Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: The AHL

AHL Power Rankings: Week 21

2 Comments Posted by on February 26, 2018

Boo!

Scare you? No? Well, there is a team at the top of the Week 21 edition of the Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings that is dominating the Atlantic Division at the moment and they are the new number one team in Week 21.

Phantoms are followed by Grand Rapids, who are on a tear right now and Tucson who remain in third solidly at the top of the Pacific Division.

In fourth is the Texas Stars, who look like the only team at the moment that can contend with Tucson and Chicago, who are up this week after going 7-3 in their last ten.

Pop past the Wolves to see six on back. Enjoy!

1

 Last Week: LV 6 @ UTI 4, LV 1 @ SYR 2, LV 2 @ BNG 1
8 points up on Wilkes-Barre for the top spot in the Atlantic. Phantoms are 8-1-0-1 in their last ten and pulling away from the other teams in the division.

+3

 This Week: vs. HER 3/2, vs. BNG 3/3, @ HER 3/4
Record: 35-15-3-4

2

 Last Week: CHI 5 @ GR 2, IA 1 @ GR 2, IA 2 @ GR 3 (SO)
8-1-0-1 for the Griffins who maybe, just maybe, be the team that can knock off Manitoba for the top spot in the Central.

+3

 This Week: vs. TUC 2/28, vs. WBS 3/2, vs. MIL 3/3
Record: 30-19-1-6

3

 Last Week: BAK 3 @ TUC 2, SA 1 @ TUC 2 (OT), SA 1 @ TUC 0 (OT)
Gap could have gotten wider against the other teams in the Pacific. Maybe those points play into it later on, maybe not.

n/a

 This Week: @ GR 2/28, @ CLE 3/2, @ CLE 3/4
Record: 29-16-3-1

4

 Last Week: TEX 1 @ IA 2, MIL 1 @ TEX 3, MIL 2 @ TEX 5
Swept the Admirals at home this week. Probably the only contender for the top spot in the Pacific, something that the Roadrunners currently own.

+5

 This Week: @ CHI 2/27, @ RFD 2/28, vs. CHI 3/3, @ SA 3/4
Record: 29-19-5-2

5

 Last Week: CHI 5 @ GR 2, CHI 0 @ MTB 2, CHI 5 @ MTB 2
Wolves are 7-3 in their last ten, bested only by a Grand Rapids side doing a lot better. Texas teams on the menu this week.

+1

 This Week: vs. TEX 2/27, @ SA 3/2, @ TEX 3/3
Record: 28-18-6-2

Click through here to see teams 6 through 30

Power Rankings

Weekend Setup – Peters, Schedule Strength, Primer, More…

Comments Off on Weekend Setup – Peters, Schedule Strength, Primer, More… Posted by on February 22, 2018

Figured I would drop in here and post about the week that was on Coal Street and set up the weekend.

Coal Street announced Wednesday what we speculated to for a while here, they have signed G Anthony Peters to an AHL contract through the 2018-19 season.

Certainly not unexpected, Peters played better on his second professional tryout contract (PTO) than he did on his first, he had a six game winning streak that included a shutout against Hershey.

Wilkes-Barre could not sign Peters to a third PTO, so the standard AHL contract is what he gets. Insuring his rights through next season is a no brainer as well. His ECHL club in Cincinnati retains his rights at that level.

Pittsburgh has two goalies in the pipeline, Filip Gustavsson and Alex D’Orio. One or both could filter here on ATO’s once their seasons are over. It may be different for Gustavsson since he’s playing over in Europe, I’m not totally sure. Good on Wilkes-Barre to sort of fill out one goalie spot for next season at the very least.

Updates from practice this week go as follows…

Tom summed it all up in one tweet…

Update from Thursday…

About them IceHogs. The Pens put together a nice primer on them you can read here. They are sixth place in the Central, which is probably the most competitive division top to bottom in the entire AHL. Rockford is 3-6-0-1 in their last ten. Roster consists of names that don’t really jump off the page. It’s a hard working team that is looking to come in and play an opponent they have never faced before. Pens can’t be slouches.

Pens hit the road to play a Syracuse team in fourth in the North that has kind of become the forgotten team in the division. It’s a four team race essentially, Syracuse is fourth but got a big boost this week when Tampa Bay reclaimed Gabriel Dumont off of waivers and assigned him to Syracuse.

Hershey visits Sunday. Bears have won three in a row and beat Toronto Monday. Hershey’s got a lot of ground to make up to push for a playoff spot but are on the right track.

Pittsburgh sent Teddy Blueger back to Wilkes-Barre Monday. Patric Hornqvist practiced Thursday in full and Tom Kuhnhackl will accompany the team on their road trip to Carolina and Florida this weekend, so Zach Aston-Reese may end up being reassigned for cap purposes. Stay tuned.

Out the door, the AHL Playoff Primer is out again for another year. Penguins magic number to clinch a playoff berth heading into the weekend is 40. Lehigh Valley’s magic number is 30, but they have five more games played than the Penguins right now and are in first place and are expected to have a lower number. Penguins have the third weakest strength of schedule, 6th (.542) out of 8 team division ahead of Charlotte (.540) and Lehigh Valley (.536) Getting to be that time of year again.

Back tomorrow for the 3 pm setup against Rockford as Wilkes-Barre begins another three in three weekend.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

AHL Power Rankings: Week 20

Comments Off on AHL Power Rankings: Week 20 Posted by on February 19, 2018

Playoff jockeying continues as we start to turn to the final full month of play before the 2018 Calder Cup Playoffs begin in April. It’s Week 20 in the AHL and another edition of the Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings.

We have a new number one this week. It’s those pesky Utica Comets. A 15 game point streak will do that for you.

Last weeks number one, Toronto, isn’t far behind, they fall to second after a bad loss (something that doesn’t happen often really) to the Belleville Senators Friday.

As a matter of Utica jumping to first and Toronto dropping down one, Tucson makes room and drops to third. Still leading the Pacific Division are the Roadrunners.

Lehigh Valley put some separation on the Penguins for the Atlantic Division lead, and remain fourth.

That sound you hear in the distance are the defending Calder Cup Champion Grand Rapids Griffins, who shutout the Manitoba Moose in back to back games in Winnipeg this weekend. Grand Rapids is in the top five this week.

To see six on beyond, click past the Griffins. Enjoy!

1

 Last Week: SYR 3 @ UTI 2 (SO), BNG 1 @ UTI 3, UTI 5 @ WBS 4 (OT)
Comets are the new number one team this week based on the 15 game point streak that they are on. 8-0-1-1 in their last ten, 12-0-2-1 overall in the run and pesky.

+2

 This Week: @ BEL 2/19, vs. LV 2/21, vs. LAV 2/23, vs. SPR 2/24
Record: 28-14-6-4

2

 Last Week: TOR 1 @ BEL 3, TOR 4 @ LAV 2
16 game point streak ends Saturday for the Marlies against a team that they thought could be sleepwalked past. Do they learn from it? We think so.

-1

 This Week: vs. HER 2/19, vs. BNG 2/21, @ RCH 2/23, vs. RCH 2/24
Record: 38-12-0-1

3

 Last Week: TUC 2 @ SJ 4, BAK 4 @ TUC 5
Roadrunners 7-3 in their last ten has them in firm grip of the top spot in the Pacific and slowly moving away from the pack.

-1

 This Week: vs. BAK 2/19, vs. SA 2/23, vs. SA 2/24
Record: 28-15-2-1

4

 Last Week: LV 5 @ BRI 0, LV 8 @ SPR 2, HFD 3 @ LV 2 (SO), WBS 1 @ LV 4
5 of 6 points for the Phantoms while Wilkes-Barre only managed one will give Lehigh Valley breathing room over their in state rival. But the Penguins will have an insane five games in hand come this Friday.

n/a

 This Week: @ UTI 2/21, @ SYR 2/23, @ BNG 2/24
Record: 33-14-3-4

5

 Last Week: GR 1 @ MTB 0, GR 5 @ MTB 0
Grand Rapids are back. They went to Winnipeg and shutout the Moose in back to back games.Three at home against more Central Division competition.

+1

 This Week: vs. CHI 2/21, vs. IA 2/24, vs. IA 2/25
Record: 28-18-1-6

Click through here to see teams 6 through 30

Power Rankings

Coal Street Acquires Joe Cramarossa 2/14

2 Comments Posted by on February 14, 2018

In an, “out or nowhere” occurrence, this flashed across Twitter Wednesday afternoon.

Going the other way was Colin Smith…

–

Obie and Hart had this to say about Cramarossa.

–

Here’s the thing with this type of trade. We have seen it before. When the Pens signed Colin Smith in the summertime, he was touted as an offensive badass. Automatic 40 point scorer. He was #44 on my summertime AHL Big Board.

But, hampered by inconsistency and injuries, Smith’s tenure with the Penguins ends with 18 points in 35 games.

We will see if Cramarossa (10 points in 37 games and a -6) is any better or an upgrade.

Trends say no.

Anyone remember Danny Kristo? Here’s a refresher. He was later traded in an NHL package for Ron Hainsey that same year. At that time, I said this…

Danny Kristo came over in the trade which saw Reid McNeill get sent to the St. Louis Blues in a change of scenery for both players earlier this year. Kristo appeared in 32 games and had six goals and five assists. You could tell a few games into his tenure that the fit wasn’t there. Kristo was touted as a goal scorer, but only scored December 3 against St. John’s before going cold and not scoring again until January 7 against Binghamton. He had been a healthy scratch here and there and depending on the way you analyze things, was getting bumped in the lineup in favor of Patrick McGrath.

Certainly I am not questioning the brain trust at 40 Coal. All I am saying is that the trend has been there that these trades do little in the way of being anything terribly, “big.”

If you are saying I have only given one example and that a”trend” by definition is more than one sample set, okay fine. Mattias Plachta. Spencer Machacek. Danny Syvret. Ryan Parent. Derek Nesbitt.

You get the point.

More as it comes, or if not, by Friday for the Gameday setup against Rochester in Rochester Friday.

The AHL, WBS

AHL Power Rankings: Week 19

Comments Off on AHL Power Rankings: Week 19 Posted by on February 12, 2018

We are hitting mid-February with little changes at the top of the Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings.

The Toronto Marlies are running away with the North Division. The Tucson Roadrunners are establishing themselves as the Pacific Division favorite and if the Marlies get complacent, they may get streaked over by the Utica Comets.

The Phantoms and Wild round out the top five this week as two teams second place teams in their respective divisions who are further than they appear from the pinnacle of their division.

After the Wild, who just re-upped with parent Minnesota for five more years, please pop through the jump if you didn’t link in direct.

1

 Last Week: TOR 7 @ BEL 4, BNG 1 @ TOR 3, BNG 2 @ TOR 5
16 game point streak. 9-0-0-1 in last ten. Playing cupcake teams like Binghamton, Belleville and Laval will do that. Same story continues this week.

n/a

 This Week: @ BEL 2/16, @ LAV 2/17
Record: 37-11-0-1

2

 Last Week: TUC 4 @ SJ 3 (SO), TUC 5 @ TEX 2, TUC 2 @ TEX 1 (OT)
Roadrunners are establishing themselves as early favorites in the Pacific with yet another good week.

+4

 This Week: @ SJ 2/14, vs. BAK 2/17
Record: 27-14-2-1

3

 Last Week: LAV 1 @ UTI 2 (OT), BEL 3 @ UTI 4
12 game point streak (10-0-2-0) for the Comets have propelled Utica from outside of a playoff spot to a virtual tie with the Rochester Americans.

+2

 This Week: vs. SYR 21/4, vs. BNG 2/16, @ WBS 2/17
Record: 26-14-6-3

4

 Last Week: CHA 3 @ LV 4, HER 1 @ LV 5, RCH 3 @ LV 5
First team in the Atlantic to 30 wins with another sweep of the week for the Phantoms.

+3

 This Week: @ BRI 2/13, @ SPR 2/16, vs. HFD 2/17, vs. WBS 2/18
Record: 30-14-3-3

5

 Last Week: IA 1 @ SD 5, CHI 1 @ IA 4, RFD 1 @ IA 2
Another good week for Iowa, who are solidifying themselves in the Central as a contender. Two Texas teams drop by Wells Fargo Center this week.

+3

 This Week: vs. SA 2/12, vs. TEX 2/18
Record: 24-15-7-3

Click through here to see teams 6 through 30

Power Rankings

AHL Power Rankings: Week 18

Comments Off on AHL Power Rankings: Week 18 Posted by on February 5, 2018

We are a week out of the All-Star break and things are slowly coming into focus.

What’s clear, is that there is a true number one team in the American Hockey League. That team is the Toronto Marlies. They reign again at the top of the Week 18 Chirps From Center Ice AHL Power Rankings this week.

In second this week is the Manitoba Moose. After a hiccup two weeks ago, the Moose are back to mowing teams down and have won five games in a row.

In third are the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins who are slowly starting to separate from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Penguins beat the Phantoms Saturday in regulation and have three games in hand on Lehigh Valley.

In fourth are the Chicago Wolves, who you can’t beat at home. 12 straight wins for the Wolves at Allstate Arena. Second place in the Central Division.

Fifth place this week belong to the pesky Utica Comets. It’s a nice little party that the Marlies have in the North, but the Comets are looking to crash the party.

To see teams six on beyond, click past the Comets if you didn’t link in direct to check out the full list.

1

 Last Week: TOR 4 @ RCH 2, LAV 1 @ TOR 7
It does not appear to be any way to stop this team. Points in their last thirteen games and bottom feeder teams heading in to be fed to the beast this week.

n/a

 This Week: @ BEL 2/9, vs. BNG 2/10, vs. BNG 2/11
Record: 33-11-0-1

2

 Last Week: MTB 4 @ RFD 3 (OT), MTB 5 @ MIL 1
Well, whatever that was two weeks ago that was costing Manitoba points has been figured out. Moose have won five in a row and are still picking up valuable points in the Central Division.

+8

 This Week: @ MIL 2/6, @ GR 2/7, @ CLE 2/9, @ CLE 2/11
Record: 31-10-3-2

3

 Last Week: HER 1 @ WBS 4, LV 1 @ WBS 2
Quietly, the division leading Penguins are 7-2-1-0 in their last ten. Road beckons this week with some tougher competition,

n/a

 This Week: @ SPR 2/7, @ PRO 2/9, @ PRO 2/11
Record: 28-12-3-1

4

 Last Week: MIL 1 @ CHI 4, RFD 4 @ CHI 7
Wolves continue to defend home ice and win. Are back up to second in the Central. One this week with Iowa which will have bigger implications than the past.

+1

 This Week: @ IA 2/9
Record: 24-15-6-2

5

 Last Week: SYR 1 @ UTI 3, UTI 4 @ SYR 2
Comets are coming. 8-0-2-0 in their last ten. Have already passed Syracuse and now set their sights on a shaky Rochester team. Pair of non-playoff teams stopping in this week.

-1

 This Week: vs. LAV 2/9, vs. BEL 2/10
Record: 24-14-6-3

Click through here to see teams 6 through 30

Power Rankings

AHL Power Rankings: Week 17

Comments Off on AHL Power Rankings: Week 17 Posted by on January 28, 2018

We are officially at the All-Star break here in the AHL and there are teams that are solidly in contention, teams that have yet to make up their minds and teams that don’t seem like participating.

It’s never more apparent in this weeks version, as there have been no change in the top four teams from last week to this week.

Toronto is the class of the AHL at the break, and are just steamrolling teams.

Tucson continues to impress and are tops in the Pacific, but are being chased by a few good teams.

Wilkes-Barre seems to have worked out the bugs and are tops in the Atlantic.

A five game point streak by Utica has the Comets still in fourth. The Marlies should have company soon if the Comets continue this run.

The Chicago Wolves debut this week in the top five after splitting a pair with the Roadrunners.

Past the Wolves, click past the jump if you didn’t link in direct to see six and beyond.

Enjoy the all-star festivities if you are going this weekend!

1

 Last Week: RCH 0 @ TOR 2, TOR 4 @ SYR 2
We are at the break and now can start discussing early Calder Cup favorites. The Marlies are tops on that list. Toronto is pasting teams, 11 game point streak.

n/a

 This Week: @ RCH 2/2, vs. LAV 2/3
Record: 32-11-0-1

2

 Last Week: CHI 1 @ TUC 2 (OT), CHI 4 @ TUC 3
Split a pair with the Wolves. Still lead the Pacific. Roadrunners are playing good hockey and we see no reason for it to decline.

n/a

 This Week: @ ONT 2/2, @ SD 2/3
Record: 23-13-2-1

3

 Last Week: WBS 4 @ HER 0, WBS 2 @ LV 5, BNG 3 @ WBS 4 (OT)
Penguins lead the Atlantic at the break. Two horse race emerging with Lehigh Valley for that top spot. A pair this week at home against Hershey and the Phantoms.

n/a

 This Week: vs. HER 2/2, vs. LV 2/3
Record: 26-12-3-1

4

 Last Week: HFD 4 @ UTI 3 (OT), UTI 3 @ BNG 1, UTI 3 @ LV 2 (OT)
Five game point streak for your Utica Comets who are 7-1-2-0 in their last ten and pushing Syracuse for third and putting the heat on Toronto and Rochester.

n/a

 This Week: vs. SYR 2/2, @ SYR 2/3
Record: 22-14-6-3

5

 Last Week: CHI 1 @ TUC 2 (OT), CHI 4 @ TUC 3
Wolves back up to third in the Central after an OK week in Tucson. Central race will be one to watch.

+1

 This Week: vs. MIL 2/2, vs. RFD 2/3
Record: 22-15-6-2

Click through here to see teams 6 through 30

Power Rankings

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