Chirps from Center Ice

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have a lot of guys injured. Despite this, they are only three points off of the Providence Bruins coming into the weekend.

The guys that were traded are gone and aren’t walking through that door ever again. So they have to manage with the guys that they have, but help has to get here soon or else the Penguins are in danger of falling out of the top two in the division thus putting them in a dreaded Best of Three series against Lehigh Valley.

Music to Set the Mood…

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I guess you can see where I am going here.

A Quote…

Properly used, positive reinforcement is extremely powerful.
– B.F. Skinner

The Setup…

Home against Syracuse Saturday, a road trip to Allentown Sunday afternoon. Simple enough.

Was last week a good week for the Penguins? They lost in overtime last Wednesday at home against Belleville and had their $2.6M man Matt Dumba on ice for all of the goals against, beat Hershey in Hershey on Friday and then were subjugated Saturday against a hard charging Charlotte Checkers team.

They fell out of first place to a Providence Bruins team that has a ton of games in hand on them so that may have been inevitable, but now the Pens are three points off the Bruins and have to keep pace, while slipping.

Syracuse split a home and home with the Utica Comets last weekend where the home team won and hosted Laval last night and lost in overtime. They come to Wilkes-Barre with a 23-15-3-1 record with 50 points and second in the North Division.

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms got blasted by the Charlotte Checkers 8-5 last Friday, then beat Hershey 4-3 in overtime Saturday and lost in Springfield Friday. They host Bridgeport Saturday and have a 20-17-2-2 record with 44 points and are fifth in the Atlantic Division.

Records

The Penguins have a 27-12-2-2 record and have 58 points in second place in the Atlantic Division. I gave you Syracuse and Lehigh Valley’s records above.

The Rest of those Rascals…

This should be easy because Providence and Charlotte play each other down in North Carolina this weekend starting Saturday afternoon.

Providence had a three in three last weekend and won all three. Belleville in OT Friday; Bridgeport via shootout on Saturday and Toronto in overtime on Sunday.

Charlotte smoked the Phantoms and Penguins as noted above and then obliterated the Hartford Wolf Pack 7-1 on Wednesday.

The Bruins lead the Atlantic Division with a 30-8-1 record and 61 points. Charlotte has a 25-12-3 record for 53 points in third.

Hershey spent the week in Rochester, beating the Americans on Wednesday and then lost 3-1 on Friday. Hershey is in Utica on Saturday and have a 19-14-5-2 record and are fourth in the Atlantic with 45 points.

Bridgeport lost in Hartford last Friday then lost via shootout to the Providence Bruins. The Islanders then destroyed the Hartford Wolf Pack last night. They are in Allenton Saturday and then host Springfield on Sunday. The Islanders have a 18-18-2-2 record, good for 40 points and sixth in the Atlantic.

Bridgeport is turning into a sneaky good team. Watch out.

Hartford and Springfield bring up the rear, with the Wolf Pack beating the Islanders last Friday then losing big to Toronto 4-1 on Saturday then just embarrassing themselves against Charlotte on Wednesday (7-1) and going down 5-0 after two periods against Bridgeport last night. The Wolf Pack have Springfield Saturday and have a 16-21-4-1 record for 37 points and seventh in the division.

Springfield certainly isn’t playing like a last place team per se. They beat Toronto in overtime last Friday, lose 1-0 to Belleville on Saturday and then won 2-1 against the Phantoms last night. The Thunderbirds host Hartford tonight and then head to Bridgeport Sunday evening. Springfield has a 15-20-4-2 record with 36 points.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Up: Bryan Rust was suspended three games necessitating a Rutger McGroarty recall to Pittsburgh on Thursday.

Down: David Breazeale was sent to Wheeling in a swap for Emil Pieniniemi. Pieniniemi is about three months late. He didn’t make the AHL team out of camp, pointed and went home, they suspended him and then they made amends and he returned to the States. Coal Street also recalled Forward Brayden Edwards on Thursday in the wake of the McGroarty recall.

Out: Daniel Laatsch (week to week, lower body), Sebastian Aho (week to week, lower body), Alex Alexyev (day to day, upper body), Raivis Ansons (week to week, upper body) are injured. Add Joona Koppanen we think, who blocked a shot last Wednesday and didn’t play Friday or Saturday.

Reading the teal leaves….

Makes me think since they recalled Edwards that they aren’t expecting any of the forwards who are injured to return this weekend. Which kind of nixes the whole “reinforcements” trope. Oh, well.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

Syracuse can give them fits. They are a competitive team out of necessity. You can start the weekend in second place and if you don’t watch out, can end the weekend in sixth place. They are also very well structured and well coached. I don’t want to use the word “overcome” here for a team that has led it’s division all season for the most part, but the dynamic of this team isn’t the same dynamic as it was two months ago when they were just running over teams and getting excellent goaltending.

Whatever forward and defensive group that Kirk MacDonald put out there this weekend have to play nearly. perfect in order to put themselves in a position to win I think.

I’m more worried about Syracuse than I am Lehigh Valley and I shouldn’t be, given it’s been the Phantoms the last two seasons which have sent the Penguins into the summer.

Who’s in Goal?

Murashov – Blomqvist Saturday / Sunday. Ryan Fanti for the Crunch and Aleksei Kolosov for the Phantoms is my educated guess.

Who’s Running the Show?

Austin Rook and Hayden Verbeek have the assignment Saturday in Wilkes-Barre with John Rey and Davids Rozitis on the lines.

Sunday sees Liam Maaskant and Sydney Harris with Rozitis manning the lines again with Patrick Dapuzzo joining him.

Looking Ahead…

All Pennsylvania, all the time. Home against Hershey Wednesday, a trip back to Allentown Friday, then Hershey on Saturday.

Give us a bold prediction…

They get one of the guys on the injured list into a game this weekend, winning both.