Chirps from Center Ice

A couple things to catch you up on here before the midweek game against Bridgeport Wednesday night. Here goes:

Dave Hakstol is out as head coach in Philly and the Flyers hire from within and tab Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Scott Gordon as interim coach in Philadelphia.

Staying with the, “next man up” idea, Kerry Huffman, an assistant of Gordon’s in Allentown, is the new man behind the Phantoms bench, for now. The release says that they are looking for a new head coach.

Basically how that is going to go is that Huffman will get 5-7 games as head coach. If the Phantoms do good in those games, he keeps the job. If not, they look for someone new.

Back locally, J-S Dea was re-assigned down from Pittsburgh Tuesday morning.

Also, Garrett Wilson is on waivers. If he goes unclaimed, Pittsburgh can send him here. If he does, don’t look for it to happen immediately. The NHL holiday roster freeze is coming. Pittsburgh wants that flexibility in case they get a healthy forward or two back from injury.

Tyler reports that Thomas DiPauli is week to week. He joins other week to weekers Sam Miletic and Chris Summers.

Wilkes-Barre should be OK for now, getting Dea and possibly Wilson back.

Old buddy Tom Sestito comes out of retirement and signs on with the Toronto Marlies. In case you are wondering, Wilkes-Barre and Toronto don’t lock up again until March 17.

Bridgeport is in Wednesday and will be without the services of Stephen Gionta, who was suspended three games by the AHL for boarding in Sunday’s game. Gionta was the one that injured or finished off Thomas DiPauli, who you will recall was stung by a Kevin Czuczman shot in the first period on Sunday, was tangled with with Gionta in the second and didn’t return. Coal Street must have thought the hit was egregious enough to warrant a review by the brain trust in Springfield and the gamble worked. There was no penalty on the play.

Here is the play in GIF form courtesy of the fine folks at Let’s Go Amerks:

Finally, Friday’s game at Hershey will be the AHL’s Facebook Watch Game of the Week. It’s free to anyone who has a Facebook account. Hershey’s feed is one of the best in the AHL with multiple angles and has been broadcast in high definition for years now. Check it out if you can find the time Friday.

Gameday setup will hit the blog for Wednesday’s game with Bridgeport at 3 p.m. Until then.

Let’s Go Pens!