Chirps from Center Ice

Debated for the past couple of hours whether to blog or not. Figured I would for the fact that if I sit on this information / speculation, I may forget it when I actually want to blog. Here goes…

Paul Martin and Richard Park practiced today. Martin is quoted that he wants to be well enough to play Friday. Does this mean Despres is down for good? (Or until there is another injury to a defenseman? These days it’s not a matter of if, but when)

On top of that, Robert Bortuzzo and Dustin Jeffrey skated in full gear and may practice this week. Maybe Jeffrey comes back down for more conditioning soon?

Here in Wilkes-Barre, there was no re-assignment of Peter Merth to Wheeling. Bombulie didn’t update today so I’m thinking the Pens didn’t practice.

Finally, on the subject of replay in the AHL, it was tweeted today by Sound Tigers beat writer Michael Fornabaio and Darryl Hunt who covers the Worcester Sharks (the Sharks visited the Sound Tigers today) that the AHL is experimenting with video replay on goals only. Here’s the blurb on it from Mike’s blog today:

Equipment has been floating around here for a while, but today the AHL confirmed it’s testing a potential video replay system here. There are cameras above both goals providing an angle to allow the referee(s) to take a look and see if a puck went into the net. “All very preliminary,” Jason Chaimovitch wrote. They plan to have it available during all four Bridgeport home games this month. The AHL Board of Governors has talked about replay possibilities over the past few years without approving a system. This potential system was developed by NeuLion, and Charles Wang was in the house.

NeuLion also runs AHL Live. Charles Wang runs the New York Islanders and owns NeuLion. Insert technical difficulties joke here….

Let’s Go Pens!

Alex Picard and Jason Williams were reassigned today by Pittsburgh. With Deryk Engelland back from his suspension and Wilkes-Barre in dire need of a defenseman, the Picard reassignment was to be expected.

Bombulie had the Friday practice update. Carl Sneep, Boris Valabik and Joey Mormina will be unavailable for tomorrow’s game against Bridgeport, all due to injury.

Jonathan also mentioned Simon Despres who is still up with Pittsburgh and speculated as to whether or not it is for good. My blog friends at Faceoff Factor had an interesting read which supplements the Bombulie discussion.

My take? I think Simon is an NHL player. Selfishly, I want him back here. But that said, he is an NHL player in my mind.

Here’s a great read from the guys from PA Puck on Wheelchair Hockey. When you get up to walk away from your computer later, count your blessings.

Bridgeport in town tomorrow for a 5:05 start but not before they take on Norfolk again in Hampton Roads this evening. I’ll be keeping an eye on this on AHL Live and will probably have a retweet of a final score later on. Hershey is idle, so any points the Admirals get tonight would put them in sole possession of second place in the Division.

For a non-divisional game, I am actually really looking forward to it. You see, the inspiration for me to get into blogging, Michael Fornabaio, will be there tomorrow. He’s covered the Sound Tigers beat like a snuggie since their inception and even covered the now defunct Beast of New Haven before that. It’s going to be fun getting a chance to meet him finally.

Gameday will be up here Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

* – if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll notice that I have started using the semicolon more often. Admittedly, I’ve never used the semicolon ever in anything. So if you see any questionable use of the semicolon from me, please let me know. Punctuation rocks!

Three-pack of information on a Thursday:

–> Deryk Engelland was suspended three games. Here’s the video explaining the reasoning.

–> So a recall from Wilkes-Barre will be made. Who? Looks like it may be Brian Strait:

–> Hershey beat Syracuse last night 5-3. The Bears hit the Christmas break atop the East Division standings with 39 points and sit second in the conference overall.

I’m really dragging out the blog updates. I may or may not have anything else AHL wise until after Christmas. Who knows. Keep checking back.

Let’s Go Pens!