Chirps from Center Ice

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have three straight games with their in state rival Lehigh Valley Phantoms this weekend and next Wednesday. Two, (Saturday and Wednesday) are in Wilkes-Barre. Gotta protect that home ice.

Music to Set the Mood

I don’t know what this is. I typed in “three ghosts” into YouTube and the came up, so let’s roll with it.

We Have a Trade to Announce…

Jake Guentzel was traded to Carolina with Ty Smith. In return, Pittsburgh got Michael Bunting, Ville Koivunen, Vasily Ponomarev, Cruz Lucius and a bunch of draft picks. Out of  that group, Ponomarev has spent time in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves and would have the most impact, as he has 29 points with the Wolves currently.

Pittsburgh has traded away its AHL clubs leading scorer now three times this season. Rem Pitlick in the Fall, Alex Nylander a few weeks ago and now Smith. Jonathan Gruden, you’re next!

One thing that’s worth considering is that Carolina doesn’t have a bonafide AHL team to stash its prospects and Chicago is independent. If Ty Smith isn’t earmarked for the NHL, where does he end up? Does he stay with Wilkes-Barre as a Carolina property (awkward) or go to the NHL with the Canes or the island of misfit toys out in Chicago? I guess we find out soon.

The Setup

Three straight with the Phantoms, starting this Friday in Allentown.

Last weekend, the Penguins split with the Charlotte Checkers with a 4-1 win Friday and a 4-2 loss Saturday, when on Saturday they were up 2-0. Sam Poulin returned from injury and had five assists across two games but that wasn’t enough to get him AHL Player of the Week honors.

Lehigh Valley were shutout in Utica 3-0, lost to last place Bridgeport 2-1 at home Saturday and then at the tail end of their three in three weekend grit out a 1-0 shootout win over the Category 5 superteam known as the reigning, defending, undisputed 12 time Calder Cup Champion Hershey Bears. Go figure.

One thing to note, the Phantoms will travel to Bridgeport on Sunday, completing yet another three in three weekend, then head back to Wilkes-Barre Wednesday, which starts an hour earlier because on the drive up to Connecticut, the Phantoms (and everyone else) will lose an hour when everyone turns their clocks forward one hour this Sunday. Just brutal.

Records

The Penguins are in third place in the Atlantic Division with a 28-19-7-1 record, good for 64 points.

The Phantoms are in seventh place in the Atlantic Division, currently out of a playoff spot with a 23-22-5-2 record, good for 53 points.

The Penguins (55 games played) are chasing second place Providence Bruins, who have also played 55 games. Providence leads the Penguins by 9 points.

The Penguins are trying to ward off the Hartford Wolf Pack (52 games played) and the Charlotte Checkers (54 games played) – Hartford has 63 points and the Checkers have 60.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Valtteri Puustinen and Jonathan Gruden are on NHL recall. Joona Koppanen joined them on Tuesday. They all will need to be “papered” back to the AHL by Friday in order to be eligible for the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Justin Addamo, Dillon Hamaliuk, Raivis Ansons, Owen Headrick and Lukas Svejkovsky remain on recall from Wheeling.

Max Cajkovic was returned to the Nailers on Monday. Tanner Laderoute was signed to a PTO Thursday morning. He has 20 goals and 41 points.

Injured are Svejkovsky above along with Peter Abbandonato, Sam Houde, Marc Johnstone and Jack Rathbone. I think it’s Rathbone, Abbandonato, and then you’re guess is as good as mine after that as to who returns from injury first.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

I think they should beat the Phantoms handily. If they want to remain in the faint discussion for a first round bye, they need at least 5 out of a possible 6 points out of this three game set with the Phantoms. How do they do this?

– Get good goaltending from their backup Magnus Hellberg, who should start Friday or Saturday.
– Limit turnovers. Radim Zohorna had his pocket picked behind his own net Saturday which led to the Michael Benning go ahead goal for the Checkers late in the game Saturday.
– Get a power play goal in each game. I know it’s a heavy lift, but before that Benning goal Saturday they had a power play they squandered in a tie game. If they score there, it’s probably a different outcome.

I mean I think that’s it. What do you think? Everything else should take care of itself. Joel Blomqvist will get two of the three starts here. The defense should take care of itself also. How hurt is Jack Rathbone, who is good on the power play and blocks a boatload of shots?

Force the Phantoms into mistakes, press the issue cautiously and there’s no reason why they can’t beat this team clean for a full six points.

Check Your Surroundings

New feature this week till the end of the season or as I see fit will look at the teams ahead of and behind the Pens in the standings.

Providence has Hartford Friday and Springfield Sunday. You just don’t want overtime Friday and want a Springfield win of some type.

Hartford has the Bruins Friday and Bridgeport Saturday, so no eating into the games in hand.

Charlotte hosts Hershey Friday and Saturday.

So it’s a positive schedule week for the Penguins I think, and important that they handle business against a Lehigh Valley team which is a consistent model of inconsistency.

Who’s in Goal?

Blomqvist Friday, Hellberg Saturday, Blomqvist Wednesday is what I would do if I were running things.

Parker Gahagen and Cal Petersen are the Phantoms current goaltending duo. Figure you see each this weekend and the better of the two Wednesday. It was Petersen who shutout the Bears on Sunday.

Who’s Running the Show?

Mike Sullivan (no, not that one) and Austin O’Rourke are scheduled to be in Allentown Friday with Brandon Grillo and Bill Lyons on the lines.

Saturday, Sully (do they call him that?) and O’Rourke make the drive up the Turnpike and are with us again live and in person Saturday with Grillo in tow and Chandler Yakimowicz on the lines.

Wednesday in Wilkes-Barre sees Jake Kamrass and Jordan Watt as the assigned referees and Yakimowicz again on the lines joined by J.P. Waleski.

Looking ahead…

No games Friday or Saturday for the Penguins. A Sunday game which starts at 3:00 p.m. in Cleveland followed by a Monday game at 7.

I haven’t decided when I put the Weekend Preview out yet. To be determined…

Give us a bold prediction…

Blomqvist finally gets a shutout, or I drop the notion of same in this spot altogether.