockey Syracuse The Post-Standard
Kevin Oklobzjia @kevinoDandC Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Dan Hickling @DanHickling Portland At-Large
Ryan Aber @ryaber Oklahoma City Oklahoman
Andrew Ferraro @n737af Houston Houston Chronicle
Michael Zuidema @michaelzuidema Grand Rapids The Grand Rapids Press
Michael Fornabaio @fornabaioctp Bridgeport Connecticut Post
Cam Tucker @camabbytimes Abbotsford Abbotsford Times
Dan Kinvig @dankinvigsports Abbotsford Abbotsford News
Shawn Rine @WheelHouse87 Wheeling (ECHL) The Intelligencer
Patrick Williams @AHLReport League Wide The Hockey News (magazine)

This list will constantly be updated as new beat guys are discovered. I am also going to add a page for bloggers too, as some of them cover beats which do not have a beat writer, or one who is on Twitter.

If you know of any glaring omissions, please let me know in the comment section or e-mail me at nafsnep@gmail.com

The AHL

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