Chirps from Center Ice

After more than a week off due to ice issues at the Mohegan Arena, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins return to the ice in Utica, NY for a Friday night matchup then bus home with the Comets to take them on at home Saturday before closing out their first three in three weekend of the season with a Sunday home game against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Music to Set the Mood…

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I don’t know. I just put my thoughts into YouTube and this is what turned up.

A Quote…

Quote’s about long layoffs didn’t turn up anything of substance and talked about the actual layoff of employees and the like. Let’s just skip this for today.

The Setup

I kind of gave it to you above. The first three in three weekend of the season and a home and home with the Utica Comets with a (sigh) Sunday home game with the Phantoms.

After coughing up a 3-0 third period lead and losing in overtime last Wednesday in Laval a week ago, ice issues forced the postponement of the scheduled game with the Belleville Senators and all of a sudden the Penguins were off for the weekend while the rest of the League played. That Belleville game will now be played on March 4.

Utica had a pretty decent weekend. They beat the Laval Rocket in Quebec on Saturday then beat the Syracuse Crunch in Syracuse on Martin Luther King Day on Monday and crushed Bridgeport 7-1 on Wednesday. It was 5-0 after the first period and Jack Malone had a natural hat trick.

Lehigh Valley also had a pretty decent week also, beating Belleville last Wednesday then beating the North Division leading Rochester Americans in a shootout before losing a close one to them on Saturday. The Phantoms will host Springfield Friday and Bridgeport on Saturday before bussing up to Wilkes-Barre on Sunday.

One thing I noticed this week was that there were a lot of teams playing three in threes this weekend.

Records

The Penguins are 20-9-4, good for 44 points and fourth place in the Atlantic Division.

Utica is 13-19-2-2 with 30 points and seventh in the North Division.

Lehigh Valley is 19-15-5-1 with 44 points and fifth in the Atlantic Division, but will have played two games before seeing the Penguins on Sunday.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

They recalled Sergei Murashov on Monday, so that would seemingly mean that Filip Larsson is banged up enough to warrant a recall that early in the week. Tristan Jarry was waived here so he’s likely the number one. Jesse Puljujarvi was also waived here and played in Laval last week. Jaxon Castor was cut loose of his PTO and will report back to Wheeling.

Updated the tracker page after letting it simmer for the whole week they were off.

Won’t know statuses on the injured guys until around 6:20 Friday night, but I did see Jack St. Ivany practicing in what appeared to be a regular practice jersey on their social channels this past week, so that could be a good sign.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

The elephant in the room is protecting a lead. They seem bad at it all of a sudden. They blow one late in Belleville two Sundays ago and lose with 2.2 seconds left then go to Laval last Wednesday, get a goal to go up 3-0 in the third period, but their wet behind the ears débutante in goal Jaxon Castor can’t ride that credit to a win and they lose in overtime to the Rocket 4-3.

They are casting points away when they could be using those points to make up ground on Hershey. Now granted they have a lot of head to heads to go with the Bears and a ton of games in hand, but they don’t mean anything if you can’t win them and they certainly feel like you are just wasting them away losing the way the Penguins have been losing of late.

Conceivably they have had an entire weeks worth of practice and the new car smell is still on Kirk MacDonald, so lets see what they do in a three in three weekend against a pair of resurgent teams in Utica and Lehigh Valley.

They should, hypothetically, have no problems winning all three games, but that said you still never know. How many goal lead is safe with how much time remaining? Up four with five minutes? Up two with less than a minute?

Who’s in Goal? 

Tristan Jarry should get the start Friday and Sunday and let Sergei Murashov go Saturday at home.

For the opposition, Isaac Poulter and Nico Daws should get action in net for the Comets and take a guess on who goes for the Phantoms. Cal Petersen? Parker Gahagen? Keith Petruzzelli? Pick one. If you are doing it right, it shouldn’t matter.

Who’s Running the Show?

Mike Dietrich and Rob Hennessey are the referees assigned Friday in Utica with Antoine Bujold-Roux and Tory Carissimo on the lines.

Saturday sees Hennessey again (sigh) with Jake Kamrass as the referees with Kirsten Welch and Chandler Yakimowicz on the lines.

Kamrass sticks around and is joined by Mason Riley in doling out discipline. Welch sticks around on the lines and is joined by J.P. Waleski.

Hotels must be posh in Wilkes-Barre.

Looking Ahead…

It’s February. Already? The shortest month, which means March soon. Then April, then warmer temperatures, then the pool. Cigars. Sun. Beach. Ahhh…

Oh. Sorry. Started daydreaming there. Hershey comes to town Wednesday then they hit the road for Charlotte next Friday and Saturday.

Give us a bold prediction…

The Penguins come from behind in two of the games and win both, sweep the weekend.