The, “win one, lose one, win one, lose one” run that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins is a fun little nugget to refer to from time to time, but is not sustainable in the slightest.
We will get to the why’s in a bit, but I just want to throw that out there.
Music to Set the Mood…
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Yeah, no idea either. It fit, so I went with it.
A Quote…
Be yourself, everyone else is taken.
— Oscar Wilde
The Setup
Two in Charlotte, who lead the division.
Last weekend, the Penguins lost Friday in Utica after getting scored on in the span of eight seconds in the second period and with 30 seconds to play in regulation they let in the game winner and lose 4-3. They then go to Hershey on Sunday night, a tough place to play let alone win, and their backup goaltender gets them 43 saves and they blast the Hershey Bears 5-0.
Charlotte was in Loveland, Colorado and Des Moines, Iowa and split with the Eagles and swept the Wild. Scores were 6-3 win, 3-0 loss, 6-3 win and 5-4 overtime win.
Records
Charlotte leads the Atlantic with a 8-4 record good for 16 points and the Penguins are fourth in the division with a 5-4-1 record and 11 points.
The Rest of Those Rascals
The Bears lost both contests last weekend in Toronto 5-3 and then getting shutout by the Pens on Sunday. They hosted Hartford and won. They have a 7-4 record good for 14 points and second in the division and have a pair in Springfield this weekend.
Hartford has picked themselves off the mat quite nicely. They swept the weekend with wins in Belleville (4-1) and Springfield this past weekend and then went to Hershey on Wednesday and lost. They are 6-7-1 and have 13 points and are third in the division.They are in Rochester and Syracuse this weekend.
The best team in the division may actually be the Providence Bruins who put up 15 goals this weekend with a 7-6 overtime win in Springfield on Friday and an 8-0 throttling of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Sunday. The Bruins are 5-6 with 10 points. They are in Hamilton on Friday and Belleville on Saturday.
Lehigh Valley and Springfield I think have the most problems. The Phantoms because I don’t think they are really good and the Thunderbirds because I think they should be way better then their record indicates. Let’s start with the Phantoms, who were smoked in Rochester 6-3 on Friday and then smothered 8-0 on Sunday at home against the Bruins. They traveled up to Laval on Wednesday and won in overtime. They have a 5-5-1 record good for 11 pointsand are in Belleville Friday and Hamilton on Saturday.
Springfield has a 3-4-2-1 record and are in last place in the division with 9 points. They coughed up a lead against the Bruins Friday and lost 7-6 in overtime and fell apart against Hartford Sunday and lost 4-2. The task gets tougher when Hershey sets up shop this weekend for a pair in Massachusetts.
Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?
Up: Ilya Solovyov is still with Pittsburgh. Justin Brazeau’s conditioning stint ended and he went up Monday. Jake Livanavage went up Tuesday but was returned Friday morning. As a result, David Breazeale was recalled from ECHL Florida.
Down: Maleek McGowan and Tiernan Shoudy are with the Florida Everblades.
Out: Tanner Howe longer term, Harrison Brunicke is day to day.
What can we learn about the Penguins this week?
They play better with Taylor Gauthier in net. He was under the cosh the first period last Sunday in Hershey and didn’t crack then and didn’t crack at all Sunday, shutting out the Bears 5-0. It was a team effort but the goaltender had a lot to do with it. I think if I am Kirk MacDonald I ride the hot hand and set the tone for the weekend and start Gauthier on Friday. Again, with only five teams in the division making the playoffs, win, lose, win, lose, win is not sustainable. There is there there with this team, you just have to have all the right ingredients in place. Having Gauthier in between the pipes I think is step one.
Has he been shaky? Has he been fluky? Have any of his wins been suspect? Not in the slightest. That’s the sign of a true number one.
That all said, they still need to go on the road and try to take two wins home with them in a place that is not easy to do that. You need the right ingredients!
Who’s in Goal?
Taylor Gauthier Friday and Joel Blomqvist Saturday, I know you all want Gauthier both days. That isn’t realistically possible.
Some combination of Kirill Gerasimyuk and Tyler Muszelik for the Checkers.
Who’s Running the Show?
Adam Tobias and Tyler Spott have the weekend assignment and Luke Pye and Shane Gustafson work the lines Friday.
Tyler Madanski tags in for Gustafson on the lines Saturday, with the three men listed above in charge otherwise.
Looking Ahead…
An extremely busy week that sees Utica drop in at 6:35 p.m. on Tuesday then the first three in three of the season that sees them in Hershey Friday, home against Hamilton on Saturday and then home against Lehigh Valley on Sunday (sigh) at 6:05 (double sigh)
Donuts on the Pitch…
This will be the last Donuts on the Pitch until February as NASCAR and MLS (well, NYCFC) conclude their seasons. Heads are going to roll at City Football Group next week. City will draw 2-2 with DC United this weekend.
Give me Tyler Reddick to win in Phoenix and Kyle Larson to win his third Championship.
Give us a bold prediction…
It doesn’t do the “win, lose, win lose, win, lose” any good, but they get 3 of 4 points in North Carolina this weekend.
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