Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: Pittsburgh

Blog Fodder 9/7

Comments Off on Blog Fodder 9/7 Posted by on September 7, 2010

Not a whole lot going on as we are hours away from NHL rookies reporting to respective camps, but enough fodder for a post. So here goes…

  • The Pittsburgh Penguins announced their rookie camp roster.
  • They play in London, Ontario against Ottawa Sept 11; Toronto Sept 12; Chicago Sept 14*
  • Eric P over at the Wilkes-Blog has his projected lines here.
  • I found this interesting. The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins tweeted today the Promotions Schedule for this year. I only did this two weeks ago. Perhaps the STH’s got the “preview of coming attractions” version, with the option to buy more tickets (which we did). Astute followers of Chirps from Center Ice were light years ahead of the masses who just found out today about the Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin Bobbleheads.
  • The nine Friday home dates are Dollar Dog and Dollar Beer Nights. From when the doors open at 6.pm. to 7:30 p.m., select beers are $1, and 1,500 hot dogs are $1 to first come first served.
  • Check this out. The folks over at The Goalie Guild have their September Scouting Journal out. They rank the top 100 prospects, which include a ton of AHL and soon-to-be AHL guys. They also provide depth charts for every single NHL team. They also feature B-Sens goalie Robin Lehner. Just tons of information.
  • I did not buy NHL 11 yet. I have no idea what I am waiting for.

That’s about it. AHL Divisional Previews drop next week. Pittsburgh still has ~$2 million left in cap space. Speculation abounds on whether they bring in a defenseman in or not. If anything occurs, be sure to lend a follow over on Twitter for my thoughts and reactions.

*- I will not be live tweeting rookie camp.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Late to the party…

1 Comment Posted by on September 3, 2010

Much of what is in this post you may have seen already. Here goes:

Few things. First, congrats to Commissioner Andrews on the award. Dave Andrews is one of the smartest hockey minds anywhere. He makes Gary Bettman look like Larry Fine. Second, hopefully with the Wyatt Smith news the Bombulie blog comments section can now die down and get back to actual intelligent hockey talk vs. senseless drivel making fun of Wyatt Smith. Take note that I am not a Smith apologist. He’ll probably go down as the worst Captain in history. Was he the scapegoat for last years result? No. It’s a collective effort. One man can’t be blamed. But, wearing of the “C” comes with expectations.

Finally the Comrie signing means that Dustin Jeffrey / Mark Letestu / Eric Tangradi start the year in Wilkes-Barre. I tweeted earlier that Tangradi is not NHL ready. I truly believe that. Let him succeed in the AHL first before you throw him to the wolves of The Show. Plus, if I was pressed into ranking the three on who is more NHL ready, Tangradi is last on the list everytime. I’m not knocking Eric by any means, but I watched him in Wilkes-Barre all last season. He is an NHL player. Just not this year.

Preview of coming attractions: All 30 AHL team previews are done, split division-by-division. This came out better than I hoped. Tenative release date is September 13. Tell your friends.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Schedule is out…

Comments Off on Schedule is out… Posted by on August 25, 2010

It got serious today around 4 p.m. for me when the AHL announced the schedule for the upcoming 2010-2011 season.

Full 30 team schedules can be found here in .pdf format. Wilkes-Barre’s is on the last page in the middle if you care to just print out the last page.

Eric P at the Wilkes-Blog offered analysis on the games. If I can piggyback Eric, the home opener Oct 9 vs. Hershey is huge. Adirondack follows on Oct 12 then we hit the road for Charlotte for two games Oct 15 and 17 in the Queen City. Carolyn Christians from Canes Country tweeted me earlier about this being the Checkers home opener, which crowds of over 12,000 are expected for both nights. Busloads from parent city Raleigh are no doubt anticipated. The Checkers some say are loaded up for a serious run at the Calder Cup this year. What better way for the WBS Pens to set the tone with Hershey, destroy the hapless Phantoms, then take the show on the road and completely let the air out of the Time Warner Cable Arena both nights (to avenge the sweep last year) and come home to Hershey Oct 22 4-0.

Beat writer Jonathan Bombulie was blogging like a boss earlier. His rock-solid analysis is here.

A quick glance of the schedule include the following potential road trips for me which do not include @ Binghamton / Hershey / All-Star Classic which are automatic for me:

  • Charlotte – October 15 and 17
  • Rochester – Nov 7
  • Worcester – Nov 13*
  • Albany – Dec 12 (in Atlantic City)
  • Syracuse – Dec 18
  • Hershey – Dec 30 (in Pittsburgh)**
  • Charlotte – Jan 4 and 5*
  • Providence / Adirondack / Hartford – Jan 14, 15, 16*
  • Adirondack – Jan 21 (in Philadelphia)
  • Albany / Binghamton – Jan 28 and 29
  • Syracuse – Feb 5
  • Bridgeport – Feb 11
  • Norfolk – Feb 18 and 19
  • Abbotsford / Manitoba – March 11, 12, 15, 16*
  • Bingo / Adirondack / Hershey / Norfolk – Mar 25, 26, 27 and 30
  • Syracuse – April 3

(Everything is predicated on weather, health, money, a reliable vehicle, etc.)

* – potential Booster Club trip — ** – counts as a home game for WBS. Likely will be included in the tickets for full share season ticket holders.

I do not like: 

  • Marlies Mar 4 in Toronto not part of the Abbotsford / Manitoba road trip.
  • The yearly Thanksgiving game in Binghamton against Wilkes-Barre. Family trumps hockey for me (most of the time) especially on holidays.
  • Rochester Nov 7 in Rochester, followed by a home game vs. Syracuse Nov 8 then back to Rochester Nov 9. I checked the Amerks schedule. They are on the road v. Albany Nov 8. Makes no sense.
  • Jan 1 game v. Norfolk. Same day as the Winter Classic in Pittsburgh. WBS is raffling 400 tickets to the game to its season ticket holders. What if I am one of the lucky ones who get a ticket to the Winter Classic? Just seems not logical (unless the Jan 1 game v. Norfolk was set in place before the game with Hershey in Pittsburgh.)

That’s all I have for now. Stay tuned to my Twitter feed for more analysis and more. We are inside of 50 days. Let’s Go Pens!

Canada, Pittsburgh, The AHL, Travel, WBS

Late night blogging…

Comments Off on Late night blogging… Posted by on August 20, 2010

Just got back from a wedding. With lots of news affecting WBS I have to blog up. In no particular order:

So there you have it. The next big post from me will probably be either AHL news in general, or Wednesday when the actual 80 game schedule is dropped. Can’t wait.

Pittsburgh, WBS

So are we or aren’t we?

Comments Off on So are we or aren’t we? Posted by on August 12, 2010

Eric P over at the Wilkes-Blog picked up this gem which I totally missed this morning until around lunch-time.

If true, it’d be the first time in years that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins travel to the parent city Pittsburgh to play a game.

Nothing official from the team’s Twitter or website. Nothing from Bombulie (he is on vacation this week) and speculation abounds on when the game would be (article says January 1 in Consol Energy Center, I have heard outside at Heinz Field the week of) and nothing on who the opponent would be (logical choice is Hershey, closest AHL team to Pittsburgh is Lake Erie but they are not on the schedule this year) but the Hershey boards are silent and nothing from them or beat writer Tim Leone.

If it is true, once announced you’ll get immediate reaction from me on Twitter. If so, add Pittsburgh to the places I’ll be visiting as I continue to chase this team.

Pittsburgh, Travel, WBS

Put me in Coach…

1 Comment Posted by on July 31, 2010

I said in my opening salvo that if you were looking for me to blog about the everyday news about the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins that you were looking in the wrong place. There are paid professionals who do that or many intelligent bloggers which offer insight. With the news of today though, I had to get on here blog about it.

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced today* that Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins Head Coach Todd Reirden was named assistant coach to Dan Bylsma. Assistant Coach John Hynes was named Head Coach in WBS.

I suppose with the departure of Mike Yeo to the Houston Aeros to coach their team that Pittsburgh needed a new Assistant. Reirden was their man.

NHL jobs, just like playing spots in the NHL are earned, never given. It’s obvious that brass in Pittsburgh sees something in Reirden to name him Assistant. You can debate amongst yourselves whether this is a good move or not. There are two sides. The ones who think that Reirden should have been fired as Head Coach of WBS and the ones who say that NHL is top priority and coaches, just like players, are developed in the AHL.

As for myself, I don’t get paid to make these decisions. But I will say that I would rather this move happen 8 weeks before the season starts versus 8 weeks into the season.

Also, Wilkes-Barre re-signed enforcer Jesse Boulerice yesterday.

*= I refuse to link the Pittsburgh Penguins’ news release. Not that I am anti-Pittsburgh, but because I am totally against the “Baby Penguins” brand classification.

Pittsburgh, WBS

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