Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: Pittsburgh

This Isn’t a Potpourri Factory

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on November 14, 2013

Well, maybe it is.

Here’s a catch-you-up from the week that was….

— Steven Stamkos was hurt Monday playing in Boston. As a result, JT Brown and Dmitry Korobov were called up from Syracuse to help fill the void. Brown has always killed Wilkes-Barre in one way or another, so we will see what his absence does for the Crunch heading into the weekend and beyond.

— Ex-Penguin Keven Veilleux was loaned to the Elmira Jackals by the Portland Pirates. The Pirates’ ECHL affiliate is the Gwinnett Gladiators. This is an interesting move. The Jackals are in Wheeling tonight.

— Ex-Penguin goalie John Curry was named ECHL Goaltender of the Week. Curry plays for the Orlando Solar Bears.

— Certified Penguin Killer Tomas Kundratek was sidelined Sunday in Hershey with an ACL tear. He will need surgery and is obviously out. The Bears come to Wilkes-Barre Saturday night.

— Coupla moves on Coal Street today. First, they got Jayson Megna back from Pittsburgh and sent Harrison Ruopp to Wheeling. Megna’s return means Paul Thompson most likely is back to eating popcorn in the stands.

Finally, I will not be able to tweet the Syracuse game tomorrow. But the blog will still be covered. I’m putting together a list of those who will tweet the game and will run it here Friday night. I will be able to listen to and most likely watch the game on AHL Live on my iPhone and most likely will have a recap here afterwards as always.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

Pierre Gets His Deal

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on November 7, 2013

Just a few things to touch on today…

Pittsburgh announced today that they have signed Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Lebond to an NHL deal. As a result, he was put on waivers today. We will know by noon Friday if he clears.

If you remember, we had the same situation with Tom Kostopoulos last year. He signed an AHL deal with Wilkes-Barre, Pittsburgh signed him to an NHL contract, waived him, and he was then claimed by the New Jersey Devils.

Jonathan had an update today on the Leblond news and a graph on the inequities of the Pens in shoot outs this season.

I talked Wilkes-Barre pucks with Jesse Marshall and Faceoff Factor this week.

Andy Chiodo signed a contract with the ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors.

Speak of the devil, Albany is in tomorrow!* Gameday for that affair will be up at 3 p.m.

* – see what I did there?

Not AHL, Pittsburgh, WBS

This Crow is Tasty

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on October 29, 2013

I never thought I would see the day.

After being the only player in Chirps from Center Ice history to get an “F” in the Quarterly Grades blog feature, Jayson Megna has proved me wrong.

Big time.

Megna scored his first NHL goal Monday night, along with his first NHL assist and was named first star of the game when the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1.

What a night and day turnaround from last year for the undrafted Megna. I have polished off my plate of crow in record time.

Elsewhere…

— Jonathan’s Tuesday update. Tom Kostopoulous is back and Eric Hartzell is poised to start his pro career.

— What do you mean Tux isn’t a real person? Our own flightless fowl was part of a series called “Behind the Mask” which you can watch on Hulu.com

— Wheeling beat writer Shawn Rine’s piece for The Intelligencer on Wilkes-Barre native Patrick McGrath.

— The AHL has this new weekly feature called, “The A-List” worth taking a look at.

Also, if you haven’t yet, take a look at the Week 4 AHL Power Rankings.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

The Wilkes-Barre Elevator Company

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on October 24, 2013

News out of Coal Street today was that Jayson Megna was called up to Pittsburgh and Dustin Stevenson was sent down to Wheeling.

The Megna news really isn’t surprising. Megna to date has been night and day better from last year.

Jonathan had an update today that would lead me to believe that there is going to be a rotation of call-ups between what we have seen already in Chris Conner and Harry Zolnierczyk going up and being sent back, Megna the latest to go up and guys like Zach Sill and Brian Gibbons, who are worthy enough right now to go up. I can certainly see that being the case going forward for as long as James Neal and Beau Bennett are banged up for Pittsburgh.

For Stevenson, it’s a numbers game. Kris Letting is ready to come back for the Penguins, Olli Maatta is staying with the team and Simon Despres is in Wilkes-Barre. It’s an overabundance of blue liners right now so instead of sitting watching, Stevenson will go to Wheeling and play meaningful minutes.

Short of earth shattering news, Gameday for tomorrow’s tilt in Binghamton will be here Friday on the blog at 3 p.m. I will be making the trek up to the Southern Tier. The Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena went through a renovation this summer so it will be nice to see the updates.

EDIT: I hate when they do this. Literally one second after I hit “Publish” on my post, I saw that Coal Street announced a 10 game home TV schedule. The dates are:

Norfolk on 10/26
Hershey on 11/16
Utica on 12/14
Syracuse on 12/21
Manchester on 1/4
Hartford on 1/11
Providence on 2/22
Norfolk on 3/15
Utica on 3/22
Binghamton on 4/12

The immediate takeaway from this is the fact that the Pens don’t play Hershey that much at home on Saturdays, in fact, the 11/16 game will be the only time this year that the Pens and Bears play at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.

Pittsburgh, WBS, Wheeling

Wednesday Update

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on October 23, 2013

Just a few things to touch on today since I last blogged….

— To no one’s surprise, someone other than Brian Gibbons was named AHL’s Player of the Week. Gibbons was pointless on Saturday in Worcester, so it’s not unexpected that he was ~~snubbed~~ not nominated.

— In case you don’t have a newspaper subscription to the Citizens’ Voice here’s my game story I did for them Saturday that ran in the Sunday paper.

— Here are a couple of articles that are out there. One ran in this past weekend’s Breakaway and got picked up by the AHL.com site on the Penguins third period successes. The other is a video / article on Brian Gibbons’ hot start.

— Finally, Harry Zolnierczyk and Chris Conner were reassigned by Pittsburgh today.

If there isn’t anything in the can worth blogging about tomorrow, the next update for the blog will be the Gameday setup for the away game in Binghamton on Friday.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Beau’s Adventure

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on October 2, 2013

Couple of things I want to touch on here in this brief update….

—> Beau Bennett is back with Pittsburgh. Harrison Ruopp and Chris Conner were sent to Wilkes-Barre.

—> We have ourselves a club, with the addition of Simon Despres, who was not recalled today. Rather, Pittsburgh is going to give Olli Maatta reps while Kris Letang is out with an injury. Maatta can’t come to Wilkes-Barre this year, so it’s NHL or back to juniors for him. Depending on how long Letang is out for and how well Maatta plays in the spotlight, ultimately defines what happens with Simon Despres in my opinion.

—> Tomas Vokoun will be out 3-6 months. Blood clots aren’t anything to mess with. Jeff Zatkoff is the man, for now.

—> Hybrid icing is here to stay.

—> When I read this, I didn’t know how to feel. Bears mean serious business this year.

—> Jonathan’s update. In it, the news that Mike Carman signed a 25 game PTO.

AHL Previews are done. West, Midwest, North and Atlantic are out already. Northeast tomorrow and East Friday. Drop down menus are your friend. Look up. Top of the blog. Move your mouse there and select your division.

Northeast Division drops Thursday at noon.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Ebbett / Conner Waived; Warren Peters Turns Up

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on September 29, 2013

Brief note here that Andrew Ebbett and Chris Conner are on waivers currently, they have until noon Monday to clear.

Elsewhere, a trio of players with Wilkes-Barre ties are on the Iowa Wild training camp roster. They are G John Curry, D Carl Sneep and F Warren Peters. Peters completes the 2013 Offseason Moves List, which gets its final update today.

The Fourth Annual Chirps from Center Ice AHL Previews begin tonight at midnight. Two divisions Monday, then a division a day at noon each day thereafter. Here’s a look at the schedule:

Midnight Monday: West Division
Noon Monday: Midwest Division
Noon Tuesday: North Division
Noon Wednesday: Atlantic Division
Noon Thursday: Northeast Division
Noon Friday: East Division

Before that though, Pens / Bears close out their respective preseasons at 5:05 this afternoon. I’ll have a brief recap here later this evening.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

← Older posts

Newer posts →