Chirps from Center Ice

Some roster moves made today.

Defenseman Steve Oleksy cleared waivers Thursday afternoon and his clearing paved the way to Carter Rowney’s recall from Wilkes-Barre to Pittsburgh. Rowney’s first NHL recall. To be determined is whether or not Rowney will actually dress when the Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Boston Bruins tonight in Boston. Patric Hornqvist participated in the morning skate at TD Garden this morning and looked none the worse for wear. He’s listed as a game time decision.

If I were coaching the team instead of just blogging about it, I would let Hornqvist sit and dress Rowney. What is the point of holding Rowney out of Wednesday’s game against Syracuse, recalling him Thursday just to sit him and only send him back to Wilkes-Barre once the Penguins go on the all-star break? Let Hornqvist rest his leg and get closer to 100% and give Rowney a shot.

Jonathan had some interesting ideas based off of what can happen if Hornqvist can or can not go that you can read about here. He also had some quotes that Seth got from Tom Kostopoulos and Clark Donatelli on Rowney’s first call-up that are worth checking out as well.

Steve Oleksy is back in the AHL after spending the better part of the last two and a half months in the NHL. Oleksy’s last game with Wilkes-Barre was November 6 against the Providence Bruins.

In wake of the Oleksy reassignment, the Penguins, who now are overflowing with defensemen, sent Michael Webster back to Wheeling. Seth got confirmation from practice this morning that Tim Erixon will be available Friday against Utica and that Oskar Sundqvist should be back Saturday in Binghamton.

Brett Stern remains up with the Penguins for now. My guess here is that he will likely be sent down to Wheeling by the weekend. They are probably keeping him up to insure that Erixon is indeed totally fine to go Friday in Utica.

I think that about covers it. Any other roster moves made will be addressed in the postgame recap of the Penguins trip to Utica Friday night. Look for the Gameday setup Friday at 3.

Well, it’s the end of December and if you have followed the Pittsburgh Penguins organization from top to bottom, you know that this is the season for injuries.

You already knew that Chad Ruhwedel and Derrick Pouliot were up in Pittsburgh, but on Tuesday night, Brian Dumoulin took a puck to the face which broke his jaw. He’s out 4-6 weeks. He’ll likely be on a liquid diet as his jaw heals which means he will lose weight and muscle mass. Once he’s okay to eat solid food again, he’ll need to regain all that weight he lost and gain back the muscle and get his wind back. Depending on how all that goes, it could be 6 weeks, it could be longer.

David Warsofsky was recalled Wednesday and was a scratch in Pittsburgh’s 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Matt Murray started that game and was mysteriously replaced in goal in the third period by Marc-Andre’ Fleury. Murray was on the bench for the third, but on Thursday it was revealed that he is week to week with a lower body injury.

There go those benign terms again. Hockey will always be a niche sport in America unless or until owners start disclosing what the injury is and the time frame for recovery (like Dumoulin’s injury) beyond that, any run of the mill sports fan has no time for body, “injury” and “day-to-day.” Aren’t we all?

Anyway.

Tristan Jarry was recalled from Wilkes-Barre Thursday evening. In the same release, and little bit of a silver lining for a Wilkes-Barre club that only has six defensemen on its roster, Pittsburgh sent Derrick Pouliot back to Coal Street.

Jarry is 13-5 with a 2.15 GAA and a .921 save percentage in the AHL and was second in the league in wins at the time of his recall.

It’s Casey DeSmith’s team for now here in Wilkes-Barre. The only question which remained was which goaltender was going to be recalled from ECHL Wheeling. The Nailers have Doug Carr and Sean Maguire. Maguire is on an NHL contract and should be a mainstay in Wilkes-Barre soon.

Well, it was Doug Carr that Wilkes-Barre signed to a professional tryout agreement and not Maguire, which the Penguins could have recalled.

This is a good thing. The reason why is because Maguire is at a key point in his development, just recently being cleared to play from his injury in the Fall. Calling him up to have him sit and hold a clipboard watching DeSmith play does nothing for his development when he can get reps and carry the load in Wheeling.

Carr is 8-7-1 in 17 games for the Nailers and has a 3.31 goals against average and a .889 save percentage. He recorded a shutout against the Kalamazoo Wings this season.

The Coal Street press release linked above has more, including the time he played two periods of preseason play for the Penguins against Hershey and didn’t allow a goal and his numbers with Albany last year in a similar situation that he is in now.

Personally, I think the Penguins will be fine, but I say that every year when the injuries start. By mid-March when Wilkes-Barre is mired in a four game losing streak because they are calling guys up from Wheeling every day and losing guys to Pittsburgh every hour, my tone may be different.

But we have seen this fish before.

DeSmith was likely getting the start Friday against Providence anyway, a team on a roll that Casey owns anyhow.

Gameday setup for tomorrow’s game against the aforementioned Bruins will be on the blog Friday at 3.

Just a quick piece on this rainy Wednesday to document a few transactions made this week by the Penguins.

First, Wilkes-Barre sent Adam Krause down to Wheeling on Monday. Krause appeared in just one game for the Penguins, against Syracuse back on October 22. He’ll go down to Wheeling and get his reps there.

Second, Pittsburgh re-assigned David Warsofsky back down to Coal Street. Warsofsky was approaching the threshold of being exposed back to waivers again, so they sent him back down without having him needing to pass through again.

Third, the Penguins recalled both Steve Oleksy and Chad Ruhwedel and re-assigned Tom Sestito. This was Tuesday. Neither Oleksy or Ruhwedel played in Tuesday’s win against the Oilers.

Today, Wednesday, Pittsburgh re-assigned Chad Ruhwedel and recalled Tom Sestito again.

So what’s it all mean?

Derrick Pouliot is still out with a longer term lower body injury. I believe he is the only injured player on Pittsburgh right now. With Pittsburgh home this week, they can afford to make these recalls from Wilkes-Barre, with the AHL affiliate not playing agin until Friday at home against Toronto. I also think that it may have something to do with the salary cap, which me being a math imbecile, is beyond my comprehension. Why call up two guys, return two, send one guy back and the other down? Likely has something to do with numbers.

So as it stands Wednesday, Wilkes-Barre has Steve Oleksy on recall with Chad Ruhwedel and David Warsofsky here. A lot can and may change between now and 7:05 Friday and likely will. Don’t be surprised to see Warsofsky go back up at 5:30 on Friday and Oleksy back down in time for the huge matchup against the Marlies.

I probably won’t drop in an old news blog post between now and Friday, so stay tuned to the Twitter side of me for all the latest in terms of the roster jockeying.