Chirps from Center Ice

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins head to Canada for a Thursday and Friday pair of games against more North division foes in Belleville and Laval before breaking for Christmas.

Music to set the mood…

From me and the cats, Merry Christmas!

A Quote…

Consistency is what transfers average into excellence.
— Unknown

The Penguins are 6-3-1 in their last ten, winning more than losing and finally, just maybe, settling into a consistent winner. You want to see this continue this week with more North Division opponents on the plate.

The Setup

Trip to the Bay of Quinte on Thursday for a visit with the Belleville Senators and then a Friday in Laval to take on the Rocket.

Last week, the Penguins swept all three games, beating the Syracuse Crunch, Utica Comets and Rochester Americans. Rem Pitlick is red hot with nine points in his last eight games. Alex Nylander is scoring goals and they got a goal from a returning Sam Poulin on Saturday.

The Belleville Senators last played on Friday in Cleveland and were swept by the Monsters. They have not won in three games.

The Laval Rocket got pasted in Hershey 7-1 on Saturday. They beat Lehigh Valley the night before on Friday. They played Syracuse yesterday in Syracuse and won 3-2.

Records

The Penguins are 14-9-3-0, good for 31 points and third in the Atlantic Division.

Belleville is 10-10-2-2, good for 22 points and fifth in the North Division.

Laval is 8-13-3-2, good for 21 points and in last place in the North Division.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Pittsburgh: Jansen Harkins, Vinnie Hinostroza (he cleared waivers over the weekend but was not immediately assigned) and Valtteri Puustinen.

Back from Pittsburgh: Marc Johnstone and Jonathan Gruden. Also assigned was Ryan Shea.

Justin Addamo was returned to Wheeling on Friday. Lukas Svejkovsky and Tanner Laderoute followed suit on Tuesday.

The Pens recalled Owen Headrick from Wheeling. Headrick was acquired in the Peter Abbodonato trade.

Sam Poulin returned from injury and played Saturday.

The Libor Hajek experiment is over, the Penguins released him from his PTO and he returned to his native Czechia.

Still up from Wheeling: Raivis Ansons.

Injured: Avery Hayes and Sam Houde.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

They should easily beat a slipping Belleville and a last place Laval team. But if they start to wallow in their past successes, they can and likely will get caught and lose to Belleville in a tight 2-1 game or get caught already into the egg nog and lose by five in Laval. It can happen. It shouldn’t if you are a believer in J.D. Forrest and his coaching staff.

Looks like they may be shifting away from Joel Blomqvist as their rock solid #1 and going more and more to Magnus Hellberg, who started two games last week.

Also they look like they are getting healthier, with just Avery Hayes (who I have to assume is close to a return) and Sam Houde out with injuries.

Finally these points they are accumulating have them ascending the Atlantic Division. Hershey and Hartford look like the class of the field right now. It’s a dogfight between the three through six seeds.

Who’s in Goal? 

I’d go Hellberg Thursday and Blomqvist Friday. I’m hoping to see leviathan Mads Sogaard, all 6’7 of him, for Belleville on Thursday and maybe more towers of power with 6’5 Jakub Dobeš for the Rocket on Friday.

Who’s Running the Show?

Dre Barone and Mathieu Menniti have the referral duties on Thursday with Justin Johnson and Dustin McCrank on the lines. On Friday, Dre Barone will follow the team to Laval and be joined by Alex Normandin with Antoine Bujold-Roux and Anthony Lapointe on the lines.

Looking Ahead…

We will see if there is any lessons learned with this little win streak when the Hershey Bears come back calling and the Pens travel there next Wednesday. The Penguins close out 2023 with a pair of games against the Charlotte Checkers Friday and Saturday.

Give us a bold prediction…

They will finish out the year without a regulation loss.