Another three in three for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton and a Sunday home game where we turn the clocks ahead an hour which means we lose an hour of sleep. A peaceful Sunday will have an hour cut off from it with a Sunday home game. Fantastic.
I don’t know where you stand on Daylight Savings Time. I have no problem with it and don’t see what’s so inconvenient with falling back in the Fall and springing forward in the Spring. I take it as a passage of good (Spring – Summer) vs. evil (Fall – Winter)
Full disclosure here, not a Sheeran fan only on account of where I go to listen to music he isn’t featured. So I guess I am agnostic to it. Again it’s the first things I type into a YouTube search that I run with here.
In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.
Mark Twain
I can see it. March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.
The Setup
Road trip to Hartford Friday, home against Belleville Saturday and again on Sunday against the Crunch.
They lost 5-2 last Wednesday to Rochester in a game they were straight outclassed from the start. It seemed they did everything right but were beat by a better team.
They got right in Syracuse on Saturday, shutting out the Crunch 2-0.
Saturday, in a game I am still hot about, they had a 3-0 lead evaporate on them as they crumbled under the intense pressure that the Hershey Bears put on them. Bears tied it 3-3, Pens score 8 seconds later to go ahead but lose 5-4 in overtime. That ended up being Tristan Jarry’s swan song, as he was recalled to Pittsburgh Tuesday.
This past Tuesday, Belleville comes in and throttles the Pens 4-1. Wilkes-Barre looked great the first ten minutes then lost the final fifty.
Opponent wise, Hartford won in Bridgeport 6-3 to keep their faint playoff hopes alive. Providence beat them 5-2 Sunday and Utica clipped them in a shootout on Saturday.
Belleville loses 4-1 in Laval on Saturday, trounces Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday 4-1 and then does the same to the Hershey Bears the very next night to the tune of 6-2 on Wednesday. They are idle Friday.
Syracuse lost in a shootout against Rochester Saturday. They fared better against the Amerks than we did, getting a point but we shut the Crunch out. Maddening. Syracuse loses. in OT against Utica Sunday. They are back in Utica Friday, off Saturday then here Sunday.
Records
Pens are third in the Atlantic with a 29-15-7-1 record good for 66 points.
Hartford is seventh in the Atlantic with a 23-26-5-2 record and on 53 points.
Belleville is fifth in the North Division with a 26-19-4-4 record good for 60 points.
Syracuse is sixth in the North with a 23-18-8-4 record and on 58 points.
This is through Friday, March 7.
Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?
Hey, there it is! I omitted this by accident last week.
Sebastian Aho returned form injury Tuesday…Isaac Belliveau was sent to Wheeling…Scooter Brickey is injured (day to day)…Gabe Klassen is up from Wheeling…Sergei Murashov is too…Tristan Jarry went up to Pittsburgh and Joel Blomqvist returned to Wilkes-Barre but didn’t dress Tuesday….Joona Koppanen, Jonathn Gruden and Sam Poulin are day to day with injuries.
The Roster Tracker page has all the updates. For now, since this is the NHL trade deadline.
What can we learn about the Penguins this week?
A month ago this team blitzkriegs these cupcakes by multiple goals and sweeps the week easily. Now? Not so much.
I think it is apparent they lack straw stirrers like Gruden, Koppanen and Poulin. Gruden the most followed by Poulin because I think he is more refined than Koppanen.
Depending on how you look at things, they are either five points out of a playoff spot or five points from the top of the division. It’s a little bit of both and I know that sounds like a cop out, but it is.
Listen, it isn’t easy. This is the “grind” part of the season. They simply have to grind points at this point and keep their heads above water. Can they? Running it back against Belleville and Syracuse I think will tell the tale. I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in Hartford because they have been in a tailspin for months. Finding a way to beat Belleville is a must on home ice and then trying to duplicate what worked against a stingy team like Syracuse on Sunday on one hour less sleep isn’t going to be easy, but that’s why I suppose Kirk MacDonald makes the big bucks.
Getting some combination of Gruden, Poulin or Koppanen or better yet, all three this weekend, would be a huge kick in the ass this team desperately needs.
Who’s in Goal?
Good question. Do they let all three get a game this weekend? If so I would go Blomqvist, Murashov, Larsson. I think that’s crazy, by the way, but we will see.
Louis Domingue, Leevi Meriläinen, Brandon Halverson is my guess for the opposition.
Who’s Running the Show?
Jordan Samuels-Thomas and Brody Sutter have the assignment Friday in Hartford with Nick Briganti and Trevor Disbennett on the lines.
Saturday sees Riley Brace and Kurtis Pare with Robert Peterkin and John Rey on the lines. Wilkes-Barre debut for Pare I believe.
If you guessed Pare and Brace again Sunday, you’re right. I see the AHL is racking up those hotel points by keeping the same dudes marooned in Wilkes-Barre for 48 hours. Chandler Yakimowicz and John Rey are on the lines.
Looking Ahead…
Wednesday at home against Hershey then a Friday and Sunday in Alletown. More Sunday games, fantastic!
Give us a bold prediction…
The year is 2030. Referee Jonathan Gruden is working his ninth straight game in Wilkes-Barre in some kind of an obscure record that hasn’t been broken in the AHL for years. It happens on a Sunday, the third Sunday home game in a row for the Penguins.
WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 