Chirps from Center Ice

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I’m not going to give this a lot of time nor a lot of effort tonight because the team I paid money which I earned to watch play hockey didn’t return the favor.

The team’s Instagram constantly posts the players playing sewer ball before every game. It’s a game played with a soccer ball and the players all gather around a circle and pop the ball off their bodies and if the ball hits the ground the last guy to touch it is out, is what I gather.

They are more competitive in those silly sewerball games than they are on the ice. That’s sad.

Another loss, this time 4-1 to the Utica Comets on Saturday. It was a 1-1 game entering the third period, but then Brian Halonen scored with about six minutes to play and then the bottom fell out.

It’s like when they are in tight games, they don’t play to win, they play not to lose.

Then Sam Houde gives the puck away to Graeme Clarke who buries it to put the game out of reach and send about half of the the 6876 in attendance Saturday to the exits. The goal will live in the history books as unassisted, but Sam Houde gifted that goal to the visiting team.

Captain Taylor Fedun did something positive for a change, scoring the only goal for the Penguins in the first period minutes after Utica opened the scoring on a Simon Nemec shot.

Feckless effort. Embarrassing loss. They should all be ashamed.

Body language being what it is, I watched them all leave the ice (while I was loudly booing and telling them how questionable or inadequate I felt they were) and it looked like they were all spent. Not spent like playing 60 minutes of a hockey game spent, but spent like no matter what they try, no matter what they do, it doesn’t work.

The head coach sounded the same way.

In his postgame media availability, Patrick Williams of theAHL.com lobbed questions at the Penguins head coach and he sounded totally dejected. Without giving away the line of work I do professionally, I listen to a lot of people talk. I can normally hear, in the inflection of their voice, whether they are mad, sad, happy, lying, telling the truth, clueless, etc. J.D. Forrest sounded totally dejected, totally lost for a good answer and completely defeated. Like someone just shot his dog right in front of him.

I don’t think the out of town scoreboard matters anymore, because Bridgeport wins in a shootout over Charlotte and Hartford loses in overtime to Toronto. It’s seven points back to Bridgeport at the six and final playoff seed, may as well be eight because the Islanders own the tie breaker over the Penguins, as do the Wolf Pack.

Maybe they turn it around. Teams go on runs fairly quickly in this league, but a rejected headline for tonight was “One and Done.” Can’t win many games scoring just one goal, like the Penguins have done now in their each of their last three games.

Say Goodnight, Gracie, it won’t be long now.