Chirps from Center Ice

I don’t think a Mohegan Sun Casino blackjack dealer can shuffle the cards like the brain trust on Coal Street did today.

At around 9 a.m. Monday, Brian Gibbons was recalled to Pittsburgh. It’s his first NHL call-up, and a well deserved one. Gibbons has flat out been the best player in Wilkes-Barre all season. He’s finally put together the equation of: Speed + Finish = NHL call up. Good for him.

That call up left Wilkes-Barre short one forward. Nick Drazenovic didn’t practice today per Jonathan Bombulie’s Monday update. Pierre Leblond hasn’t resumed practicing yet either. So the speculation began on who could get recalled from Wheeling.

Well, at around 3 p.m. today, Wilkes-Barre recalled FOUR players from Wheeling. G Eric Hartzell, D Dustin Stevenson and forwards Denver Manderson and Cody Sylvester.

Instead of trying to make sense of it, Jonathan already did…

Make that four call-ups. WBS called up C Denver Manderson, C Cody Sylvester, D Dustin Stevenson and G Eric Hartzell from the Nailers and sent G Peter Mannino down in Hartzell’s place. The more I think about it, Manderson and Sylvester could both play Wednesday. Payerl, Megna and Uher have played center, but not this year. So that leaves Andrew Ebbett and Mike Carman as the only true centers on the roster. Stevenson is a plus-9 for Wheeling, so he was an obvious call for defense depth.

The Hartzell situation is a little more interesting. He’s 2-2 and with a 2.58 GAA with Wheeling, but his save percentage is a healthy .922 and two starts back, he pitched a 37-save shutout against Elmira. I know I’m curious to see how he does in a real AHL game. Perhaps the decision makers feel the same way.

Mike O’Brien also chimed in with the following…

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It’ll be interesting to see if Hartzell gets a start either Wednesday in Rochester or this weekend vs. St. John’s. My guess is you aren’t recalling Hartzell just so he can make a trek across Pennsylvania and to Western New York this week. Mannino will likely start Wednesday for Wheeling in Reading. As for Stevenson, he’s probably a safety net for Reid McNeill / Nick D’Agostino. McNeill is still out with injury and D’Agostino is still too wet behind the ears for my liking to be slotted in full time in the bottom pairing.

But who knows. Things can get shuffled again in an instant. Let’s just hope the Pens don’t bust this week.