Chirps from Center Ice

The optimist in me says that this is only the fourth game of a 76 game schedule and not even Halloween yet with a unit which has never played with each other before.

The pessimist in me says that this WBS team has a lot of so-called NHLers on the team that couldn’t even crack a third line of an ECHL squad.

Pens lose at home this afternoon 3-1 to the Syracuse Crunch dropping to 0-4 to start the season. All the damage was done in the first period. The Crunch get a tap in goal from Keith Aulie after a tic tac toe pass and two power play goals from Penguin killers Cory Conacher and Tyler Johnson while on an extended five-minute power play for boarding done by Joe Morrow on Vladislav Namestnikov. Things settled from there on with the Pens limiting the Crunch to 11 shots on goal the rest of the way. The Penguins did everything but score a goal, finally breaking through when it was too late via a third period power play goal from Philippe Dupuis to spoil the shutout for Dustin Tokarski.

The last time the Penguins started 0-4 was, well I will let beat writer / historian Jonathan Bombulie answer this for us all:

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Per Bombulie, the Pens did not make playoffs in 1999-2000, and 2001-02 and made playoffs in 2004-05.

Wait, am I talking about playoffs?

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Jeff Zatkoff got the start for the Pens in goal. Philip Samuelsson, Alex Grant and Joey Mormina were scratched. Carl Sneep made his season debut. Steve MacIntyre played, didn’t fight anyone. Penguins dressed six defensemen.

Three Stars: 3) Dustin Tokarski (20 saves on 21 shots) 2) Brett Connolly (two assists, +1) 1) Keith Aulie (goal, +1)

I noted pre-game that there was only one Penguin player who had a positive +/-. His name is Zach Sill, and he is out six weeks with an upper body injury.

Around the Division: Video replay bites the Hershey Bears as they lost in overtime 2-1 to the Binghamton Senators from newcomer Hugh Jessiman. The net got knocked off as the puck crossed, and the B-Sens are 3-1-1-0 with seven points and looking good.

My bold prediction to people I’ve talked to, didn’t really tweet this or Facebook it, was that if the lockout goes all year either Hershey or Wilkes-Barre will not make playoffs.

Standings: Syracuse 9 — Norfolk 8 — Binghamton 7 — Hershey 3 — Wilkes-Barre 0.

The Penguins are the only AHL team without a single point in this 2012-2013 AHL season.

Wheeling Update: Our ECHL affiliate fared about as bad as we did this weekend, shut out in back-to-back games, losers today 3-0 to the Reading Royals. Patrick Killeen took the loss, stopping 25 of 28.

Penguins off Monday, and look to regroup the rest of the week for Friday’s game vs. the Rochester Americans. I will run what I can blog-wise this week.

Let’s Go Pens!