Chirps from Center Ice

A fan blog about the AHL's Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins

Category Archives: Pittsburgh

An Offseason of Change?

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on June 9, 2014

By now you’ve heard of the changes in Pittsburgh. Ray Shero and Dan Bylsma are out, Jim Rutherford is in, leaving a vacancy at the head coaching position.

Rutherford rode into Pittsburgh this past Friday and immediately terminated Bylsma. “Change” was a word that was tossed around. Rutherford has a short list of head coaching candidates that he was going to interview and wants to have someone installed by the end of the month, ideally.

One of those names, is the head coach of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, John Hynes.

It is a matter of time before John Hynes will be a head coach in the NHL. He’s too good of a coach at the AHL level not to be.

For those scoffing at the idea of Hynes getting the keys to the Pittsburgh Penguins, citing him unproven, I offer this: Using the inference that the AHL is a breeding ground for players, coaches and staff, Hynes has proven himself more than capable. He’s piloted the AHL Penguins to the Eastern Conference Finals amid roster turnover and juggling a lineup eviscerated by injuries at the NHL level at a non-stop pace for two straight seasons.

Hynes expects a lot from his players. He holds his players accountable. Worried that Hynes would be Dan Bylsma Lite? Ask ex-Penguin Joe Morrow. Morrow, as you’ll recall, was traded to Dallas last year. He said on his way out the door that he was “nit picked.” Now here is Morrow, a high profile name out of the WHL, given no preferential treatment at the next level and broken down and built back up by Hynes and his staff.

Telling a rookie out of the Western Hockey League what to do in his own zone and holding him accountable is a bit different than telling Sidney Crosby what to do and how to do it, but if Pittsburgh wants a new direction, why not Hynes?

By no means am I forcing John Hynes out the door. Hell, selfishly, I hope Hynes stays the coach in Wilkes-Barre for years to come.

But that’s not how things operate in the AHL, it’s not just a developmental league for the players.

Pittsburgh, WBS

You Can’t Trademark That

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on May 15, 2014

Remember the Brian Gibbons Breakaway of the Game™?

He’s back.

With Pittsburgh knocked out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the news was made official today that Brian Gibbons has been assigned to Wilkes-Barre. Gibbons should be available this weekend to play, from Jonathan’s Thursday update.

Zach Trotman for Providence is day-to-day with an injury. He was injured in Game 3, this news coming from Bruins beat writer Mark Divver.

Also, as soon as Derrick Pouliot is officially assigned and gets here and is acclimated to the Wilkes-Barre system, the Penguins will be at or near the best they’ve been all year. Could you remember a Penguins team more potent than this one? Think about it. No major injuries and we are running at full strength with both Pittsburgh and Wheeling out of the playoffs.

Speaking of Wheeling, Jonathan said that Tom Kuhnhackl, Peter Merth and Dustin Stevenson are on the way up as part of the Black Aces. There could be other guys, such as Cody Sylvester and Christian Minella are also eligible. Denver Manderson was hurt in the Nailers series with Greenville, so his status is doubtful to come here.

Oh, I started looking at last night’s numbers of who was on ice / off ice for the charts and Anton Zlobin is no longer perfect. He was on the ice for two of the Providence goals scored. On Simon Despres’ first goal, there were four forwards on the ice. (Zach Sill, Chuck Kobasew, Harry Zolnierczyk and Conor Sheary) I don’t think that’s right, but that’s what the scoresheet says. I’ll have a chart refresh this weekend, probably Sunday.

Game 4 goes tomorrow from Providence. The Gameday setup hits the blog at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

Tuesday Notebook

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on May 6, 2014

With a whole week between games, there’s not much to blog about. One post down is an in depth look at some numbers between Providence and Wilkes-Barre that’s been up since Sunday. I probably won’t blog again until the Series Preview between the Pens and P-Bruins. But I managed to scrape together the following….

— Wilkes-Barre got help today in the form of Jayson Megna. He wasn’t seeing any playoff ice time with Pittsburgh, so they sent him to Wilkes-Barre where he will undoubtedly be inserted into the lineup for the Penguins.

Megna is an interesting case this year. I’ve sort of carried the schtick that he’s not my favorite player in spite of the fact that he has seen more NHL games (36) than AHL (25) this year. So with only 61 games played this season, you can bet that he’s going to be chomping at the bit to get into a game and knock some bodies around and hopefully score some goals in the process.

— Glens Falls will have a team again next season, in the form of Calgary prospects. The AHL’s Board of Governors approved the move Monday. Good that the League maintains a 30 team marriage with the 30 clubs in the NHL.

I thought about this and it’s been debated on Twitter, Facebook and beyond, where do you put the new Glens Falls team? The Eastern Conference? The Western Conference? Do you go 16 East teams and 14 West teams? Realignment is usually announced in July. I think that the AHL goes back to the four division format and adapts the same concept in the NHL presently.

— The Norfolk Admirals are becoming the unscratchable itch. They steal home ice away from the St. John’s IceCaps with a 3-1 win Tuesday. Goaltender John Gibson was stellar again for the Admirals, stopping 42 shots. Seemed like to me, if I was following the game the right way on Twitter, that Norfolk used, “bend but not break” and ground out a huge road victory. Gibson was beat on a deflection on the tail end of a power play and the Admirals answered right back minutes later. Game 2 is Wednesday.

Anaheim is in a battle with Los Angeles, currently down 2-0 in that series. If the Ducks do get bounced, they could get Emerson Etem, Devante Smith-Pelly and Rickard Rackell back from recall. That’s quite a calvary.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves in Wilkes-Barre, shall we?

The Pens / P-Bruins Series Preview will be up Thursday at noon.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Here’s Chuckie

1 Comment Posted by nafsnep on April 15, 2014

When Chuck Kobasew was recalled back to Pittsburgh, I had honestly thought that was the last time we would see him in Wilkes-Barre. Kobasew, assigned to Wilkes-Barre March 5, put up 10 goals and an assist in 11 games. Seemingly a man playing a kid’s game.

He’s back.

Kobasew was re-assigned today by Pittsburgh along with Harry Zolnierczyk and Simon Despres as the Penguins are about to embark on their run for their first ever Calder Cup. With the unknown status of Brian Dumoulin and the injury to Philip Samuelsson, the addition of Simon Despres is welcome and needed.

Having Kobasew back in town adds one more body over the veteran limit, but at this time of year having seven healthy veterans is a good problem to have.

Our neighbors to the north and south of I-81 loaded up too.

Ottawa sent Cody Ceci, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Mark Stone to Binghamton yesterday, made official today.

Washington sent Julien Brouillette and Peter Leblanc to Hershey yesterday. Tyson Strachan was assigned today after clearing waivers. Chandler Stephenson signed his ATO and joined the team en route to Norfolk, for two huge games against the Admirals for seemingly the right to go to the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Wilkes-Barre signed three guys to ATOs today. Jean-Sebastian Dea, Clark Seymour and Matthew Murray. A forward, defenseman and a goaltender. Seymour and Murray were with the team last Spring on ATOs. Dea wowed in the Fall and earned himself a contract. Out of the trio, I would bet we see Dea.

Sad news out of Abbotsford today, as it was announced that the Heat would not return for a sixth season. The five seasons in British Columbia have been a disaster at the turnstyle, with Abbotsford at the bottom of AHL attendance. To boot, the city had to subsidize the team for 10 years meaning that the taxpayers had to pay for the team. There’s speculation that the team may relocate to Glens Falls in the Fall, with the Phantoms already set to move to Allentown in October.

Be thankful you have a Penguins team that plays at or near capacity night after night.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Wednesday Notebook

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on April 9, 2014

A bunch of stuff to get to. Here we go…

Goaltender Tomas Vokoun was assigned to Wilkes-Barre today on a conditioning assignment.

In a reactionary move, G Eric Hartzell was sent to Wheeling to get games in. Also in that release is the recall of Cody Sylvester.

Scott Wilson has signed his ATO.

Two other teams are in playoffs. Reservations made for the St. John’s IceCaps and the Abbotsford Heat.

Kris Letang is back.

Andrew Ebbett is back too.

Jonathan had an update on the days news, with quotes from Vokoun. Coal Street put together an audio package that you can listen to here.

Some footnotes: The Ebbett re-assignment puts the Pens one over the veteran limit again. In case you were wondering, having Tomas Vokoun in town on conditioning does not affect the veteran limit because goaltenders are exempt from this rule…Cody Sylvester had his appendix removed a few days ago and was called up to get looked at medically here.

The AHL started rolling out its end of year awards. Schedule here. The All-Rookie Team was announced today. None of the Penguins were on it. But that game me an idea nevertheless. My own Chirps from Center Ice End of the Year Awards. We can do the standard Rookie of the Year, Best Forward, Best Defenseman, Best Goalie and MVP and any other category that comes to me within the final two weeks of the season. The good people at WordPress who host my blog allow me to use polls, so I am going to put it to you, the reader to decide who wins. Look for that in the coming weeks.

Next blog update will probably be the Friday afternoon setup for the game in Syracuse.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

Thursday Notebook 1/23

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on January 23, 2014

Just a couple of things rolling around the hopper…

— Steve Oleksy is back with Hershey, having cleared waivers Tuesday. So too is G Philipp Grubauer. The Capitals recalled D Nate Schmidt in what was probably a swap for him and Oleksy. The Penguins play Hershey this Sunday.

— Something which hit me out of left field, but the St. John’s IceCaps could be no more in a few years as parent Winnipeg is looking to place an AHL team in Thunder Bay, Ontario to be “closer” to their prospects. The arena in Thunder Bay hasn’t been built yet, so everything is premature. I was more shocked at a) the very thought of moving a team out of St. John’s. Mile One Centre has sold out every game since the IceCaps were born; b) how quickly things escalated with the Jets having a word on it then the IceCaps and c) the announcement coming weeks before the AHL puts on its showcase event in the AHL All-Star Classic.

It also got me to thinking how well we, as Wilkes-Barre fans, have it as Wilkes-Barre fans. If your single biggest gripe is the parking lot at the Mohegan Sun Arena not being 100% paved or not being able to hear Mike O’Brien call a Penguins game over the air on 102.3 because of a football game, then you, me, us have it pretty damn good. Count your blessings.

— Ex-WBS Penguin Dustin Jeffrey was placed on and cleared waivers these past 24 hours. Remember that Pittsburgh put Jeffrey on waivers a few weeks ago he was claimed by the Dallas Stars. Pittsburgh could have hypothetically claimed Jeffrey back and assigned him to Wilkes-Barre.

— The Penguins did re-assign Zach Sill to Wilkes-Barre Thursday morning. Pittsburgh did activate Andrew Ebbett from injured reserve.

The Sill re-assignment came Thursday morning, then Jeffrey went unclaimed at noon, and then the announcement that Ebbett was re-activated off of injured reserve at around 2 p.m. That timeline made sense because either Jeffrey was getting claimed or someone was coming off of reserve. You never see Pittsburgh skate not carry an extra forward at anytime.

— Here’s a story from Nailers beat writer Shawn Rine which provides an in-depth look at the Peter Mannino saga.

Penguins will get to Norfolk Thursday afternoon for a pair of weekend games against the Admirals. Friday’s game begins at 7:30, so the Gameday setup for that will hit the blog Friday at 3:30.

Not AHL, Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Injuries 2.0

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on January 14, 2014

Just when you thought the Pittsburgh Penguins were finally healthy and bodies were going to, eventually, start filtering back to Wilkes-Barre.

Boom. Nick Drazenovic recalled Tuesday morning and Brian Gibbons and Joe Vitale placed on injured reserve retroactive. But wait, there’s more! James Neal is day to day (upper body) and might still play Wednesday vs. Washington but might not, so there’s a possibility that yet another body may be claimed from Wilkes-Barre.

Jonathan had a Tuesday update ~~to complain about the Tom, Nick and Harry line being broken up~~ to offer perspective on the Pens down the middle.

Coal Street released Barry Goers from his PTO and recalled Nick D’Agostino.

Anyway, I was thinking about all the injuries the Penguins have had in the past three seasons and how pillaged Wilkes-Barre has been as a result. That said, with all of the advanced analytics, charts, metrics, graphs and what have you out there on the internet and filling up your Twitter feed I was wondering if it was possible for someone to come up with a chart defining the injuries sustained by the Penguins in the past three to five years. In comparison, look at the injuries sustained by the other 29 teams and compare them. Example:

Player x broke his ankle pursuing a puck into the boards. His lower leg hits the boards and his leg turns awkwardly and he suffers a broken ankle. How many other NHL teams have had this similar injury?

Like how many times do you see a player block a shot with his hand errantly? How often does it happen to the Penguins in the past three years and the rest of the league?

I guess what I am trying to get at is there is no doubt that the Penguins seem to be ravaged by injuries year after year. There has to be some kind of explanation as to why.

Anyway, I am aiming at a Thursday release of my Second Quarter Grades provided I don’t break, strain, pull, tweak or concuss some upper or lower body injury in an undisclosed fashion. Heh.

Just Rambling, Pittsburgh, WBS

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