Comments Off on Weekend Preview – Home is Where the Heart Is
Posted by nafsnep on October 19, 2023
The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins continue their 25th season with a road trip Friday in Hartford then return home for their opener against the Springfield Thunderbirds. They went 1-1 in Charlotte last weekend.
Music to Set the Mood…
We will get to see in person how this retooled, new team does at home. The Penguins went 12-16-6-2 at home last season. They need to do better than that, as that was last in the Atlantic, the Conference, and 29th overall last year.
Only way is up.
A Quote…
There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.
Robert Burns
They went 3-1 in preseason, but went 1-1 against live fire against a really good Charlotte team and 0/9 on the power play, still searching for their first power play goal.
I neglected in the last game recap to give a turning point. I’m still working out the bugs of sitting in front of a computer screen and hammering out these blog posts after a long summer.
The Penguins had a power play down 2-0 about midway through the third period. The game had that getting away from you feel and play by play man Nick Hart said that the upcoming man advantage wasn’t exactly gotta have, but it would have been nice if the Penguins could cash and cut the lead to one.
The Checkers killed it, then later scored, essentially putting the game away. That’s your turning point.
Two games in and they haven’t scored a power play goal yet. I don’t go to practices, but you have to think that special teams was a huge sticking point this week at practice, one would hope.
The Setup
A trip to Hartford Friday then the opener Saturday against Springfield.
The Wolf Pack were impressive last weekend, beating a very good Providence team 3-2 on the road in a shootout then defeating the Springfield Thunderbirds on the road 3-1. Hartford opens it’s home campaign Friday against the Penguins.
The Springfield Thunderbirds played a pair at home last weekend against the aforementioned Wolf Pack Saturday and the Providence Bruins on Sunday. They lost 3-1 to Hartford Saturday in their home opener and scored :09 into the third period Sunday to beat the Bruins 4-3.
Records
The Penguins are 1-1 in the Atlantic. The Wolf Pack are 2-0 and are in the Atlantic and the Thunderbirds are 1-1.
I thought about giving you the standing position but these are early days. Maybe in November.
Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?
Lots. They traded Ty Glover and Mark Friedman to Vancouver in exchange for Jack Rathbone and Karel Plasek, whose contract was terminated so he can return back overseas. They signed Libor Hájek to an AHL deal after a PTO with Pittsburgh then sent Isaac Belliveau to Wheeling on Thursday.
What can we learn about the Penguins this week?
Are they going to score a power play goal this weekend? Will it benefit them? How much will they play from behind? Will they ever score a goal in the first or second periods?
Hartford is as good as a test you can find in the third game of the season and the second weekend of the same. Don’t discount Springfield either, but the Penguins could and should beat these teams.
They still have a veteran issue, having to cycle out players because of the rule. I had a few of you this week say that this could be a problem because you never have the same lineup as the night prior. Good points, you have to see how J.D. Forrest navigates through these tough lineup decisions.
Who’s in goal?
Figure Magnus Hellberg again Friday in Hartford and Joel Blomqvist, still in search of his first AHL win on Saturday at home. Is it a confidence thing with Blomqvist? If so, send him to Wheeling? I think it’s too early to have these discussions, quite honestly. Blomqvist can’t quarterback a power play, after all.
Old pal Louis Domingue will probably get the start for Hartford Friday and Vadim Zherenko is possible in the opposing net against the Penguins this weekend.
Who is running the show?
Don’t know yet. League hasn’t posted this weekends referees yet. I’m sure they are competent enough, I’d hope.
Looking ahead…
Wednesday home game against the Hershey Bears, a Friday off, then Hartford stops in next Saturday then the Penguinsn travel down to the home of the defending champs and play Hershey next Sunday at 3.
The book then closes on October and the page flips to a busy November.
Give us a bold prediction…
The team, on paper, is too good to get blanked on the power play, it would seem. They get a power play goal a piece in each game, but go 1-1 again leaving us all scratching our heads at a .500 hockey team heading into the final week of play in October.
Comments Off on A Change Would Do You Good…
Posted by nafsnep on October 17, 2023
Full disclosure on this one, when I saw the news I thought it involved Ty Smith…
The Penguins have acquired defenseman Jack Rathbone and forward Karel Plasek from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Mark Friedman and Ty Glover. pic.twitter.com/NBGC0KOlH5
Comments Off on Sunk by Santtu — Pens LOSE 4-1
Posted by nafsnep on October 14, 2023
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I wouldn’t be surprised to see Checkers defenseman Santtu Kinnunen get some consideration for AHL Player of the Week honors.
Four assists for Kinnunen, two last Friday and two Saturday for the defensemen who loves playing the Penguins; 12 total points for him in to games against the Penguins as the Charlotte Checkers defeat the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins 4-1.
The Penguins power play went 0/4, and is 0/9 to start the season. It shouldn’t be that big of a problem, but when you are gifted a power play and want to use that moment to get some momentum and come up with nothing, the result like tonight is what you get.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) October 14, 2023
Lineup Notes: They cycled Joona Koppanen for Alex Nylander up front and Taylor Fedun for Xavier Ouellet on defense. Both veteran swaps.
First Period: Early issue is the start. They looked better Saturday as opposed to Friday, held Charlotte to a low shot count and stayed out of the box. They took a penalty (a Hinostroza hook at 14:19) then were outshot 3-1 and outpaced, slightly. Both teams hit posts; no scoring for either side, though.
Second Period: Seems like the Penguins got close, then the Checkers got down the ice and capitalized.
Mack Guzda with highway robbery on Vinnie Hinostroza and then Rasmus Asplund weaves through traffic and scores to put the Checkers up 1-0.
Preceding this, the Penguins were given a power play but didn’t score. When it happened, Nick Hart said what I was thinking, which was the Penguins had to have it. They got nothing, and they fell further behind in the process.
Colin While busted up the would be Mack Guzda shutout bid with this goal…
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) October 15, 2023
This came with Joel Blomqvist pulled for the extra attacker.
But the Checkers would score on an empty net when Patrick Khodorenko scored his second of the contest to firmly put away any weird intentions the Penguins may have been cooking in their heads at the time regarding a comeback.
Three Stars: 3) Will Lockwood (goal, assist) 2) Patrick Khodorenko (two goals) 1) Mack Guzda (32 saves)
The Good: I can’t think of anything from this game, quite honestly. 62 total shots this weekend for the Penguins. The goals will come, I hope.
The Bad: The power play is a problem. 0/9 for the early season. Too soon to panic and ridiculous to even insinuate. See what next weekend in Hartford and home against Springfield brings, go from there. But it would have been nice if you could have connected a few times last night and even tonight, moreso in the game you were in till the end and lost.
Comments Off on Good Start — Pens WIN 4-2
Posted by nafsnep on October 13, 2023
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Lots of talk about how the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are rebuilt and rebuilt in a good way, in a contending way.
Cast aside the 3-1 preseason record, it means nothing. The real work started Friday in Charlotte..
For the first two periods, they looked like last years team. In fact in a lot of ways it was because there wasn’t any scoring by either team.
But finally, one of their offseason acquisitions, Austin Rueschoff scored to break the deadlock.
Then Jonathan Gruden scored a little over a minute later and it looked like they were off to the races.
But no, :14 later, Charlotte scores.
Normally, last years team starts scrambling and find ways to lose but this years team (so far) didn’t, and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are 1-0 with a 4-2 win in Charlotte.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) October 13, 2023
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Lineup Notes: They have a veteran problem. They will rotate vets in and out per Nick Hart on pregame. Don’t ask me to name the veterans. They right now also don’t have any injuries as anyone who didn’t dress Friday was considered a health scratch.
First Period: I got nothing. They had to kill two penalties and went on a power play of their own which looked really good.
Second Period: Penguins had a couple power play chances but didn’t get anything out of it. Checkers think they scored but the would be goal is immediately waved off by referee Morgan MacPhee, then Colin White is stopped by Spencer Knight of Charlotte.
I gave this to you at the top of the story, scroll up in case you forgot.
Penguins couldn’t ice the game away with the benefit of two power plays, coming nearly back to back, but time remained the enemy of the home team.
Charlotte pulled Spencer Knight and Xavier Ouellet scored from his own blue line into the empty net. About :45 later, and about 15′ further back, Dmitri Samorukov scored into the same empty net to make it 4-1.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) October 14, 2023
But Charlotte would score with about :08 when Ryan McAllister scored off of a shot which Nick Hart may have deflected off of a Penguin in front.
Three Stars: 3) Will Lockwood (goal) 2) Jonathan Gruden (goal) 1) Magnus Hellberg (26 saves)
The Good: After that disaster of a season last, good to start the new one on a winning side.
The Bad: Power play went 0/5. If it weren’t for the flood of goals, a game this razor thin could be won with a special teams effort.
Turning Point: The Gruden goal gave the Penguins some scant breathing room. Hellberg and the rest of the defense carried them across the way for the first win of the season.
Standings: Early days, Penguins are sitting atop the Division with 2 points. Springfield, Hershey and Lehigh Valley were off, they get their seasons going Saturday.
Wheeling Update: The Nailers are still in preseason.
Video Highlights:
The #WBSPens rode a four-goal third period to a win on opening night, downing the @CheckersHockey, 4-2, on Friday night.
Comments Off on Weekend Preview – Back on the Horse
Posted by nafsnep on October 12, 2023
Back for the (checks calendar) 13th season of the blog, hope everyone had a good summer. Mine is always too short. There’s nothing I like about cold weather, wearing shoes, being perpetually cold all the time and sunsets at 7. Give me sunsets after 8:30, flip-flops, humid weather, mid 80s, a heatwave sprinkled in and call it a season.
You may have noticed the lack of updates here this past summer. Well, I was outside.
There wasn’t any type of preview this season either. Sorry! I was outside.
I’ll take a stab though.
1 Providence – I think the Bruins will be good again this year.
2 Hershey – Bears are defending champs and may have gotten better in the offseason.
3 Hartford – I think they are for real this year, really.
4 Springfield – I think they will be fine, not a door mat and not a contender.
5 Charlotte – Same as Springfield but slightly worse.
6 Penguins – I don’t think they miss the playoffs this year because the new management won’t allow it. More on that in a minute.
7 Lehigh Valley – Flyers are a mess, and that crap runs down hill.
8 Bridgeport – see Lehigh Valley, Islanders aren’t that much better either.
Music to set the mood…
Poison was such a good band.
A Quote…
High expectations are the key to everything…
– Sam Walton
This offseason, the Coal Street signed a bunch of guys to AHL contracts. With every signing, I just said, “Sign a bunch of guys, but make it a different year.”
Part of me wants to thing that its more crap coming in for the crap that was going out.
I think there is hope, but we were fooled last year thinking that that team was going to build off of their fourth place showing and compete. Quickly, it was discovered that the team was one dimensional and when the injuries and callups happened, what faint hope of a late push went straight down the drain.
I think Garret Sparks is just another Dustin Tokarski. A good goalie from yesterday playing out what’s left of his career here in Wilkes-Barre. The rest of the signings (made by Wilkes-Barre) are just a bunch of guys. We’ll see.
I do think that new GM Kyle Dubas did a good job of supplying NHL contracted players destined for the AHL. I don’t like, however, the amount of waiver claims (thus far two) by Pittsburgh because in the tea leaves it reads to me that there is a pile of junk at the AHL level that can’t help the NHL team. Trying to solidify your NHL franchise dumpster diving in waivers claims is a bit of a bold move. We will have to see how it pays off.
The AHL Penguins could be good and historically start strong. But we have all seen this fish before.
Also, on coaching, I think J.D. Forrest escaped the housecleaning by Pittsburgh but if the AHL team stumbles out of the gate he’s out of here by December.
The Setup
Two in Charlotte this Friday and Saturday. A good test for this Penguins team, I’d say.
Records
Everyone is undefeated. These are the first games of the season.
Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?
Full strength, I think. Again, I haven’t paid much attention because I was outside.
Wheeling got a boatload of players Tuesday.
The Nailers are adding the following players from @WBSPenguins to our training camp roster:
⁃F Justin Addamo ⁃F Jordan Frasca ⁃F Ty Glover ⁃F Dillon Hamaliuk ⁃F Lukas Svejkovsky ⁃F Evan Vierling ⁃D Thimo Nickl ⁃G Taylor Gauthier
At the end of last season, those guys are probably our top six. Somewhat surprised to see Svejkovsky get sent down, but he will get the reps he needs vs. 12-15 minutes a night buried on some fourth line.
What can we learn about the Penguins this week?
Discount everything you saw in preseason. It doesn’t matter. Sure, they went 3-1 and only lost 1-0 to Hershey with an ECHL lineup, but as a famous wresting promoter said once, “we’re live, pal.” None of that matters. If they run out to a 2-0 start, then sure, there’s promise. But remember, this last place team from last year was the last AHL team to be dealt a regulation loss, and that wasn’t until November. I don’t want to say October is meaningless, but there’s no way you can tell if you have a championship caliber team after two games in Charlotte, much less in the month of October.
Who’s in goal?
Unless they send Joel Blomqvist down, we are doing the whole carrying three goalies thing again. Magnus Hellberg and the aforementioned Garret Sparks are here also. My guess is Blomqvist is their horse and Hellberg and Sparks are the veteran backups. Blomqvist starts Friday and Hellberg goes Saturday.
For Charlotte, I have no idea. It took me 15 minutes to how to learn how to embed a tweet since Elon bought Twitter and renamed it X, or whatever. Bear with me.
Who is running the show?
Morgan McPhee and Harrison O’Pray are your debut referees Friday with Sean D’Loughy and Felix-Antoine Voyer on the lines. On Saturday, MacPhee, O’Pray and D’Loughy are back and Tyler Willie replaces Voyer on the lines.
Looking ahead…
Leaf raking, daylights saving time, having to turn the light on at 4:30 to see the last half hour of your work day. Snow. Oh wait….
Visit to Hartford next Friday then the home opener against Springfield.
Give us a bold prediction…
Three power play goals scored by the Penguins and a shutout and we will quickly forget that sorry abomination of last season.
WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 