Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: The AHL

Summer Writing

Comments Off on Summer Writing Posted by on May 16, 2012

Check back on the blog occasionally for topics such as what you are about to read. Majority of these stories don’t warrant their own blog posts and some don’t even warrant being discussed at all. I guess I am just going to keep blogging to keep myself sharp.

Here goes:

–> Pittsburgh signed Reid McNeill to a three year entry level contract yesterday. From what I have seen / read on him, he is a mobile, steady defensive defenseman.

–> The AHL Conference Finals kickoff tomorrow. You know it’s Norfolk – St. John’s in the East and it’s Oklahoma City – Toronto in the West. It’s the top two seeds in both Conferences. Read all about it here.

–> Here’s my prediction for both series: Norfolk in six, Toronto in seven. We will see how wrong I am.

–> Interesting developments on the Twitter side if you don’t already follow that I haven’t mentioned here on the blog. The Allentown arena that is supposed to be built to house the Adirondack Phantoms is a mess. I’m not going to go into details as to why as I have really haven’t been paying attention to it. Anyway, a man by the name of Paul Carpenter wrote an article last week slamming Hershey and Wilkes-Barre as “podunk” towns. Today, he wrote a retraction after angry Bears and Penguins fans vilified him.

–> A funny exchange between two California ECHL teams:

https://twitter.com/StocktonThunder/status/202824406433660928
https://twitter.com/StocktonThunder/status/202825386776735744

–

Hilarious. Of note, the Bakersfield Condors were the only ECHL Western Conference team to not make playoffs this year.

–> Speaking of the ECHL, they look like they will grow by two tomorrow as the Central League’s Evansville Icemen and league champion Fort Wayne Komets have press conferences scheduled to announce (it’s forecasted) moves to the ECHL in 2012-2013.

–> Finally, decided to make a chart and add it to the tabs above on the blog to keep track of offseason moves for the Penguins. Should be a good project this summer. I will be adding the names and making a chart within 24 hours. I’ll tweet when it’s up and running.

Expect more of these kinds of posts as the summer wears. Gotta stay sharp.

Let’s Go Pens!

Not AHL, The AHL, WBS

More Fun with Numbers

Comments Off on More Fun with Numbers Posted by on May 10, 2012

So I said after Tuesday’s win that I would look at the series between St. John’s and the Penguins to see where things stood as you peel back the onion in the stats on the teams.

In comparison to what I did after Game 2, here’s an updated look at things:

–> St. John’s leads the best of seven series 3-2.

–> Shots in the series are 148 for the Penguins to 136 for the IceCaps.

–> St. John’s leads in total goals, 11-10.

–> The Penguins are 2/18 on the power play (11.1%) while St. John’s is 3/16 (18.8%)

–> Thirteen different Penguins and thirteen different IceCaps have points in the series.

–> Three IceCaps have had multi point games. Brock Trotter did it twice. Three Penguins have had multi point games.

–> Brad Thiessen’s line in the series: 2-3, 336:18 minutes played*, 1.96 GAA and a 0.919 SV%.

–> Eddie Pasquale’s line in the series: 3-2, 341:22 minutes played, 1.76 GAA and a 0.932 SV%.

–> The series has gone into overtime in the last three games. Four times, if you count the Game 5 “double” overtime.

In looking at these facts, it obviously goes without saying that the teams are evenly matched. One thing that I want to point out though is that I don’t think that either team has played its best game of the series yet. I don’t think Game 1 for the IceCaps qualifies as their best game; they caught a jet lagged Penguins team coming off of an emotional victory against its biggest rival. I don’t think Game 2 qualifies for the Penguins either as their best game either.

You hope that St. John’s doesn’t have its best game tomorrow and that Wilkes-Barre does to force a Game 7. Anything goes in a Game 7.

Beat writer Jonathan Bombulie mined the following stat from today’s blog update:

Here’s an interesting stat. Because it’s kind of hard to get here, teams that visitSt. John’salways play back-to-back games. The Ice Caps hosted 19 such series this year. They went 2-0 five times, 0-2 four times and 1-1 10 times. The Penguins were one of the four teams to author a sweep, doing so Jan. 14-15.

Out of that update from Jonathan was the mention of Brian Strait practicing today and looking good in the short, 30-minute practice the Penguins had today in Newfoundland. Obviously Strait’s addition would be a huge help.

If anything pops up between now and when the Gameday post is set to drop here on the blog at 2 p.m. Friday, immediate reactions from me on the Twitter side first. Until then, Let’s Go Pens!

* – Scott Munroe played 4:25 of time in relief in Game 5 while Brad Thiessen was getting stitched up from an errant stick by teammate Simon Despres.

The AHL, WBS

Fun With Numbers

Comments Off on Fun With Numbers Posted by on May 3, 2012

Sitting here with nothing to do on a travel day for WBS and St. John’s back to Northeastern Pennsylvania and figured I would have some fun with numbers looking at the series so far. Why not? I’m normally very bad with numbers, but here goes:

–> Both teams are 1-1.

–> Aggregate shots are 60 for St. John’s, 58 for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton.

–> It’s also 4-4 in aggregate goals.

–> Wilkes-Barre is 2/9 on the power play (22.2%) while St. John’s is 1/10 on the man advantage (10%)

–> Eight different Penguins have points in the series. Eight different IceCaps have points in the series.

–> Brad Thiessen’s line in the series: 1-1, 118:24 minutes played, 2.03 GAA, 0.933 SV%.

–> Eddie Pasquale’s line in the series: 1-1, 118:45 minutes played, 2.02 GAA, 0.931 SV%.

I’m not really over analyzing anything here. These two teams were evenly matched on paper before the series started and two games in that trend doesn’t appear to have changed at all.

I think I just gave myself an idea for Monday blog fodder. We’ll took a look at these same numbers Monday afternoon after Sunday’s Game 4, barring any in the moment news that needs to be addressed.

One bit of news for anyone who owns a satellite radio, the AHL announced today that Game 3 will be broadcast live on NHL Home Ice. (XM 92 / Sirius 207) — Pretty cool.

Both teams practice tomorrow, so check out Jonathan Bombulie’s blog for that. If any lightbulbs go on above my head I may have something here, if not, Gameday for Game 3 will be up at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL, WBS

Calder Cup Playoff Preview – Eastern Conference

Comments Off on Calder Cup Playoff Preview – Eastern Conference Posted by on April 18, 2012

Welcome to the second day of Calder Cup Previews here at Chirps from Center Ice. Yesterday I looked at the Western Conference. Today, here is the Eastern Conference Playoff Preview:

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Bridgeport Sound Tigers

Record: 41-26-3-6 // 91 pts., 1st place Northeast Division (3 seed)

Power Play: 14th // 17.5%

Penalty Kill: 19th // 81.8%

Top 3 Scorers: Rhett Rakhshani 20-29-49 // Casey Cizikas 15-30-45 // Matt Donovan 10-35-45

Overview: Light switched on after the first of the year when the Sound Tigers ascended from the basement of the East Division to the top of the Northeast Division and into the playoffs.

First Round Matchup: Connecticut Whale

Record against the Whale: 6-2-1-1

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 12:1

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Connecticut Whale

Record: 36-26-7-7 // 86 pts., 2nd place Northeast Division (6 seed)

Power Play: 16th // 17.4%

Penalty Kill: 5th // 84.3%

Top 3 Scorers: Kris Newbury 25-39-64 // Jonathan Audy-Marchessault 24-40-64 // Casey Wellman 23-24-47

Overview: Were class of the Northeast Division, sputtered, then got overtaken by a hot Bridgeport team. Opening round series with the Sound Tigers could be one for the ages, as both teams are very good at home.

First Round Matchup: Bridgeport Sound Tigers

Record against the Sound Tigers: 4-2-3-1

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 24:1

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Hershey Bears

Record: 38-26-4-8 // 88 pts., 3rd place East Division (5 seed)

Power Play: 1st // 25.5%

Penalty Kill: 4th // 84.4%

Top 3 Scorers: Chris Bourque 27-66-93 // Keith Aucoin* 11-59-70 // Ryan Potulny 33-32-65

Overview: Struggled at times and when they did, it cost them. Many chose Hershey as the East Division Champion pre-season and odds favorite to win Calder Cup. Injuries depleted those expectations. Fun fact: Winner of first round WBS-Hershey matchup has made it to the Calder Cup Finals in years past.

First Round Matchup: Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins

Record against the Penguins: 5-5-1-1

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 11:1

* – Aucoin is currently on recall to the Washington Capitals

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Manchester Monarchs

Record: 39-32-2-3 // 83 pts., 2nd place Atlantic Division (8 seed)

Power Play: 21st // 15.5%

Penalty Kill: 8th // 84%

Top 3 Scorers: Justin Azevedo 28-22-50 // Brandon Kozun 20-26-46 // Linden Vey 19-24-43

Overview: Made it in on the last weekend of the regular season. Have big powerful forwards and a stout tandem of Martin Jones and Jeff Zatkoff in net.

First Round Matchup: Norfolk Admirals

Record against the Admirals: Did not play.

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 45:1

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Norfolk Admirals

Record: 55-18-1-2 // 113 pts., 1st place East Division (1 seed)

Power Play: 2nd // 21.7%

Penalty Kill: 15th // 82.3%

Top 3 Scorers: Cory Conacher 39-41-80 // Trevor Smith 26-43-69 // Tyler Johnson 31-37-68

Overview: Got hot and stayed hot after Super Bowl Sunday, winning 28 straight games. Is the perfect storm team. Has the top rookie and League MVP in Conacher up front, Defenseman of the Year in Mark Barberio on the blue line and Coach of the Year in Jon Cooper on the bench. Goaltending ain’t shabby either. May tear through playoffs like they did regular season.

First Round Matchup: Manchester Monarchs

Record against the Monarchs: Did not play.

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 2:1

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St. John’s IceCaps

Record: 43-25-5-3 // 94 pts., 1st place Atlantic Division (2 seed)

Power Play: 3rd // 20.6%

Penalty Kill: 13th // 82.8%

Top 3 Scorers: Spencer Machacek 18-32-50 // Paul Postma 13-31-44 // Jason DeSantis 11-32-43

Overview: Was the leagues best road team in the first half of the season. May have won the Eastern Conference if Norfolk didn’t obliterate the schedule in the last half of the season. Will be a tough out.

First Round Matchup: Syracuse Crunch

Record against the Crunch: 1-2-0-1

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 10:1

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Syracuse Crunch

Record: 37-29-5-5 // 84 pts., 4th place East Division (7 seed)

Power Play: 9th // 19%

Penalty Kill: 30th // 77.5%

Top 3 Scorers: Patrick Maroon 32-42-74 // Peter Holland 23-37-60 // Kyle Palmieri 33-25-58

Overview: Team no one wanted because of the Binghamton model from last year. That team was the crossover team last year and won the Calder Cup. Probably the best first round matchup with St. John’s. Underestimate this team at your own risk.

First Round Matchup: St. John’s IceCaps

Record against the IceCaps: 3-1

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 25:1

—

 

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins

Record: 44-25-2-5 // 95 pts., 2nd place East Division (4 seed)

Power Play: 10th // 18.8%

Penalty Kill: 22nd // 81.6%

Top 3 Scorers: Ben Street 27-30-57 // Bryan Lerg 27-26-53 // Colin McDonald 14-35-49

Overview: Unreasonable expectations if you expected a duplicate of the 58-21 season last season. Still, one of the best teams in the league. Struggled at home. No one superstar on this team, it’s a collective effort night after night.

First Round Matchup: Hershey Bears

Record against the Bears: 7-3-0-2

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 7:2

—

Tomorrow, we roll with a full look at the Penguins / Bears series and I offer a prediction. That will be out Thursday at noon.

The AHL

Calder Cup Playoff Preview – Western Conference

Comments Off on Calder Cup Playoff Preview – Western Conference Posted by on April 17, 2012

Another year has gone by and another Western Conference Playoff Preview for you. I’d like to thank all the Western Conference fans and bloggers I follow on Twitter first and foremost. Your observations this year really helped me in trying to sound like I am talking about here. Not like the Penguins play any of these teams on a regular basis. So if you see a capsule for a team and it’s the complete opposite of reality, drop me a line in the comments and correct me.

Full schedule of playoff games can be found here.

—

Abbotsford Heat

Record: 42-26-3-5 // 92 pts., 2nd place West Division (4 seed)

Power Play: 19th // 16.9%

Penalty Kill: 10th // 83.5%

Top 3 Scorers: Krys Kolanos 30-31-61 // Ben Walter 19-40-59 // Brian Connelly 6-46-52

Overview: Feasted on North Division opponents, going 14-4-2-0, which really helped them in making the playoffs. Krys Kolanos healed from hip problems which plagued him and roared back as an All-Star selection and Abbotsford’s leading scorer.

First Round Opponent: Milwaukee Admirals

Record against the Admirals: 1-3

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 20:1

—

Chicago Wolves

Record: 42-27-4-3 // 91 pts., 1st place Midwest Division (3 seed)

Power Play: 23rd // 15.4%

Penalty Kill: 6th // 84.2%

Top 3 Scorers: Mark Mancari 30-28-58 // Darren Haydar 21-36-57 // Jordan Schroeder 21-23-44

Overview: Always steady Wolves have two veterans in Haydar and Mancari showing the way. Reinforcements from parent Vancouver could be on the way if Los Angeles dispatches the Canucks this week.

First Round Opponent: San Antonio Rampage

Record against the Rampage: 0-3-0-1

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 17:1

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Houston Aeros

Record: 35-25-5-11 // 86 pts., 4th place West Division (8 seed)

Power Play: 13th // 17.8%

Penalty Kill: 24th // 80.7%

Top 3 Scorers: Jon DiSalvatore 28-33-61 // Justin Fontaine 16-39-55 // Jeff Taffe 18-35-53

Overview: Defending Western Conference Champions made it in on the last day of the regular season.

First Round Matchup: Oklahoma City Barons

Record against the Barons: 1-4-0-3

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 40:1

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Milwaukee Admirals

Record: 40-29-2-5 // 87 pts., 2nd place Midwest Division (5 seed)

Power Play: 5th // 19.5%

Penalty Kill: 17th // 82.1%

Top 3 Scorers: Chris Mueller 32-28-60 // Kyle Wilson 22-32-54 // Taylor Beck 16-24-40

Overview: Milwaukee was on the verge of missing playoffs and came into the last weekend of the regular season controlling its own destiny. They got 5 of 6 points backstopped by G Jeremy Smith. Smith for his efforts earned AHL Player of the Week honors Monday.

First Round Matchup: Abbotsford Heat

Record against the Heat: 3-0-0-1

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 25:1

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Oklahoma City Barons

Record: 45-22-4-5 // 99 pts., 1st place West Division (1 seed)

Power Play: 24th // 15.4%

Penalty Kill: 2nd // 85.6%

Top 3 Scorers: Ryan Keller 21-28-49 // Mark Arcobello 17-26-43 // Philippe Cornet 24-13-37

Overview: Before Norfolk went on a 28 game winning streak, the Barons were the best team in the AHL. They have two excellent goaltenders in Yann Danis and David LeNeveu. Danis won the Baz Bastien Award for Most Outstanding Goaltender this year. Many favor Oklahoma City to make it to the Calder Cup Finals.

First Round Matchup: Houston Aeros

Record against the Aeros: 7-0-0-1

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 5:1

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Rochester Americans

Record: 36-26-10-4 // 86 pts., 2nd place North Division (7 seed)

Power Play: 26th // 15%

Penalty Kill: 23rd // 81.4%

Top 3 Scorers: Phil Varone 11-41-52 // Paul Szczechura 21-25-46 // Derek Whitmore 28-16-44

Overview: Up and down year for the Amerks. Everyone looked forward to working with parent Buffalo again, but it came with some bumps along the way.

First Round Matchup: Toronto Marlies

Record against the Marlies: 3-4-3-0

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 30:1

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San Antonio Rampage

Record: 41-30-3-2 // 87 pts., 3rd place West Division (6 seed)

Power Play: 28th // 14.4%

Penalty Kill: 28th // 80%

Top 3 Scorers: Jon Matsumoto 23-37-60 // Bill Thomas 27-25-52 // Bracken Kearns 22-30-52

Overview: Roller coaster year for the Rampage. Every night it seemed that you didn’t know what you were getting. Perfect first round matchup for the Rampage vs. the Wolves, they were 4-0.

First Round Matchup: Chicago Wolves

Record against the Wolves: 4-0

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 35:1

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Toronto Marlies

Record: 44-24-5-3 // 96 pts., 1st place North Division (2 seed)

Power Play: 27th // 14.6%

Penalty Kill: 1st // 88.1%

Top 3 Scorers: Mike Zigomanis 19-42-61 // Ryan Hamilton 25-26-51 // Marcel Mueller 14-33-47

Overview: Leagues stingiest team defensively. The Marlies stayed at the top of the North Division pretty much all season. Will be a tough out.

First Round Matchup: Rochester Americans

Record against the Americans: 7-2-0-1

Odds to win the Calder Cup: 8:1

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So there you have it. If I am completely off my nut with these, let me know in the comments. I try to watch and pay attention to all 30 teams in the league. Tomorrow we will roll with the Eastern Conference Playoff Preview.

The AHL

Aces in Town 4/12

Comments Off on Aces in Town 4/12 Posted by on April 12, 2012

The Penguins announced today their Black Aces squad from Wheeling, West Virginia. Chris Barton, Cody Chupp, Andrew Hotham, Patrick Killeen, Peter Merth and Ryan Schnell are your group.

Here’s Bombulie’s Thursday update. Check out the opening paragraphs. Hopefully it’s a case of live and learn this go around.

Elsewhere in the division and kind of a big deal, Emerson Etem was assigned by Anaheim to Syracuse today. Etem scored SIXTY goals in the Western Hockey League for the Medicine Hat Tigers. Crunch beat writer Lindsay Kramer has more if you want to click on.

I’ve learned over the years not to make a big deal out of kids from juniors joining an AHL squad this late in the year and being a lifesaver, but sixty goals isn’t anything to sneeze at. Syracuse looks like it’s in the dance this year, we’ll see how Etem fairs playing against men this Spring.

Finally, it’s down to the Bears or Whale for the five seed. The Sound Tigers are out of it because if they get one more point they win their division and slot in at the three seed.

Gameday for tomorrows tilt vs. Binghamton here Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.

The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

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

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