Chirps from Center Ice

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins clinched a playoff spot last week, and now it’s all about positioning for either the division lead or the second seed. Either way, they are gunning for the first round bye.

Music to Set the Mood…

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All about the bye, baby.

A Quote…

The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.
– John Buchan

Are the Hershey Bears a rainbow trout and the Charlotte Checkers a 20 inch pickerel? I don’t know…

The Setup

They hit the road for Cleveland, to take on a reeling Monsters side for a pair of games in Ohio Friday and Saturday.

They clinched a berth in the Calder Cup Playoffs Wednesday with an OT win over Hartford. All they needed was a point, but Avery Hayes’ overtime goal made it more jubilistic. Is jubilistic a word?

They split with Charlotte in North Carolina over the weekend, which is about as good as you can get when you travel there as the Checkers are hard to beat on back to back nights for some reason.

Cleveland is mired in a bit of a slump, dropping a midweek contest to the Belleville Senators Wednesday last, then losing at home to Texas in a shootout and then in regulation to the Stars Friday and Saturday respectively.

Records

Penguins sit third in the Atlantic Division with a 37-19-7-1 record, good for 82 points.

Cleveland is fourth in the North with a 31-22-5-6 record, on 73 points.

Check your surroundings…

We are back and better than ever with this section checking out other teams in the division the Penguins are jockeying for a seed with.

Hershey was swept by last place Utica this past weekend to remain on 85 points. If you listened to the post game press conference with Bears head coach Todd Nelson Sunday, they were tired coming of a long road trip and were taking Monday / Tuesday off to recharge and get away from the rink. The Bears are vulnerable now because they still don’t control their first place fate. They have two more games with the Penguins. This weekend they have Lehigh Valley in Allentown Friday, then host a desperate Hartford team Saturday and Sunday.

Charlotte, whom the Penguins are tied with on points with 82, are in Providence Friday and Sunday with a trip to Bridgeport, who have only won four home games all season, set for Saturday.

Providence is on 79 points and are in Utica Saturday. That’s a four hour trip one way and almost not fair this late in the season.

ATO Season

Immediate impact from defenseman Harrison Brunicke, whom the Penguins have under contract for the foreseeable future. Brunicke looked okay in his first two games, so expect him going forward unless he burns out which, at 18 years old, isn’t expected.

Nolan Renwick joined the club on an ATO Tuesday out of the University of Maine. He signed an AHL contract for next season. With a lot to play for yet we aren’t at, “play your kids” quite yet, so I don’t know when he will see the former Black Bear.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Status quo-ish on the hurt guys. They have Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty up in Pittsburgh till the end of the season, Emil Bemstrom cleared waivers but wasn’t immediately re-assigned Tuesday and Wednesday Joona Koppanen went up.

Kyle Jackson and Jack Beck are up from Wheeling. Beck is interesting because he’s a point machine for the Nailers and had injuries or else we would have seen him sooner.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

The time to make a move is now. Charlotte / Providence series should be a war which you want decided in regulation. Are the Bears running on fumes with all the games they have played in the past two seasons? Meanwhile the Penguins would have already left for Cleveland Thursday and roll into town against a team that is 3-6-0-1 in their last ten.

No consolations here. Beat the Monsters clean and let your rivals tear each other apart or continue to implode from within due to past circumstances.

Who’s in Goal?

If I told you that the Penguins were guaranteed a split last weekend in Charlotte you would have figured that Sergei Murashov gets the win and Filip Larsson takes the loss. The opposite happened, though. My thought is that Murashov goes Friday and Larsson goes Saturday.

Jet Greaves is a really good puck stopper for the Monsters. He will likely start Friday with Zach Sawchenko on Saturday.

Who’s Running the Show?

Jordan Deckard and Jared Cummins have the Friday assignment with Luke Pye and Felix-Antoine Voyer on the lines.

Saturday sees Mike Sullivan tag in for Cummins and Brandon Grillo tag in for Voyer.

Looking Ahead

Hershey at home next Friday, Springfield on Saturday then a road trip to Bridgeport Sunday at 3.

Give us a bold prediction…

The Penguins overtake the top spot in the division by a point over Hershey.