Chirps from Center Ice

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

Monthly Archives: August 2016

Lively New Livery

1 Comment Posted by on August 8, 2016

Coal Street teased the following this morning…

–

…which is good for summertime blogging I suppose. I’m enjoying my summer and the warm weather along with the pool and cigar time. Good to keep the fingers sharp and the content on the blog fresh.

Later that day, the Pens announced a new look…

–

Release here. Remember with the new rule change this year it will be whites at home till Christmas than darks at home thereafter.

No word on if there will be alternate jerseys and what those will look like. There always is but there was no word in todays release.

For visual learners…

–

Details on when and where you can get these new colors in the press release.

One other note that was out there today was on an ex-Penguin. Eric Hartzell is back playing in America and today signed with the Fort Wayne Komets of the ECHL.

More news to come this week.

Not AHL, WBS

Leach Defects 8/3

Comments Off on Leach Defects 8/3 Posted by on August 4, 2016

With the announcement earlier this week of the assistant coaches named to the bench with Clark Donatelli manning the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins ship for 2016-17, it wasn’t a matter of if Jay Leach would land on his feet with another team, but when.

It happened Thursday. What was wildly reported on for weeks was made official. Leach is heading to Providence to serve as assistant coach with Trent Whitfield. Leach and Whitfield will serve as assistants to Kevin Dean.

It’s a bit of a monkey see, monkey do bit with the P-Bruins, who are the second team this week to name two assistant coaches. I think that you will see that become the norm. Your ideal situation is to run your AHL bench like you do in the NHL.

Kevin Dean on Whitfield and Leach as told to Mark Divver of The Providence Journal…

–

Back home, Mike O’Brien and Nick Hart sat down with new Penguins assistant coach J.D. Forrest and podcaster about it. You can check that out and give it a listen here.

Enjoy August. Remember to apply sunscreen.

The AHL, WBS

Clark Finds Taylor With a Nikkel in the Forrest

3 Comments Posted by on August 2, 2016

Today, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins filled out their coaching staff for the 2016-17 season.

Chris Taylor and J.D. Forrest join Clark Donatelli behind the bench as assistant coaches. In addition, Coal Street announced the hire of Madison Nikkel as video coach.

Release here with information on each. Taylor comes over from Rochester where he was an assistant coach with Amerks after he retired. Forrest coached in Austria last season and was an assistant with the U.S. National Team Developmental Program in 2014-15. Nikkel comes from the college ranks, recently with Boston College.

Wait a second, what happened to Jay Leach…

–

So there is that.

One other thing that I saw across the Coal Street media platforms I will leave you with…

–

I have no idea. They didn’t explain.

Schedule for the 2016-17 AHL season will be out a few days after the NBA schedule is out later this month. Here’s a preview: Hershey and Lehigh Valley 12 times, everyone else in the division a couple times, a few games with the North Division teams here and there and nothing scheduled against any Western Conference teams.

Enjoy your August.

WBS

Newer posts →