Chirps from Center Ice

So full disclosure here I was looking for, “Jekyll and Hyde” themed YouTube videos and came across one, but it included shout rock and someone loading bullets into a gun. I’m a) not into shout rock and b) staying away from videos showing someone loading a gun.

Anyway, the idea here is that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are like Jekyll and Hyde. Great at home, lost on the road.

The good news is that they have three straight at home starting this Wednesday at home against the Providence Bruins. Hershey stops by Friday and Belleville makes their only stop of the season on Saturday.

A Quote…

Just as we have two eyes and two feet, duality is a part of life.
— Carlos Santana

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are 3-0 at home, 1-3 on the road. That’s not good. But does that mean that these three games at home will be easy cakewalks? No, but the odds are better in their favor.

They won the first game of the season on the road in Charlotte. They followed that up with a clunker in the rematch. They then went to Hartford and got pasted by the then red hot Wolf Pack. They travelled to Hershey this past Sunday and out of the gate were down 2-0 before their goaltender registered a save and the game got away from them from there, which often happens to teams who travel to the Giant Center.

So how do you fix it?

I don’t think you do, really. I think it’s a matter of coincidence.

Charlotte in back to back games don’t lose two straight at home. It doesn’t happen that often. Hartford was a team on a hot streak to start and I don’t care where you are in the AHL, giving up your first two goals before the goalie makes a save is a recipe for disaster.

I guess what I am tryting to say is this is less of a concern for me at the beginning of November then say, the beginning of December. If the Pens are still junk away from the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in mid-December, then they are not just Jekyll and Hyde but extremely one dimensional and we have bigger problems.

The Setup

Providence comes a calling on Wednesday after getting swept by a resurgent Springfield team, losing 5-2 in Springfield and 3-2 in overtime at home in Rhode Island.

The Bruins are 1-3-1-2 and off to a bad start, for a team we thought would be at the top of the Atlantic Division all season.

Hershey is a good team, as we all know, and sit at 6-2 in the division good for 12 points. They crushed in-state rivals Lehigh Valley 4-0 and Wilkes-Barre 6-1 this past weekend. The Bears will rematch with the Phantoms on Wednesday before stopping by Wilkes-Barre on Friday.

Belleville will report into Wilkes-Barre looking to get out of the middle of the pack in the North Division. They beat the Toronto Marlies 2-1 in overtime last Friday and lost in a shootout to the Marlies on Saturday 4-3. They will be in Springfield Friday.

Records

Gave you Providence and Hershey’s above. Belleville is 3-2-0-1 and the Penguins are 4-3.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Colin White was day to day with an upper body injury last weekend. Magnus Hellberg, Vinnie Hinostroza and Radim Zohorna are up in Pittsburgh. Taylor Gauthier is up from Wheeling, presumably because either Garret Sparks or Joel Blomqvist are hurt. Andreas Johnsson has yet to play (dealing with a family issue) and Austin Rueschhoff, Justin Lee, and Matt Filipe are on the sides of milk cartons, having not played in I can’t remember when.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

Do they collect all six points? Do the road woes bleed over into home ice? Will the power play keep clicking?

They should beat Providence, hypothetically, because it seems like the Bruins can’t get out of their own way. They could beat Hershey because they have already once last week and Belleville remains an outlier because you don’t see many North Division teams that often because you have to play the likes of Hershey and Lehigh Valley 25,000 times in a given season.

Will they? If they play careless against the Bruins, Providence will kick their heads in. You almost need to play a perfect game against Hershey in order to even have a prayer of winning and who knows about Belleville in back to back nights in what will likely be Garret Sparks again in goal, or possibly Gauthier.

Leading to…

Who’s in goal? 

Joel Blomqvist was in the running for some October rookie goaltender awards I thought I heard in the third period on Sunday on the radio with Nick Hart then, but then J.D. Forrest put him in anyway in the hopes that the rookie netminder would somehow turn things around for the Pens. That didn’t happen and Blomqvist gave up two goals. It could have also been because Sparks was injured, we just don’t know yet.

You will probably see him out first Wednesday and Friday and either Taylor Gauthier or Garret Sparks Saturday against Belleville unless they do a switcheroo somewhere and Gauthier / Sparks goes Wednesday (unlikely) or Friday (I wouldn’t do it)

Brandon Bussi for the Bruins, probably Clay Stevenson (just a hunch) for the Bears on Friday and backup Leevi Merilainen for the B-Sens on Saturday, denying us a chance to see leviathan Mads Sogaard, all 6’7 of him.

Who’s Running the Show?

Bobby Jo Love and Peter Schlittenhardt are here Wednesday with Patrick Dapuzzo and Ryan Knapp on the lines.

Don’t know yet about Friday or Saturday’s crews. Sometimes the AHL updates them, other times (like this week) they don’t.

Looking ahead…

Friday up in Syracuse to visit the Crunch, then back home Saturday to pay off a home and home with the old rival from Central New York.

Give us a bold prediction…

Austin Rueschhoff returns, plays all three games and gets a hat trick in one of them. Pens win all three games by a combined 15-4.