Chirps from Center Ice

With the finish line of the season within sight, another season of AHL hockey is nearly behind us. With the competitiveness of the teams comprised of the AHL East Division, I decided to bring on bloggers from each of the teams in the division for a little bit of a summit, if you will, on the teams strengths and weaknesses, and what to expect going forward. Going north to south in the division, let me introduce the panel.

The Syracuse Crunch are represented by Alex, who runs the blog Chairman How’s Glorious Army. You can follow her on Twitter @Allovimo.

The Binghamton Senators are represented by Don Rieber, Jr., who writes for examiner.com and is credentialed by the B-Sens. You can check his work out here, and follow him on Twitter, @BSensExaminer

You know who represents the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, so let’s just move on.

The Hershey Bears are represented by Matt Trust, who writes for the blog Sweetest Hockey on Earth. You can follow the blog on Twitter @SweetestHockey and Matt at @Matt_Trust

The Norfolk Admirals are represented by Shawn Dulin, who writes about the Admirals for Anaheim Calling, part of the SB Nation network of blogs. You can follow Shawn @ShawnDulin

Now that you know who’s on the panel, here’s the discussion points. I asked five variations of questions. For Syracuse / Binghamton, the number one reason why they will win / won’t win the East Division this year. For Wilkes-Barre / Hershey / Norfolk, why they will or won’t make playoffs this year.

I then asked who they would least like to see in playoffs, trade deadline questions and had each complete a sentence.

There was so much information that each person gave I had to break it up into a two-day read for the blog because I didn’t want a long epistle. Plus, I haven’t had a ton of stuff to blog about in weeks, so it’s a nice way to have fresh content in the beginning of the week. Part Two will run tomorrow at the same time.

Here we go, as soon as you jump through. The “a” categories are for Syracuse and Binghamton, and the “b” questions are for Wilkes-Barre, Hershey and Norfolk.

1a) Give me the number one reason why your team wins the East Division this year.

Alex: Organizational depth, which is one of the reasons Norfolk was champions last year. The Crunch has kept on rolling despite being drained repeatedly by NHL call up simply because the organizational depth in the Tampa system right now is phenomenal.

Don: The B-Sens will win the East Division because of their goaltending. Whether it is Lehner and Lawson, or Lawson and Cheverie between the pipes come playoff time, the goaltending has been solid all year. I expect it to remain that way.

1b) Give me the the number one reason why your team makes the playoffs this year.

Me: Penguins make the playoffs because teams behind them in the conference don’t have enough to sustain what it takes to get there. They also make it because they have a defense and goaltending unit that are amongst the best in the league.

Matt: The Hershey Bears will make the playoffs this year because theyhave been solid defensively since the beginning of February. Within a 19 game span between now and February 1st, the team goals against average has been a solid 2.42. However the main story since the NHL’s delayed opener and Braden Holtby’s departure has been the play of Philipp Grubauer. In 11 appearances since the beginning of February for Grubauer, his goal against average is south of 2, at an excellent 1.82. Also in this entire season series against Wilkes-Barre, the Pens scored three or more goals against Hershey goaltending only twice. Goaltending has rarely slumped during the 2012-13 campaign whether it has been Holtby, Grubauer or Dany Sabourin.

Shawn: Frederik Andersen. The rookie goalie has came up huge in his first season in North America peaking at third in both goals against and save percentage league wide. The goaltending was questionable at the beginning but has worked itself out.

2a) Give me the number one reason why your team does not win the East Division this year.

Alex: Eventually, all depth dries up. If the injuries in Tampa continue, especially if the goaltending situation continues to be rocky, then I could see things getting shaky in Syracuse. Riku Helenius has been brilliant in spurts this year, but he never managed to be consistent enough to take that number one spot. We have yet to see current back up Pat Nagle from the Everblades of the ECHL do much. How steady Helenius can be, and how well Nagle can come through if needed, will make or break this.

Don: If Binghamton has any lapses at all and does not play a 60-minute game, they are in trouble. They avoid this issue in most games, but there are enough times that they will get off to a slow start and get behind, or come out in the second period and just let the other team run the show. This cannot happen. They need to play 60 minutes throughout the tournament.

2b) Give me the number one reason why your team will not make the playoffs this year.

Me: Can’t score goals. Complete lack of offense some nights. Not a single “pure” goal scorer. Defense and goaltending can only do so much, but offense wins games.

Matt: The Bears will not make the playoffs simply because they are consistently inconsistent. Interesting enough that can be said for wins, losses, shots on goal in a period, and even special teams. All season long, three and four game winning streaks have been followed by consecutive losses. The Pens have witnessed in contests versus Hershey, one period the Bears may be buzzing the offensive zone, then in the next stanza fans would hurt their neck from turning away from all the action in Hershey’s defensive zone. With every loss as the season progresses, scoreboard watching becomes increasingly intense. Hershey must avoid being in a position where it is Mid April, and postseason contention rests upon the outcome of an Albany Devils game.

Shawn: The offense seems to be the weak link.  The Admirals are in the bottom third of goals scored and with a lot of fire power playing in Anaheim the scoring has to come from everyone.

3) The optimist in me thinks that every East Division team makes playoffs this year. That said, name the one team that you do not want to face in playoffs and why. (could be any East Division team or or any other Eastern Conference team in contention)

Well, you’ll just have to check back tomorrow for the answers to this question. In show business they call this a “cliffhanger,” so check back tomorrow!