Few things to note on an otherwise quiet Monday:

— Pittsburgh put Zach Boychuk on waivers. Since the Penguins claimed him off of waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes, Carolina has the right of first refusal to claim him back and assign him to their AHL affiliate, Charlotte. That said, there is little to no chance Boychuk ends up in Wilkes-Barre.

— Beau Bennett was re-assigned back to Wilkes-Barre. But before you rejoice, Seth Rorabaugh from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette had a series of tweets that explain a bit further the Bennett move.

My takeaway from this is that regardless what happens with Boychuk, it does Bennett no good to play third or fourth line minutes toiling in and out of the lineup night in and night out in Pittsburgh. Let him be a point a gamer here in Wilkes-Barre before he goes up and stays up. I will continue to beat this drum.

— Binghamton got help from Ottawa, in the return of Derek Grant.

— The AHL Playoff Primer is back. The Penguins magic number to make playoffs is 37. Their pace points is 84, slotting him where they are now, at the seven seed. I may be math inept, but I love this information put out by the League.

— Third Quarter Grades are coming together nicely. In the 19 games, Philip Samuelsson leads the Penguins in +/- with a +7, Chad Kolarik is at the bottom of this list at -7. Of players that have played more than 10 of the 19 games in the quarter, only six players have a positive +/-.

The plan is to have the Grades here on the blog sometime tomorrow. Stick with me on Twitter for the latest on this front.

Edit: The Third Quarter Grades will be up Tuesday at 1 p.m., after waiver moves are announced at noon.

On the personnel front, Pittsburgh announced the reassignment of Dylan Reese back to Wilkes-Barre. That’s great news for all involved. Matt Niskanen and Kris Letang came off injured reserve up top so Pittsburgh is healthy and there are no bodies there that belong here. Simon Despres? His AHL ship has sailed. He still hypothetically could return because he’s waiver exempt, but the way he’s playing for Pittsburgh, there’s no way you send him back.

Fallout from last night, Binghamton recalled Marc Chevrie from Elmira, no doubt because of the injury to Nathan Lawson last night from Adam Payerl’s charging major.

This morning I checked the AHL Rulebook on the Major Penalties that were assessed to Payerl and Tom Kostopoulos. Payerl first:

Rule 42 – Charging

42.1 Charging – A minor or major penalty shall be imposed on a player who skates or jumps into, or charges an opponent in any manner.

Charging shall mean the actions of a player who, as a result of
distance traveled, shall violently check an opponent in any manner. A “charge” may be the result of a check into the boards, into the goal frame or in open ice.

A minor, major or a major and a game misconduct shall be
imposed on a player who charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is within his goal crease.

A goalkeeper is not “fair game” just because he is outside the goal crease area. The appropriate penalty should be assessed in every case where an opposing player makes unnecessary contact with a goalkeeper. However, incidental contact, at the discretion of the Referee, will be permitted when the goalkeeper is in the act of playing the puck outside his goal crease provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.

It goes on to state that if there is an injury to the face or head as a result of the foul, the player is fined $200 and if deemed appropriate, supplementary discipline can be imposed.

I think Payerl is getting suspended. I checked the history of the suspensions handed out by the League going back to November. The majority of them are for violent boarding penalties or checking to the head penalties. Since we have the combination of a violent collision which resulted in a subsequent injury to Lawson’s head area, Payerl is going to get sat down. My guess is three games.

Kostopoulos’ spearing call is black and white. There is no minor penalty for spearing in the AHL Rulebook. It’s either a double-minor, major or a match penalty if there is an injury. A major was assessed last night. He’ll receive a $200 fine. I do not think he gets suspended.

We’ll have to wait and see what, if any, action the AHL takes on this. I’d expect that if there is a suspension, it is announced before Friday’s game vs. Norfolk.

Let’s Go Pens!

So some news and what happened in the East Division Sunday afternoon with every team except Wilkes-Barre playing a game. First the news…

–> Chris Barton was released from his PTO and returned to Wheeling where he and the Nailers played the Elmira Jackals up in New York. Another thing worth noting in this game was it was Keven Veilleux’s first game back from his 10 game suspension. The Nailers lost this game 5-0 and haven’t scored a goal since Thursday. Veilleux was a -3.

–> Joe Morrow was recalled to Pittsburgh, Kris Letang was placed on injured reserve and Morrow is up “for insurance” purposes. He was scratched in Pittsburgh’s game vs. New Jersey tonight.

–> Follower @TK_Noodle chirped in this morning and showed me his first quarter grades for the Pittsburgh Penguins through 12 games. Worth a read.

Alright, so here’s what went down in the East Division today:

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     6

Recap: Scott Munroe stopped 42 of 43 shots as the Phantoms rolled the Crunch 6-1 in Glens Falls. Syracuse is 2-8 since the end of the lockout.

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      2

Recap: B-Sens let a 2-0 lead slip on them and lose in a shootout 3-2. Penguins square off against Binghamton Tuesday night.

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      4

      3

Recap: Norfolk coughs up a three goal lead in the third period but still manage to win in a shootout 4-3. Norfolk wins it’s league low seventh road game.

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Here’s what the standings in the East look like tonight:

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So I had time today to mess around with graphs and graphics. Now you know how I spent my afternoon. You like it.

Anyway, unless something big happens tomorrow, look for the next blog update to come Tuesday for the Gameday setup. Always the latest on Twitter, then Facebook but never Instagram. Heh.

Let’s Go Pens!