Chirps from Center Ice

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So the optimist says that these teams are so evenly matched that a first round playoff series is destiny in the stars.

The pessimist says that they had them where they waned them then let off and let them back in and let them beat them.

Charlotte wins 4-2, after the Penguins had them down 2-0 Saturday night.

Team loss, that is you can’t blame goaltending or lack of offense or anything. The Penguins had a late power play, Charlotte killed it, and scored seconds later to make to 3-2.

Third place is getting tight. The Penguins occupy third with 64 points. Hartford, idle Saturday, is on 61 points with four games in hand and Charlotte is on 60 points.

Here’s how they lined up.

Lineup Notes: No changes up front, Jack Rathbone (injured) out for Owen Headrick.

First Period: Vinnie Hinostroza and Sam Poulin continued their torrent weekend, connecting for a Hinostroza goal that gives the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

Poulin takes a hit to make a play and it results in a goal.

Later, Poulin and Hinostroza would assist on an Austin Rueschhoff power play goal that makes it 2-0 Penguins.

Five assists this weekend for Sam Poulin. Makes me upset (kinda) that they don’t have a Sunday game because I would like to see Poulin take a run at AHL Player of the Week honors. Still an outside chance.

Second Period: Then they hit a roadblock. Couldn’t’ generate any offense. Then Zac Dalpe scores to give the Checkers some jump heading into the third intermission.

Magnus Hellberg was tested in the period and in parts I thought he was fine but of course he is going to want that one back.

Third Period: Teams ice the puck when they don’t have an answer otherwise when the team they are playing is bearing down on them. Watch for that next time. I picked it up a few games ago and saw it in force in the third period here by the Penguins.

It was inevitable.

Uvis Balinskis with a shot from the point that I thought was deflected but wasn’t and Hellberg was screened badly and it’s a tie game.

Then the Penguins are given an opportunity for a power play at 13:59 of the third period with Dennis Cesana put in the penalty box for a high sticking minor. The Penguins play with it along the wall, Charlotte throws it out, they fight for possession, then entry, then play with it more along the wall then get some late desperation shots which don’t result in goals.

It was again, inevitable.

Michael Benning scores at 17:02 and Charlotte has a 3-2 lead.

That’s far too easy right there. Rasmus Asplund just steals it from Radium Zohorna and dishes to a streaking Benning for the goal there.

Penguins then call time out, pull Hellberg and a few patrons over in Section 110 think that they score, but referees Chris Rumble and Jared Cummins didn’t see it that way and then Mackie Samoskevich hit an empty net to ice it away for the Checkers.

Three Stars: 3) Jake Wise (two assists) 2) Zac Dalpe (goal, assist) 1) Michael Benning (game winning goal)

The Good: Stay hot Vinnie and Sam!

The Bad: Pittsburgh may be sellers at the deadline, have we seen the last of these two?

Turning Point: Couple paragraphs up, the Rasmus Asplund robbery of Radim Zohorna setting up Michael Benning for the go ahead goal gets it here.

Rejected Headline: Bennie’s Biscuits. I assume they call Benning ‘Bennie’

Around the Division: Hershey loses 1-0 at home to Utica….Bridgeport beats Lehigh Valley 2-1….Springfield beats Laval 7-3.

Standings: Hershey 85 – Providence 73 – Penguins 64 – Hartford 61 – Charlotte 60 – Springfield 55 – Lehigh Valley 51 – Bridgeport 41

Wheeling Update: Nailers are out in Fort Wayne and are losing last I checked. Box here.

Video Highlights: 

Three straight against Lehigh Valley and with the current form of the Phantoms, six points are just laying there begging you pick them up and put them in your pocket.

Gotta get through the trade deadline though. Should be a fun ride.

Talk to you next Friday, sooner if I have to.

Let’s Go Pens!

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On Military Appreciation Night, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins handled a game Bridgeport Islanders team 4-1. Magnus Hellberg was sharp in goal for the Penguins, Jonathan Gruden and Dmitri Samorukov each had a goal and an assist and the Penguins got back to their winning ways.

A bit short staffed with seven players out due to injury, they have a week to heal and regroup for their next game Friday against the Charlotte Checkers.

Here’s how they lined up:

(I still think whoever runs this account is the great Mike Fornabaio in disguise)

Lineup Notes: None to speak of.

First Period: Dmitri Samorukov pinches and throws a puck at the net that is batted in by Jonathan Grudge that give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

The Mets should sign that guy.

:48 later, Jagger Joshua’s nose for the net continues and the Penguins double up their lead.

Hudson Fasching scores a goal at the twenty minute mark but time had expired. After a brief video review, time had run out.

Second Period: Penguins had back to back power plays and missed, a 3-0 lead could have worked here.

Julien Gauthier was awarded a penalty shot. Hellberg got a blocker on it and the puck hit the post but stayed out.

I wish I had a GIF of the Xavier Ouellet breakaway attempt. It would go well with the Price is Right losing horn. Ouellet, a defensemen, lost the handle entirely.

Third Period: Karlson Kuhlman crashes the net and scores on a cross ice play that puts the Islanders the board and cuts into the Penguins lead.

:44 later. Samorukov gets a goal to go for him and the Penguins re-establish their two goal lead.

Bridgeport called a time out, pulled Jakub Skarek and Matt Filipe, who was placed in the penalty box for a tripping penalty, scored when Taylor Fedun connected with him for a 4-1 lead.

Good win. Hellberg looked sharp.

Three Stars: 3) Dmitri Samorukov (goal, assist) 2) Magnus Hellberg (31 saves) 1) Jonathan Gruden (goal, assist)

The Good: Good win as I just said. Felt like they needed that win and last place Bridgeport was just what the doctor ordered.

The Bad: They still don’t have a shutout on the season and went 0/2 on the power play.

Turning Point: The Samorukov goal was big. Bridgeport was on the come, just got one and were hinting for a second and Samorukov scores a team goal to make it a two goal lead again.

Around the Division: Hershey…wins again in overtime, 2-1 over Rochester, for their 41st win of the season. That’s insane….Lehigh Valley beats Charlotte in overtime 6-5….Springfield storms back to tie it at four all but a late second period goal by Reilly Walsh stands up as the game winner and the Bruins beat the Thunderbirds 5-4.

Standings: Hershey 85 – Providence 69 – Penguins 62 – Hartford 58 – Charlotte 54 – Springfield 53 – Lehigh Valley 51 – Bridgeport 37

Wheeling Update: The Nailers are out in Kalamazoo and win 2-1. Two 5-on-3 power play goals for the Nailers in the win. Taylor Gauthier picks up the win for Wheeling with 23 saves.

Video Highlights: 

They get a week off, so but for anything breaking I’ll be back here Friday with your weekend setup. Talk to you then, have a great week.

Let’s Go Pens!

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You’ll often read me mention on the blog throughout the years about lost points that the Penguins wish they had come April.

This game was like that, but to the Penguins benefit.

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton wins 4-3 in Allentown Friday, after coughing up a 3-0 lead Lehigh Valley rallies for two in the second and one in the third but its’ Sam Poulin scoring with 1:29 left in the third to rally past and bust up the run that the host Phantoms were on.

Obvious and clear and huge two points for the Penguins, who keep pace with Hartford and Providence, winners in their respective contests also. More on them in a bit.

Here’s how they lined up…

Lineup Notes: Will Butcher was traded to Minnesota. In return the Pittsburgh Penguins received Maxim Cajkovic, who will likely head to Wheeling. Taylor Fedun replaced Butcher in the lineup. The Penguins now have seven veterans with the departure of Butcher. You can only dress six. Goalies do not count.

First Period: Like Wednesday, they started on time and led 3-0 on a power play goal by Jesse Puljujarvi, Marc Johnstone and Sam Poulin.

Defensive breakdown by the Phantoms here and a guy with Puljujarvi’s offensive acumen isn’t going to miss those.

Buddy if you get a guy like Marc Johnstone going like this on a nightly basis the sky is the limit for this team.

I think it’s (redacted) or get off the pot time for Poulin, and I think he spent last night at the Taco Bell.

Second Period: Phantoms respond for two goals, including a late power play goal by Bobby Brink with :28 to play in the period you could kind of see coming.

System breakdown there. I think they did everything right but somehow go it wrong.

Too much standing around for my liking. What is it about the Lehigh Valley power play against the Penguins penalty kill?

Third Period: Didn’t want to see Brink score the power play goal because they rode that momentum to a game tying goal by Adam Brooks.

I don’t know what the hell happened there but the Penguins were way too slow to react to whatever it was that hit them. Did you get the license plate of that truck that just hit you doing 75 on the interstate, Alice?

But here’s where I think the tell tale sign of whatever it was that ailed them last year or in parts the first quarter of the season is out of their system. This is the type of game that last year they lose and maybe in October or November they lose. Not here. They found a way to win.

That’s some dogged determination by Marc Johnstone and Radim Zohorna who set Poulin up for the finish right there.

With Felix Sandstrom pulled for the extra attacker, the Phantoms did not find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Adam Brooks (goal) 2) Bobby Brink (goal) 1) Sam Poulin (two goals, assist, 17 PIMs)

Honorable mentions go to Marc Johnstone who had a goal and the assist on the GWG and Jesse Puljujarvi who also had a goal and an assist and Radim Zohorna who had two assists.

The Good: Sam Poulin, in addition to the offense, picked up an instigator, fight and misconduct in the second period with a fight with Garrett Wilson and still went out and scored the GWG. You love to see it.

The Bad: If this is Hershey, is the result the same? I don’t think so.

Turning Point: Poulin’s game winner with 1:29. They weren’t booing at the PPL Center, they were “Pooooouuuu–ling”

Around the Division: Hartford goes to North Division leading Cleveland and wins 4-2….Providence doubles up Bridgeport 6-3 and Springfield gets off the skids with a 3-1 win against Charlotte.

Standings: Hershey 66 – Providence 53 – Penguins 51 – Hartford 47 – Charlotte 44 – Springfield 43 – Lehigh Valley 40 – Bridgeport 27

Wheeling Update: The Nailers smoked the Reading Royals 8-3. Isaac Belliveau with a goal and two assists. Jordan Martel had a hat trick and an assist. Lukas Svejkovsky with a pair of assists. Taylor Gauthier had all the run support he needed, stopping 21.

Video Highlights: Not up yet. I may check in the morning or you can head to the AHL Video Center.

Hershey Saturday. Should be fun.

Let’s Go Pens!

In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the team, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins released the Top 25 Penguins All-Time Team.

Link to the team release here.

Here’s the list. Names in green were on my list.

Colby Armstrong
Paul Bissonnette
Teddy Blueger
Dennis Bonvie
Sebastien Caron
Andy Chiodo
Deryk Engelland
Bobby Farnham
Marc-Andre Fleury
Jake Guentzel
Tristan Jarry
Chris Kelleher
Tom Kostopoulos
Ben Lovejoy
Matt Murray
Alain Nasreddine
Brooks Orpik
Toby Petersen
Bryan Rust
Rob Scuderi
Zach Sill
John Slaney
Maxime Talbot
Tim Wallace
Ryan Whitney

Here’s my list. It isn’t in alphabetical order, like the list above.

Ben Lovejoy
Joey Mormina
Tom Kostopoulos
Dennis Bonvie
Marc-Andre Fleury
John Curry
Alain Nasreddine
Jeff Taffe
Chris Minard
Tim Wallace
Wade Brookbank
Casey DeSmith
Joe Vitale
Colby Armstrong
Jonathan Filewich
Connor James
Brian Dumoulin
Dustin Jeffrey
Paul Bissonnette
Brad Thiessen
Tristan Jarry
Alex Goligoski
John Slaney
Konstantin Koltsov
Brett Sterling

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Some thoughts are as follows…you really can’t have Ben Lovejoy on the list and not include Joey Mormina…I wasn’t around to watch Chris Kelleher, Sebastien Caron, Andy Chiodo or Toby Petersen. I think it’s apparent that a lot of folks who have been with the team since 1999 voted, like I did and I am fine with that.

More modern day, you can’t have Bryan Rust on the list. You can’t have Max Talbot or Brooks Orpik on the list either. These guys carved out a hell of an NHL career for themselves. They said in the Max Talbot blurb that he scored the game winning goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. Great. How does that make him a Top 25 WBS Penguin?

Derek Engelland is a guy I will always associate with as a Hershey Bear.

Zach Sill and Bobby Farnham are the same person.

How soon we forget Game 6 against Providence the year the Penguins came from down 0-3 to beat the Bruins in 7 and the heroic, probably greatest performance ever (for far) by a goaltender and Brad Thiessen?

I knew that Wade Brookbank and Casey DeSmith had no shot but it was a fan list, I’m a fan so they made my list.

Jonathan Filewich, Brett Sterling, Chris Minard, Jeff Taffe and Dustin Jeffery made my list but didn’t make theirs. All snipers. You need a big goal late in the third period against Hershey in May. Who are you sending over the boards? I’m sending Chris Minard, Brett Sterling or Jonathan Filewich in that order before I even consider Bryan Rust.

You can make cases for Matt Murley, Valtteri Puustinen, Ryan Craig, Andrew Ference, Erik Christiansen, Shane Endicott and countless others and not be wrong. I think the list is skewed a bit because it’s taking into account things that the players did after they already passed through Coal Street (or River Street, or Public Square, depending on the era) and not considering those who made names for themselves in Wilkes-Barre.

I like that the Pens will be issuing trading cards, five each on five different Wednesday’s to commemorate their all time team.

More tomorrow, setting up the first three in three of the season.

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I don’t think that, in any of the five power plays the Charlotte Checkers had in this game, a 4-1 Penguins win, that the home team was ever really troubled by being down a man.

Charlotte went 0-for-5 on the power play and that is what cost them this game in my opinion.

The two team do it all again Saturday, an hour earlier.

A goal and an assist for Colin White and 30 saves for Joel Blomqvist in this one as well.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: First on ice, Matt Filipe was in for Raivis Ansons, who you can add to the injured list and Xavier Ouellet was in for Taylor Fedun in the vet for vet swap. The Pens recalled Taylor Gauthier because Magnus Hellberg and Garret Sparks are ill. They also recalled Dillon Hamaliuk, who skated as the extra. With Ty Smith playing for Team Canada in the Spengler Cup, good to have spare defensemen if you need them.

First Period: Penguins manage only four shots in the period, but one of them goes in when Corey Andonovski forces a turnover which finds its way to Will Butcher who scores to give the Penguins the early 1-0 lead.

Second Period: Just :59 in and Alex Nyalnder scores to make it two for the Penguins.

Then Blomqvist was interfered with, goes down. Because there’s an unwritten rule that you can’t smash the goalie like that, there was a bit of a fracas. Ref Beau Halkidis, who makes a living flying by the seat of his pants everywhere he goes, lets the interference go and overcorrects when the team steps up to defend the honor of their goaltender. He puts Charlotte on the power play. Good thing that the power play for Charlotte was 💩 otherwise it would have been a different game.

Penguins get a power play of their own and cash on it when Colin White takes a deflection of a shot from the point for a 3-0 Penguins lead.

Third Period: Question, as the period wore on, was whether the team would get Blomqvist his first AHL shutout or not.

No.

Lucas Carlsson with about the best individual effort you will see, busts up the bid.

Good lord someone put a body on the guy.

Matt Filipe would score an empty net goal to make if 4-1. They should never take him out of the lineup again.

Three Stars: 3) Joel Blomqvist (30 saves) 2) Peter Abbandonato (two assists) 1) Colin White (goal, assist)

The Good: 5 for 5 on the kill is good. 5 for 5 on the kill when it wins you the hockey game is even better.

The Bad: No, seriously, put a body on Carlsson next time.

Turning Point: White’s power play goal that made it 3-0 served the same purpose as when Hershey went up 3-0 on the Pens Wednesday. 2-0 is doable, 3-0 is impossible with the way both games went. Nice to be on the better end of this one.

Around the Division: Providence handles Utica 5-2….Hershey beats Rochester 4-2 because of course….Bridgeport coughs up a three goal lead in the third but survives Springfield 6-5 in overtime.

Standings: Hershey 52 – Providence and Springfield 36 – Penguins and Hartford 35 – Charlotte and Lehigh Valley 31 – Bridgeport 20

How tight is this division minus Hershey, man?

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: 

Back at it Saturday against this same team. More then.

Let’s Go Pens!

Blog is on hiatus for the time being. They brought back taxi squads, and the AHL club is dressing half baked, ECHL type lineups. You may or may not have noticed I didn’t even write about the last two Penguins games against Hershey, completely non-competitive 4-1 and 6-1 throttlings at the hands of the Hershey Bears.

I am not paying to watch this anymore, and I know a lot of people with me in this regard. With that said, the luster of watching a half dressed / half attempt of a club come in to a game night and have the [redacted] kicked out of them isn’t something that interests me.

The AHL’s grand idea was to just add a week to the end of the regular season schedule. As if a COVID pandemic will conform to what Scott Howson and the rest of the clowns driving this car off a cliff’s ideas are. You postpone games daily, clubs just lost their six best players and starting goaltender to the NHL taxi squad and your bright idea is to whistle past the graveyard, pretend everything is normal and when pressed, just add an extra week and let the teams figure it out. Fantastic leadership being displayed there.

Pens have a lot of games to make up and not a lot of time to do so. I’ll direct you to their website on information in that regard. I have totally lost interest.

So I am hiatus for the time being. My opinion can change at any time and I’ll start putting content up again.

They have Utica this Friday, who has only lost one (1) game in regulation thus far this season and a Saturday and Sunday in Hershey, who have beat the ever living tar out of them. If they score more than four goals across the three games I’d be surprised.

I’ll still be around, just not involved as much.