Chirps from Center Ice

The Penguins get an extremely rare Friday and Saturday off in the AHL and are out in Cleveland for a pair of games on Sunday afternoon and Monday evening against the North Division leading Cleveland Monsters.

Music to Set the Mood…

Sigh, there’s always a bear.

The Setup

Two in Cleveland against the Monsters while trying to maintain the third spot in the Atlantic Division and watching second place Providence run off in the distance. The Bruins are now nine points, as of Saturday afternoon, ahead of the Penguins.

The Penguins took 4 of 6 points away from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in a trio of games, most recently shutting them out on Wednesday 3-0 for the first North American shutout of Joel Blomqvist’s career. Long overdue in my opinion. Jagger Joshua netted a pair of goals in the win and is on the cusp of bagging a hat trick in my mind.

Cleveland lost a pair in Laval last weekend and beat Grand Rapids 3-2 in overtime at home Tuesday. They will host the Penguins for a pair this weekend before greeting the Hershey Bears next weekend.

Monsters fans are maybe wondering if this could be an Eastern Conference Finals Preview of some type. Penguins fans are dreaming of it, Bears fans are kind of expecting it.

Records

The Penguins are third in the Atlantic coming into Saturday night’s action in the AHL with a 30-20-7-1 record, good for 68 points.

The Monsters are currently tied with the Syracuse Crunch at the top of the North Division with 34-18-3-3 record good for 74 points.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Valtteri Puustinen and Jack St. Ivany are up in Pittsburgh. St. Ivany was recalled Friday and it’s well deserved in my book. He’s really blossomed into a dependable defender. It will be interesting to see what, if any shot, he is given in Pittsburgh while the Penguins wind down their, what seemingly appears to be, a forgotten season.

Last time we did this Joona Koppanen and Jonathan Gruden were up, but they are back in the AHL now.

Dillon Hamaliuk and Tanner Laderoute were sent back to Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL.

Justin Addamo, Raivis Ansons, Owen Headrick and Lukas Svejkovsky remain up with Coal Street after being recalled from the Nailers.

Coal Street signed defenseman Philip Waugh out of Mercyhurst University to a two year AHL deal. They assigned him to the Nailers this week.

The injured guys remain Peter Abbandonato, Marc Johnstone and Sam Houde. Jack Rathbone and Lukas Svejkovsky were on this list last time we did this but are back healthy and playing.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

They seem to master playing against the Cleveland Monsters, beating them 5-3 in their only game of the season back in December so far out of the four they will play, so it’s four points seemingly there for the taking.

The power play is an abomination these days. They scratched Svejkovsky in favor of the new guy Vasily Ponomarev, but went 0/4 on the power play Wednesday against the Phantoms. They will need to capitalize on the opportunities given to them at the time if they want to have success on this road trip. I think they know this. Can they execute? That remains the question.

You will also see newly acquired goaltender Ludovic Waeber get a start in one of these two games against the Monsters, so you want him to show something in the form of being an upgrade to Magnus Hellberg, who I thought declined a bit as the season wore on, being outshined by Blomqvist’s play. Will it be more of the same from the backup goaltending position or can Waeber win you games when you put him out there?

Continue to get depth scoring from Jagger Joshua, Corey Andonovski and get Ponomarev, Radim Zohorna, Vinnie Hinostroza and Sam Poulin going.

Check Your Surroundings

Providence is in the midst of a weekend hosting the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Bruins beat the Phantoms Friday in a shootout and host them again Saturday in a rematch.

Hartford had Friday off. They only took one point out of their trip to North Carolina against the Charlotte Checkers midweek and kind of put the Checkers back in the discussion. The Wolf Pack have Utica at home Saturday night then embark on a four game road trip starting Sunday in Hershey.

Charlotte hosts Springfield for a pair of Saturday and Sunday games. Springfield is fighting to stay in the playoffs and will probably battle the Phantoms to the end for the six seed it would seem, so this is a huge weekend for the Thunderbirds.

Here’s a look at the standings coming into Saturday’s action:

2: Providence, 58 games played and 77 points.
3: PENGUINS: 58 games played, 68 points.
4: Hartford: 56 games played, 67 points.
5: Charlotte: 58 games played, 66 points.

Couldn’t be tighter.

Who’s in Goal?

Don’t oversimplify. Blomqvist Sunday, Waeber Monday. For the Monsters, Jet Greaves Sunday and newly acquired from Springfield Malcolm Subban on Monday.

Who’s Running the Show?

Graedy Hamilton and Stephen Hiff have the referee assignment with Kirsten Welsh and Luke Stork on the lines on Sunday.

Monday sees Justin Kea and Adam Tobias work the game with Welsh sticking around joined by Mitchell Hunt on the lines.

Looking ahead…

Another three in three, I think it’s the last of them against Syracuse on the road Friday, home against Utica Saturday then on the road Sunday against Phantoms.

Give us a bold prediction…

Jagger Joshua nets a hat trick before the end of the season.