Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: Pittsburgh

Defensemen Digest

1 Comment Posted by on April 2, 2012

Little bit of news regarding the organizations defensemen:

–> Brian Strait was reassigned to Wilkes-Barre yesterday. Kris Letang was back from injury thus shuffling Strait back to Wilkes-Barre.

–> As a result of Strait arriving in Wilkes-Barre, Philip Samuelsson was reassigned to Wheeling.

–> Carl Sneep is having season ending surgery to an upper body part.*

In non-defesemen news:

–> Brandon DeFazio was named the IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year, representing the Penguins. It’s an award for outstanding contributions to the community during the 2011-12 season. You can see the list of the other 29 players from the other teams in the league here.

–> Baseball starts this week. To commemorate the occasion, the Rockford IceHogs and the Milwaukee Admirals had a bench clearing brawl yesterday.

–> Norfolk can clinch the regular season championship tomorrow with a win vs. the Penguins and an Oklahoma City loss in regulation vs. the Hamilton Bulldogs. The vibe I am picking up from what the Penguins told Bombulie in the Sneep story and what is to come tomorrow in the paper is that they expect to win. I am getting a feeling that they could do it.**

If they don’t, the aforementioned Jonathan Bombulie tweeted this:

–

Egad!

Gameday for tomorrow’s matchup in Virginia will be up at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Let’s Go Pens!

* – no idea if it’s hand, wrist, elbow, shoulder, or what
** – that’s the homer in me 

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Thiessen Returns 3/29

Comments Off on Thiessen Returns 3/29 Posted by on March 29, 2012

Pittsburgh announced the reassignment of Brad Thiessen today. It’s expected he re-joins the Penguins in Hartford Friday.

Patrick Killeen, meanwhile, was sent to Wheeling last night and called back up today. Wheeling played in Reading yesterday so the commute to and from was not too bad for Patrick.

Sticking with Wheeling, Andrew Hotham was named to the ECHL’s All-Second team. Hotham was injured in Wheeling when Wilkes-Barre was thin at defense and he hasn’t been here since preseason, but good for him anyway.

Norfolk keeps rolling. 21 in a row. I tweeted a picture from an article ran on the Admirals official site. Read it and weep, like I did.

Hershey leapt Wilkes-Barre in the standings last night by beating the Binghamton Senators 5-2 good enough for their seventh win a row. I am OK with this. The Penguins are a far better road team than a home team. In a five game opening first round series, there is little room for error.

Penguins can clinch a spot in the playoffs tomorrow with a win in Hartford tomorrow. The magic number is 2. I hope they do it so i can stop bending my brain trying to figure out the math.

Gameday for the matchup vs. the Whale in Hartford up at 3 p.m. tomorrow.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

Tuesday Cleanup

Comments Off on Tuesday Cleanup Posted by on March 27, 2012

Not really enough to string together a true blog post, but here’s two quick things:

  • The Wheeling Nailers are staying in Wheeling.
  • Ben Lovejoy had knee surgery this morning. Brian Strait and Simon Despres were recalled yesterday meaning one of them will stay up for the rest of the season, provided that Pittsburgh is comfortable rolling with six healthy D or seven, when they return could be up for debate.
  • Here’s the WBS Tuesday practice update from Jonathan Bombulie. One note you will find in there is Brad Thiessen should be back soon, within 7 to 10 days.

Depending on news, may not have anything until Thursday. If so, keep an eye on St.John’s in Norfolk tomorrow and Hershey in Binghamton. The Bears have a game in hand, tomorrow, and with a win can leapfrog the Penguins at the 4 seed.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, WBS

Despres / Strait Recalled

Comments Off on Despres / Strait Recalled Posted by on March 26, 2012

Pittsburgh announces at 5 o’clock this afternoon that defensemen Brian Strait and Simon Despres were both recalled.

Matt Niskanen was banged up on Saturday in Ottawa and Ben Lovejoy was banged up vs. Pittsburgh yesterday. Kris Letang was knocked around but returned and finished the game as well. I find these moves preventative because Pittsburgh plays twice this week before Wilkes-Barre Friday.

I’d probably say we get Strait or Depsres back, both and/or maybe Brad Theissen by the weekend.

Elsewhere, I must be getting this math thing down as the Pens magic number is indeed 5.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, WBS

Honk When You Pass Through Altoona

1 Comment Posted by on February 24, 2012

I am not a Geography major, but by looking at a map of the half way point between Wilkes-Barre and Wheeling it looks like Altoona, PA is the halfway point.

Why am I mentioning this here? Brad Thiessen was recalled to Pittsburgh today and in his place, Patrick Killeen was recalled by Wilkes-Barre.

If anyone knows the true “halfway point” between Wheeling and Wilkes-Barre, going through Pittsburgh, leave it in the comments.

Killeen’s stay may be of a more permanent nature, if you buy any of the trade rumors. ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun blogged today that the Pens are looking to replace Brent Johnson. (third bullet point)

Thiessen is not that upgrade, in my opinion. Minnesota is run by Chuck Fletcher, has Mike Yeo coaching the Wild. Both had ties to the Penguins. Thiessen for Harding straight up and cut Johnson? Who knows.

Trade deadline is Monday. I’m not going to speculate on what ifs. If a body gets moved and it directly affects Wilkes-Barre, reactions on Twitter feed first then a blog here later.

Syracuse in town tomorrow, but not before they host Albany tonight. Norfolk is in Binghamton tonight. I’ll have retweets of final scores on the Twitter side later. Gameday up here tomorrow at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, WBS, Wheeling

Briefly…

Comments Off on Briefly… Posted by on February 22, 2012

Just hit me that I am doing my readers who don’t have a Twitter account a disservice by at least blogging about these three quick things covered on the feed today:

1) Brad Thiessen was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre.
2) Hershey played tonight in Rochester and lost 5-2. They remain in third, two points back of Norfolk and the Penguins.
3) Bombulie had a Wednesday update, mainly about the trade deadline.

Gameday for tomorrow’s meeting with Manchester will be here at 3 p.m.

Pittsburgh, The AHL

Wednesday Morning Leftovers

Comments Off on Wednesday Morning Leftovers Posted by on February 22, 2012

I didn’t want to get in the way of the East Division Roundtable Discussion I ran yesterday on the blog with a post on Tuesday evening recapping the days events, so I humbly submit this blog post of “old news” for your perusal on this Wednesday morning:

–> Brad Thiessen was called up. Reports out of Pittsburgh said that backup Brent Johnson was ill hence the recall. So I would expect Thiessen back sooner than later.

–> Patrick Killeen was not immediately recalled from Wheeling yesterday, but he didn’t have to be. Wilkes-Barre was off and Wheeling doesn’t play until Friday. Pittsburgh plays again Saturday. If by chance Killeen is on his way up today, here are his ECHL stats:

–

Elsewhere:

–> Hershey’s Christian Hanson is having wrist surgery. That’s kind of a big loss for Hershey. Hanson was a third line center and a huge penalty killer for the Bears.

–> I tweeted Monday night that I had to start paying more attention to what the Tampa Bay Lightning, parent club of the Norfolk Admirals, are doing these days. I picked a good time to start paying attention. Since I started following:

1) Trevor Smith got called up.
2) Mike Angelidis too.
3) They traded Matt Fornataro to Chicago (NHL) for Brandon Segal. Essentially a minor league deal as Segal played for Rockford.

Tampa Bay also traded Steve Downie to Colorado. This means that either Smith or Angelidis stays up, but as Jonathan Bombulie pointed out, could be back for playoffs.

Finally, AHL Clear Day is set for March 5. Let us hope as Penguins fans that Tangradi or Thiessen don’t get hurt.

I’ll probably be back later with another blog post of more fresher, Wednesday news.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

← Older posts

Newer posts →