Chirps from Center Ice

Hard to believe it’s the end of the year and 2025 is nearly upon us.

For the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, it’s walking into the final weekend of 2024 in a fairly better position then they were last season, in third place with 33 points and currently six points off first place Hershey with five games in hand.

So let’s set up the weekend.

Music to Set the Mood…

–

I ran it last year in this same spot and for as long as I continue this silly little project it shall continue. Happy New Year.

A Quote…

This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.
– Taylor Swift

The Setup

A rematch against Lehigh Valley and Hershey. Home Friday and on the road Saturday.

The Penguins were shutout at home 3-0 to the Toronto Marlies on Wednesday, had the Friday off then throttled the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 7-2 Saturday and then shutout the Hershey Bears 1-0 on Sunday.

The Phantoms had won four straight before coming to Wilkes-Barre and beat Toronto 7-2 the night before (Friday) after being Providence at home on Wednesday in overtime.

Hershey has been struggling of late, due to some injuries and callups to Washington and saw their double digit lead on the Atlantic Division reduced to a few points this week with gains made by Charlotte, Providence and the Penguins.

The Bears had the entire week off and hosted the Toronto Marlies on Saturday. Toronto, coming into their third game in four days and after a curb stomping in Allentown the night before, turned the tide and put seven on the board in Hershey and won 7-3.

Then Sunday’s 1-0 setback to the Penguins.

Records

The Penguins are 16-8-1 and as stated above are in third place in the Atlantic Division with 33 points and currently six points off first place Hershey with five games in hand.

Lehigh Valley is 12-11-4-1, good for 29 points and sixth place in the Atlantic.

Hershey remains the division leader for now with a 18-9-3 record, good for 39 points.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Nate Clurman went up for the injured Owen Pickering. Mac Hollowell will be playing in the Spengler Cup this weekend in Davos, Switzerland. Sam Poulin took warmups Saturday but was a mystery scratch. Valtteri Puustinen was injured Saturday.

Right as this post was set to publish, Coal Street recalled forward Jagger Joshua and defenseman Mats Lindgren from Wheeling and signed defenseman David Drake out of Wheeling to a PTO. Read into that what you will. The Transaction Tracker page was updated. If you see anything incorrect or askew with it, please let me know.

I think they are still good. They are insulated because of all the firepower they have up front and on defense. But that’s starting to erode a bit on them as it does with any other team. It’s happening in Hershey, Charlotte and other places. Despite what you think, it doesn’t just happen here.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

Pretty much you are the better team against the Phantoms so you should have two more points against what’s probably going to be a surly Phantoms team which will be out for revenge. But Wilkes-Barre scored three power play goals last Saturday with relative ease.

Hershey is always the target. Don’t expect the same result against the Bears because they are extremely well coached and oh yeah, back to back champions.

As long as the Penguins stay out of suspension worthy stuff against the Phantoms (I would think retribution is coming) and come out of that unscathed, they should be in good shape to make up ground on Hershey because of the head to head aspect and the fact they have played the fewest amount of games in the division and Hershey has played the most.

Who’s in Goal?

I don’t see any reason to go Blomqvist – Blomqvist here. It will probably be Filip Larsson on Friday and then Joel Blomqvist Saturday in Hershey, unless you want to flip it and do Blomqvist Friday and Larsson Saturday like they did last week.

Cal Petersen and Hunter Shepard for the opponents in that order and yeah, if that holds, it’s both clubs number ones.

Who’s Running the Show?

Wow! New refs! Liam Maaskant and Sydney Harris are here Friday with Patrick Dapuzzo and Chandler Yakimowicz on the lines.

Harris made ECHL history a few weeks ago as the first female referee in league history to officiate a game at that level. I have seen her name on other AHL games this season, so she’s acquainted with this level. Maaskant has an NHL contract.

Harrison O’Pray and Rob Hennessey are the crew Saturday with Tommy George and Richard Jondo on the lines. We’ve seen these dopes before.

Looking Ahead…

Friday, January 3 against the Charlotte Checkers and then Saturday at home against Hartford. Two tough opponents. Then they hit Canada for four games, but that’s for next week.

Give us a bold prediction…

Power play goals in each, Wilkes-Barre sweeps its way into 2025.