Chirps from Center Ice

Tuesday afternoon, the American Hockey League suspended Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins defenseman Will O’Neill for his actions Saturday night against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

From the release…

O’Neill was assessed an instigator penalty within the final five minutes of the third period, resulting in an automatic one-game suspension under the provisions of AHL Rule 46.22. He will miss Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s game Friday (Oct. 26) vs. Hershey.

From the Rulebook…

Fines and Suspensions – Instigator in Final Five Minutes of Regulation Time (or Anytime in Overtime) – A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five (5) minutes of regulation time or at any time in overtime (see 46.12), shall automatically be suspended for one game. The length of suspension will double for each subsequent offense. This suspension shall be served in addition to any other automatic suspensions a player may incur for an accumulation of three or more instigator penalties.

When the one-game suspension is imposed, the player’s Coach and Club shall each be fined five hundred dollars ($500) – a fine that will double for each subsequent incident.

This is 46.12…

Instigator in Final Five Minutes of Regulation Time (or Anytime in Overtime) – A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five (5) minutes of regulation time or at any time in overtime shall be assessed an instigator minor penalty, a major penalty for fighting, and a game misconduct penalty, subject to the conditions outlined in 46.22.

Here is the video of what got O’Neill the instigator penalty and thus suspended…

As mentioned above, O’Neill will miss this Friday’s home game against the Hershey Bears.

O’Neill tried to make his case to Tom after the game last Saturday…

…but the League wasn’t having it.

Other news from Tuesday….

John Muse has been assigned to Wheeling. I thought they would at least try to make a competition out of the trio that was here (Tristan Jarry, Muse and Anthony Peters) but Jarry is the NHL pedigree that will see the lion share of starts, Peters is the AHL only guy who can’t go to Wheeling because Cincinnati owns his ECHL rights. Wheeling and Cincinnati are in the same division so it’s like Zach Aston-Reese playing for the Hershey Bears…Muse was the odd guy out. It’s a business.

Updates from practice…

If I come up with anything Wednesday, look for it here, otherwise Week 3 AHL Power Rankings will hit the blog Thursday.