Chirps from Center Ice

I don’t know about you, but I thoroughly enjoyed not having a Wednesday game to have to watch or write about this week. Won’t last long, as they have a home game next Wednesday against Syracuse.

This week, it’s Cleveland Friday and Providence Saturday this weekend for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, both at home.

Music to Set the Mood…

There’s even a bear! The Providence Bruins! Hooray relevancy!

A Quote…

Don’t let others think for you…
— Unknown

There’s a lot of back and forth I have seen from what’s left of the media in this town about J.D. Forrest and his job performance and job safety. I kind of just laughed it off and kind of ignored it, but if you the fan, think that the head coach sucks and isn’t doing a good enough job in doing what he is paid to do and what you paid money to see, then don’t let someone else who gets paid to cover the game and gets in for free dictate to you how to think. You pay the money to watch the product. Unless or until those who tell you to think otherwise fund or pay for you to attend or watch these games, feel how you want to feel.

I certainly am not going to tell you how to feel.

The Setup

Not your uncle’s Cleveland Monsters and the mercurial Providence Bruins come to town.

The Monsters have led the North Division for a couple of weeks now which made me think of something in the lead up to Friday’s game. Would you rather be a Monsters fan or a Penguins fan? Columbus has a ton of really good prospects in the pipeline in Cleveland and the Penguins have Joel Blomqvist and that’s it. The Monsters have the right mix of veterans (Trey Fix-Wolansky) to blend with exciting prospects (Kent Johnson, currently on recall) that has Cleveland at the top of the North and setup for success all season.

I mean the Penguins have been OK, certainly better than last year, but struggle with great teams (Hershey) and can’t play like the better team when met with equal teams (OT win and loss against Springfield last week)

Providence has been OK, slightly worse than the Penguins, and more inconsistent then the Pens, if you could believe that.

Records 

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton is 10-8-3 and in fifth place with 23 points in the Atlantic.

Cleveland is 14-5-1 and in first place with 29 points in the North.

Providence is 11-8-1-2 and in third place with 25 points in the Atlantic.

The Pens had a 3-1 lead against Hershey at home Wednesday and lost in frustrating fashion 7-5 then split a pair of overtime games with the Springfield Thunderbirds Friday and Saturday in a home and home.

Cleveland split a pair with the Utica Comets at home this past weekend then went to Hartford Wednesday and won in overtime 4-3.

Providence swept Bridgeport in a home and home this past weekend and beat Lehigh Valley at home Sunday. They will be in Allentown on Friday, and have won five straight coming into the weekend.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Pittsburgh: Dmitri Samorukov, Jansen Harkins, Joona Koppanen, Alex Nylander and Vinnie Hinostroza. I may give Hinostroza the Radim Zohorna treatment going forward and consider him permanently up.

Up from Wheeling: Justin Addamo, Raivis Ansons and Lukas Svejkovsky.

To Wheeling: Owen Headrick.

On Loan from Pittsburgh: P.O. Joseph.

Injured: Avery Hayes, Sam Poulin, Colin White and possibly Sam Houde, who got injured on a hit by Hunter Skinner on Saturday. Skinner was assessed a checking to the head match penalty.

Svejkovsky has been on a tear with Wheeling, as he should be as a guy who spent all season in the AHL. Joseph will be here for the weekend and likely recalled Sunday.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

Hypothetically, they should go 2-0. They own Cleveland at home and Providence has more open holes than the Penguins it would seem. Will they? Let’s examine.

If they go up early against either team will J.D. Forrest be able to get his team to maintain the lead and win, which he wasn’t able to do against Hershey at home Wednesday?

If they give either team eight power plays like they did Saturday against Springfield, they may not be so lucky with the offensively powerful Cleveland team.

If they put together a solid twenty minutes consistently, like they did in the third period, down 0-2 in Springfield Friday, then it should be a much easier path for them. Will they? I guess that’s all part of the joyride.

Who’s in Goal? 

Both goalies in Joel Blomqvist and Magnus Hellberg showed well last week. I’d go Blomqvist Friday and Hellberg Saturday.

For Cleveland, you will probably see Jet Greaves in goal Friday and on Saturday likely Michael DiPietro.

Who’s Running the Show?

Riley Brace and Alex Normandin are here enforcing the AHL Rule Book and John Rey and Bill Lyons are manning the lines making sure they stay onside and handling face-offs.

On Saturday, it will be referees Liam Maaskant and Adam Tobias with Bob Goodman and Richard Jondo on the lines.

Looking ahead…

New York, New York! Syracuse at home on Wednesday, a trip to Utica Friday and then Rochester drops by Saturday.

Give us a bold prediction…

One of the Penguins goaltenders gets a shutout this weekend.