Chirps from Center Ice

Couple of things to catch up on because if I leave these go, they may already be stale by the time I blog again:

–> I touched on this in the afternoon “update” of yesterdays entry, but Pittsburgh announced its prospect camp roster for next week. Names familiar to Wilkes-Barre fans include Simon Despres, Brian Gibbons, Philip Samuelsson,  Zach Sill and Paul Thompson. Left off the roster was Patrick Killeen. I am openly wondering why. The Penguins invited three goaltenders I have never heard of, but not Killeen. Beginning of the end for him? I hope not. He really hasn’t been given a chance yet.

–> Here’s a nice article the WBS Penguins tweeted late Friday about the depth of the farm club here in Wilkes-Barre and the successes of the Penguins at the AHL level. I firmly believe that the Penguins are attracting the bigger names because of the success and the amenities / facilities afforded to the prospects coming up in the system. All that is missing is that elusive Calder Cup.

–> Syracuse is still adding bodies. Matt Taormina takes the drive southeast from Albany to Syracuse and will provide depth at defense. Tampa Bay signs goaltender Anders Lindback, which means that we can expect at least in the short term Calder Cup Champion Dustin Tokarski back in net with Riku Helenius backing up.

–> Congrats to the AHL’s Ellery Award winners. This is essentially the version of MVP for print, radio broadcasting and television.

–> Finally, I was doing some tinkering “under the hood” of the blog and noticed that Chirps from Center Ice has been viewed more than 70,000 times. Thank you to everyone who reads and interacts with me here, on Twitter and on Facebook. It is really appreciated.

Have a great weekend.