Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: The AHL

Really Bad Pictures

Comments Off on Really Bad Pictures Posted by on January 31, 2012

I have an iPhone with a camera on it. I was in Atlantic City and took pictures on it. The following are what I took.

WARNING: These pictures are really bad. I am no professional photographer. If you really want to look at some bad pictures, you can do so after the jump. If not, you may know by now that the West beat the East last night in the All Star Classic 8-7 in a shootout. Peoria’s Ben Bishop was named MVP for stopping all East Division shooters (Syracuse’s Kyle Palmieri, Norfolk’s Cory Conacher, Hershey’s Keith Aucoin and Wilkes-Barre / Scranton’s Colin McDonald) in a shootout.

Click here for some awful pictures!

About Me, The AHL

Catching Up

Comments Off on Catching Up Posted by on January 30, 2012

Good to be part of the festivities here in Atlantic City. There is no free wifi at my hotel, so this entire blog post is being constructed via my iPhone.

The Skills Competition was yesterday. Full detail of who did what, is here. Of note, Colin McDonald missed all four targets in the accuracy shooting challenge. In Jonathan Bombulie’s post skills wrapup, he had a quote from McDonald which I found interesting.

Funny exchange between Hershey’s Chris Bourque and I during the autograph session after the skills competition. I asked him to “go easy” on the Penguins. His reply? “Tell them to go easy on us, you’ve been killing us lately.”

AHL President & CEO David Andrews had his state if the league with the press. What I gleaned from reading what others wrote about it was the following: 1) No cities are moving teams next season. 2) Two-ref system will be in place in five years. 3) Replay is getting a more closer look an the right way to implement it is being kicked around harder. There is going to be a vote at the Board of Governors Meeting in Chicago. 4) Schedule was discussed briefly, we are never going to see a more diverse opponent listing. 5) Next years All-Star location is already selected. There will be an announcing as to where in a few weeks. On top of that, there are sites lined up for the coming years. That’s a great thing. It indicates that the league is healthy and that cities want the All-Star event. These things are really expensive.

Blog pal Keith Wozniak who runs LetsGoAmerks had a great recap too.

That’s about all I can think of sitting here at PF Chang’s typing away on my iPhone. I’ll probably run a brief All-Star Game recap tomorrow, once I return home.

Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL

Heavy Lifting Done by Others

Comments Off on Heavy Lifting Done by Others Posted by on January 24, 2012

I offer no original content in this blog post other than links from other writers on other websites. They have done all the “heavy lifting” and I am just collecting what I find interesting and linking you through:

–> Steve MacIntyre was recalled to Pittsburgh today. I have no idea what to make of this recall. Call him up for hired muscle? Call him up to get him a rest for the All Star break which starts tomorrow for Pittsburgh?

–> Alex Grant was not named the AHL’s Player of the Week. They gave it to Rockford Goaltender Carter Hutton instead. Hutton went 4-0 last week for the IceHogs. Alex Grant was, however, mentioned in Jonathan Bombulie’s blog update this afternoon. Bombulie spoke on Grant’s emergence on the scene and how he could have been named as a potential replacement for Simon Despres at the All-Star Classic Monday.

–> Grant was not named as a replacement, but these guys were.

–> Pennsylvania Puck had a midseason analysis of all Pennsylvania pro teams at the midway point, including the Penguins and Bears.

–> Finally, the fellows at Faceoff Factor had an interesting commentary on Eric Tangradi which is worth a read.

Providence in town for their only visit tomorrow. Gameday will be up Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Wheeling for Hire

1 Comment Posted by on January 18, 2012

Terrible news within the organization. Nailers beat writer Shawn Rine dropped a bombshell on Twitter last night stating that the Wheeling Nailers are on the selling block. Nothing confirmed at this point, but all signs point to this being the last season in Wheeling. Here is his story from The Intelligencer today.

Bombulie had his take here.

I could not imagine the day that would come in which I learned that the Penguins were defecting from Wilkes-Barre. The old truth is though it is part of being a minor league fan and really happens all the time. It’s sad really.

Elsewhere, since there hasn’t been a blog update since Monday, the following caught my eye:

–> The fan blog Admirals Roundtable caught up with AHL Commissioner David Andrews. When you ask me what I strive for in blogging, the Ads Roundtable is it. They are the gold standard for blogs from the fan perspective.

–> The AHL reached an agreement with ESPN America to broadcast AHL games overseas. Kinda cool, if you want to keep up with your favorite AHL team from Germany.

–> In ex-WBS Penguin news, Dan Henningson signed a PTO with the Binghamton Senators and Joey Haddad was released from his PTO with Bridgeport and reassigned to his ECHL club, Gwinnett.

–> Here is an interesting read regarding the Fort Wayne Komets from the Central Hockey League. The possibility exists that Fort Wayne who is second in minor league hockey attendance only to the Hershey Bears and others in that league could defect from the CHL and move into the ECHL. I, for one, would love to see a 30/30/30 NHL/AHL/ECHL affiliation grouping.

–> Finally, the Pens tweeted this afternoon that Saturday’s game vs. Syracuse is sold out. Good times.

Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL, WBS

One Handed Mining of Starry Duck Hogs

Comments Off on One Handed Mining of Starry Duck Hogs Posted by on January 5, 2012

Couple of things worth getting to on a Thursday evening…

–> Bombulie’s practice update didn’t have a ton of great news in it. Alex Picard is out “for a while” with an upper body injury after blocking a shot late in the third period when Norfolk was on a power play.

–> Jonathan also made mention of these stats he mined which he put out on Twitter early this morning:

–> Elsewhere in the AHL East Division, a familiar face to Penguin fans is on waivers. Click this link, but if you don’t want to, his name rhymes with Mancrew Dorjon. Still clueless? Just click the link. If no one claims him, he’ll be in town Saturday.

–> Vote here for the starters for the AHL All-Star Classic later this month. If you want a guide as to who to vote for, look no further:

East West
Colin McDonald, WBS Krys Kolanos, ABB
Simon Despres, WBS Ryan Ellis, MIL
Jeff Zatkoff, MCH Cedrick Desjardins, HAM

–> Finally, for you Dan Henningson fans out there, he is on the way back up to the AHL again. This time with the Rockford IceHogs.

Gameday for tomorrows tilt with the Rochester Americans will be up at its normal 3 pm slot on the blog tomorrow afternoon.

Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL, WBS

Who is Your All-Star?

Comments Off on Who is Your All-Star? Posted by on January 4, 2012

The AHL announced the All-Stars for the 2012 All-Star Classic this afternoon. The players representing the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are Colin McDonald and Simon Despres.

Congrats to both on the nomination. Fans can vote them into the starting lineup beginning tomorrow.

Click here for the Norfolk Gameday post from earlier today. Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL, WBS

A Killer Amongst Us

Comments Off on A Killer Amongst Us Posted by on January 3, 2012

AHL Transaction Page was active this morning with the news that Patrick Killeen was recalled to Wilkes-Barre / Scranton. In 21 games played for Wheeling this year, Killeen sports a 10-8-1-1 record, a 2.86 GAA and an 0.880 SV%.

WBS was mum on this on the website, Twitter and Facebook pages. But Bombulie confirmed Killeen was here for Scott Munroe who has a “minor” lower body injury. It’s expected that Brad Thiessen gets the start tomorrow vs. Norfolk.

I wanted to look at the numbers vs. Norfolk for both Thiessen and Munroe. In a word, ick. Both have 85% save percentages and goals against over three, with Munroe sporting a 4.99 GAA.

Elsewhere around the AHL, ex-WBS Penguin Luca Caputi is on the move again. This time basically across the hall as he was traded to the Anaheim Ducks for Nicolas Deschamps. The AHL team for the Ducks, the Syracuse Crunch, are in Toronto to play Caputi’s old team the Marlies tonight. It’s expected that Deschamps and Caputi play against their old teams later.

Finally, the AHL All-Star Classic rosters are going to be announced at 3 p.m. tomorrow. Fans will be able to then vote on starters. I’ll go on record now and say that Colin McDonald and Eric Tangradi get nods from the WBS side. Cases can also be made for Ben Street and Bryan Lerg, but not with who Hershey, St. John’s, Norfolk and Manchester are going to send. (more than three each, IMO)

I’ll run a quick congratulatory blurb on whomever it is from the Pens the gets the nod sometime before the Norfolk game tomorrow, for those who are signed up for blog e-mail notifications. Left hand bottom of your screen if you haven’t signed up already. You’ll get my epistles delivered straight to your inbox so you don’t have to go searching for me on the internet.

On the subject of the Gameday post for Norfolk, I’ll have it up at a special time of 1 p.m. tomorrow in advance of the All-Star announcements.

Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

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