The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins knock out their Cleveland, Ohio trip early this season, with a pair against the Cleveland Monsters Friday and Saturday.
Music to Set the Mood…
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I’ll always use an excuse to use this when the Pens are out in The Land.
A Quote…
There’s no straighter road to success than exceeding expectations one day at a time. — Robin Crow
The Setup…
Two in Cleveland, if you haven’t been paying attention. Friday’s game starts at 7, Saturday’s game was moved to 3 because of baseball.
Last week the Penguins mollywhopped the goaltenders they faced, but unlike opening weekend where a ton of shots never got through, the Pens outscored their opponents 13-3 across a 7-1 drudging of the Hartford Wolf Pack on Saturday and a 6-2 whooping of the Providence Bruins on Sunday.
Cleveland spent the weekend in Allentown and beat the Phantoms 5-4 in overtime on Saturday and then 5-2 on Sunday.
Records
The Penguins are 2-1-1, good for five points and third in the division.
Cleveland is 3-1 over in the North with 6 points and in fourth.
The Rest of those Rascals…
Hartford went 1-2 on the weekend after shutting out Providence on Friday, losing to the Penguins on Saturday and again to the Laval Rocket on Sunday 5-2. They hosted the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Wednesday and lost 4-1. The. Wolf Pack are 3-3, have lost three in a row and have 6 points in a tie for first in the division. Hartford heads to Charlotte this weekend.
Hershey hosted the Texas Stars this weekend and swept them. The Bears are 3-1 with six points and host the Providence Bruins for a pair this weekend.
Springfield lost clean to Laval on Saturday 5-2 and then lost to the Charlotte Checkers 2-1 in a shootout on Sunday. The Thunderbirds are 2-1-0-1 with five points and host the Phantoms this weekend for a pair.
The Charlotte Checkers will have their season opener when they host the Hartford Wolf Pack. I gave you the Checkers body of work this past weekend if you were paying attention above, but didn’t mention what they did Saturday. They lost to Providence 6-2. The Checkers are 2-2 with four points.
Providence played three games this past weekend and went 1-2, where the losses included a blowout and a shutout. The Bruins are 1-4 with a paltry two points and are in Hershey for a pair this weekend.
Lehigh Valley brings up the rear, but picked up their first win of the season Wednesday in Hartford but lost in overtime to Cleveland in OT on Saturday and clean on Sunday. The Phantoms head to Springfield for a pair this weekend and have a 1-2-1 record with three points.
Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?
Rafael Harvey-Pinard and David Gustafsson are sidelined with injuries. There was a trade this week, Ryan Johnson was traded here for Caleb Jones and Daniel Laatsch. Johnson, a defenseman, is likely headed here. There are no recalls from ECHL Florida, who open their season this weekend with a home and home with the Orlando Solar Bears.
What can we learn about the Penguins this week?
Are they more of what they were on opening weekend or more of what they were last weekend? I don’t really know. They dominated both games and one of them (Hartford) was the second meeting of the season. Providence stinks right now, so it’s hard to give you a definitive answer. Cleveland should push the Penguins, but will they? They swept a winless at the time Lehigh Valley team and their only loss is to a Grand Rapids team that sit near the top of the North Division.
It should be a good test, for both clubs.
Who’s in Goal?
Joel Blomqvist Friday, Taylor Gauthier Saturday. I don’t think one has established as front runner over the other yet, but that’s a good thing.
Pheonix Copley Friday and Evan Gardner Saturday, as these two are splitting the net like the Penguins.
Who’s Running the Show?
Nick Isaacson and Liam Maaskant have the assignment on Friday with Joe Sherman and Bryan Gorcoff on the lines.
Saturday Alex Gagné tags in for Maaskant and you get brand new linemen with Brendan Lewis and Joey Kramar working the lines.
Looking Ahead…
They return home next Friday when Belleville makes it yearly visit and then Hartford (again!?!) stops by for the third time this young season on Saturday. No Sunday home games this time! Yahoo!
Give us a bold prediction…
I think they split, further mystifying the question of what team we have under us at this point.
Doing Donuts on the Pitch…
NYCFC let 10 man Chicago score twice and lost 2-1 and then the offense was limp in a poor midweek showing against Inter Miami where the pigeons lost 2-0. LAFC stops by Citi Field this Saturday. That’s gonna be tough and with this run of form I can see them losing 3-1. Hope I am wrong.
Denny Hamlin atones for his Phoenix flub last year and wins out in the desert this weekend.
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