Chirps from Center Ice

Nothing to blog about regarding WBS. So if you only visit here for this type of news, read the January Season in Review on the Pens website and have a nice day.

For the rest of you, let’s be friends on Facebook. I knew all along that there were a ton of people there who didn’t use Twitter at all. What I didn’t realize were how many there were of you. The main reason I joined was to try something new and to get those who Facebook redirected to the blog to read about my favorite sports team and league.

Elsewhere, controversy in the Calder Cup Finals:

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Video Credit: MarliesTV

The play should have never counted on account of a delayed offsides. Pause it at the :09 mark. See the Admirals player offsides by a footstep? The AHL admitted its mistake. Admirals can win it Saturday night.

One more thing, Hershey re-signed Boyd Kane. He will return as Hershey’s Captain.

Have a great weekend.

On the evening of the Calder Cup Finals, I offer the following:

–> Here’s the official Calder Cup Finals press release from the league. If you haven’t heard, it’s Toronto Marlies and the Norfolk Admirals.

Norfolk scored the most goals in the regular season (273) while Toronto allowed the fewest goals in the regular season (175)

Should be an interesting matchup against two teams which have never played each other. (which I still find hard to believe) Marlies are missing 28 playoff points and 119 regular season points in Matt Frattin (out for season with a knee injury), Mike Zigomanis and Nazem Kadri.

Marlies are 11-2 in the postseason and have won 23 out of 29 games overall.

Norfolk is 39-3 in their last 42 games. Let me type that again: 39-3.

Should be a very exciting series. One that you can’t watch on TV in America, which is a travesty. You can watch it in pretty much every other country outside of America, but not here. That is a joke. AHL Live charges you $12.99 for a grainy works when it wants to game and is flat out unreliable. The fact that the second highest level of professional hockey in North America, some would say the world, can’t find a way to put its championship series on television in America, rife with programming which can best be described as garbage, is downright outrageous.

Deep breaths, Jason. Deep breaths.

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Elsewhere:

–> Washington re-signed G Dany Sabourin for another year. He will mentor Philipp Grubauer, who was third in goals against overall for ECHL South Carolina.

–> Speaking of the ECHL, it released its 2012-2013 schedule Wednesday. If you are looking for an .ics format of the Wheeling Nailers for your iCal, iPhone or iPad you can e-mail me and I can send you my self-built schedule.

–> Keith Wozniak, mastermind behind LetsGoAmerks.com, had an article about hybrid icing which could be implemented in the AHL as early as next season. Read all about it here.

–> Oh, my prediction for the Calder Cup Finals is Norfolk in six. Marlies are a tough team, but I don’t think they have seen anything like Norfolk out in the Western Conference. The fact that they are missing key guys makes it that much more difficult.

Check me out on Twitter for the latest, as always.

Have a great weekend!

The Norfolk Admirals have their opponent. It’s the Toronto Marlies, winners 3-1 tonight in the Queen City over the Oklahoma City Barons. The Marlies take the Western Conference Finals in five games.

Series begins June 1 in Norfolk.

Could be a hell of a series. Early projections look like both teams match up with the another well. Toronto is a stingy, defensive team while Norfolk is an offensive juggernaut. One of those immovable force meets an unstoppable object type thing.

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

Been kind of quiet on Twitter and even moreso on the blog with nothing to blog about. I am “around” so to speak. Watching the Europe wires to see if any WBS player bolts overseas. If so, the Twitter feed will have it first then a note on the blog then an update to the Offseason Moves list above.

Leaguewise, the Toronto Marlies lead the Oklahoma City Barons 2-1 in the best of seven. The Norfolk Admirals just finished off a sweep of the St. John’s IceCaps winning 4-0 tonight.

I have not watched a second of the action, but in following on Twitter, the Admirals completely outplayed the IceCaps top to bottom. They outscored them 14-2 and outshot them 140-115. Dustin Tokarski had shutouts in Games 3 and 4. In other words, total domination. The Manchester Monarchs, an 8 seed, got a game against the Admirals and lost in four in the best of five in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. The Connecticut Whale, a 6 seed, got two games before losing in six games in the best of seven of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The IceCaps, a 3 seed and the Atlantic Division Champions, were swept in four games and totally overmatched by every stretch of the imagination in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Penguins battled tooth and nail with the IceCaps, goals were even, as was every other category imaginable as you peeled back the onion of the series. I called it an even series against two evenly matched teams.

But the IceCaps were manhandled by the Admirals and swept in four games.

So the poll question is as follows. Assuming that the Norfolk Admirals win the Calder Cup, how would you have rather the Penguins gone out? Losing in seven games against an opponent who was basically your equal or against an opponent in the Admirals who basically skated you out of the rink for four straight games?

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I’ll have the Calder Cup matchup later in the week, with any news of relevance up before that if need be. Until then, back into obscurity.