Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: The AHL

AHL Power Rankings: Week 22

Comments Off on AHL Power Rankings: Week 22 Posted by on March 7, 2016

There is a new team at the top of the Week 22 Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings.

This team has been a snake in the grass for the whole season and is taking the opportunity of a few faltering teams to strike at the top spot.

It’s the Hershey Bears.

The Bears claimed the top spot in the Atlantic Division last weekend and maintained that position with a big 6-2 win against the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, their only serious challenger for tops in the division this past Saturday. Sure, the Bears lost to the Pens Sunday on the road in Wilkes-Barre, but that was at the tail end of a three-in-three using backup goaltenders.

The Toronto Marlies dropped three straight contests this weekend (!!!) and tumble this week.

To see where everyone ended up and how things look as the calendar approaches mid-March, hit the jump if you didn’t link in direct.

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Power Rankings

Trade Deadline Wrap – Marcantuoni for Jeffrey; Warsofsky Claimed, Paper…

Comments Off on Trade Deadline Wrap – Marcantuoni for Jeffrey; Warsofsky Claimed, Paper… Posted by on February 29, 2016

Besides the news earlier today that the Penguins traded away Sergei Plotnikov for Mattias Plachta, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Arizona Coyotes were not done doing business with one another.

Pittsburgh traded away Matia Marcantuoni for Dustin Jeffrey and two ECHLers in Dan O’Donoghue and James Melindy. Marcantuoni goes to Springfield, Jeffrey to Wilkes-Barre from Springfield. O’Donoghue and Melindy from Rapid City of the ECHL to Wheeling.

Not a bad haul if you ask me for the farm from Pittsburgh. The markets were too expensive for the already cap strapped Penguins so they shored up things with the affiliates in Wilkes-Barre and Wheeling.

Regarding Jeffrey, here are a few tweets…

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Wait. What?

Apparently Oskar Sundqvist was injured this past weekend, apparently during the 3-2 loss yesterday to the Providence Bruins. I watched the whole game and nothing stood out to me regarding an injury to Sundqvist.

There were other moves today.

David Warsofsky was placed on waivers yesterday for the purposes of reassignment to Wilkes-Barre. Well, at noon today we learned that the New Jersey Devils claimed Warsofsky. That’s the second Ray Shero / John Hynes waiver claim from the Pittsburgh Penguins this season. Earlier this season the Devils claimed Bobby Farnham. Hynes saw his full share of Warsofsky, facing against the defensemen in the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs and also coached him in the U.S. Development program.

More on Plachta.

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Paper moves.

According to the Penguins transaction page on theAHL.com, the Pittsburgh Penguins assigned Bryan Rust, Scott Wilson, Conor Sheary, Matt Murray and Derrick Pouliot were assigned to Wilkes-Barre thus making them eligible to play again in the AHL this season. There was an interesting twist, however. NHL teams don’t normally announce AHL paper moves on trade deadline day. They made a formal announcement on the reassignment of Conor Sheary. Pursuant to the transaction page mentioned earlier, Rust, Wilson, Murray and Pouliot were “recalled” back to Pittsburgh while Sheary remained.

That could be procedural, as NHL teams are limited now to just four callups. Teams skirt the rules under “emergency” reasons, so conceivably Sheary could return to Pittsburgh tomorrow. Time will tell, but it is fun to speculate…

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Skating on the Susquehanna has a nice summary of the days proceedings.

Elsewhere in the Division…

The Washington Capitals traded Chris Brown to the New York Rangers and in return received Ryan Bourque. Both players will report to their respective AHL teams. Bourque, joining his brother in Hershey and Brown to Hartford. Later, Connor Carrick was traded to Toronto in a deal involving NHL players.

Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley stayed quiet.

Boston / Providence got ex-Penguin Max Talbot and Joonas Kemppainen and Zac Rinaldo to the Rhode Island capital. Providence is a perfect dark horse in the Atlantic.

Springfield was pillaged, losing Corey Potter to Nashville, in addition to Jeffrey and Plachta.

Bridgeport and Portland didn’t make any moves that jumped out.

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Overall, not a bad haul for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. They lose a key defenseman and a power play quarterback in Warsofsky to waivers but gain an elite AHL scorer in Jeffrey, shore up their ECHL affiliate with O’Donoghue and Melindy and add Plachta who I am thinking the change of scenery will do him well.

So there you have it. Wilkes-Barre is setup to claw back against Herhsey and regain the Atlantic Division lead. The Penguins play the Bears twice this weekend.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

AHL Power Rankings: Week 21

Comments Off on AHL Power Rankings: Week 21 Posted by on February 29, 2016

With the NHL Trade Deadline just hours away, the Week 21 Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings is out a little early this week.

No change at the top three this week with Toronto, Albany and Ontario all remaining one two and three. There is a new number four, but before I give it all away too you, click through the jump if you didn’t link in direct and see who it is and where your favorite team ended up this week and, see of your team is a serious playoff contender or not.

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Power Rankings

AHL Power Rankings: Week 20

Comments Off on AHL Power Rankings: Week 20 Posted by on February 22, 2016

We begin the Week 20 Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings with an apology to the Toronto Marlies.

We dropped the Marlies out of the top spot for the first time in a while last week. What do the Marlies do? Obliterate the Atlantic Division leading Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins rattling off four straight goals in the third period. Then next night, they beat the third place Atlantic Division Portland Pirates.

Their capsule tells the story as why the Marlies should be your legitimate Calder Cup contenders. So go ahead, and jump through to see where your favorite team ended up this week.

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Power Rankings

AHL Power Rankings: Week 19

Comments Off on AHL Power Rankings: Week 19 Posted by on February 15, 2016

We have a new number one in the Week 19 version of the Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings.

It’s the Providence Bruins, up four spots to the top spot this week. The Bruins biggest case for this big bump over four other really good teams was a sixteen game point streak.

There is a new number two this week as top five stalwarts Toronto and Ontario took a bit of a hit this week but I am not going to give it all away in the lede, you have to jump though if you didn’t link in direct.

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Power Rankings

AHL Power Rankings: Week 18

1 Comment Posted by on February 8, 2016

We are in Week 18 here and almost to the middle of February. There are sure thing teams like Toronto and Ontario and then a patch of about 20 or so teams then teams that may as well pack it up and restructure for the Fall.

The Toronto Marlies are again the number one team here in Week 18.

As we have maintained for pretty much all season, the Central Division is the Division to watch. The Atlantic is getting cozy as well with the Hershey Bears closing in on the Atlantic Division lead, a lead that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have had since October.

Lots more to look at this week, so if you didn’t link in direct, hit the jump to see where everyone ended up this week.

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Power Rankings

All Star Catchup 2/1

1 Comment Posted by on February 1, 2016

Had to do a double take there on the date. Is it really February 1st already?

Anyway, a couple things to note on here a few hours from the AHL All-Star Classic in Syracuse. 

The West beat the East 19-14 in the skills competition last night. Tied 9-9 in the second to last event, the West won the breakaway relay by a score of 10-5. Penguins defenseman Will O’Neill participated in three events. 

This morning, Dave Andrews met with the media here and held his annual State of the AHL. I’m still working on raw audio and thought about different ways to summarize everything here on the blog but found Sean Shapiro from Wrong Side of the Red Line in Austin, TX already did a fantastic job in summarizing the event. 

Essentially Andrews hit on a few different things. First was balancing the schedule. California teams play 68 games and everyone else plays 76. You are going to see that again next year and probably the foreseeable future unless you convince teams to play less games which the independently owned teams in Hershey and Chicago won’t go for. 

Second was the two referee system. It’s coming. The biggest problem now is that the League doesn’t have enough qualified guys to work a game. 

Third is the way that playoffs are dictated financially. Basically the ticket deals that your team gives you during the season is taken away if your team qualifies for playoffs. That’s not on the team, that’s the AHL telling them what to do. That’s going away. 

There were other small things like on ice time. All teams track it but the NHL teams don’t want it made public because of confidentiality on how a certain prospect is being used. I don’t know why they would try to hide that, honestly. Games are easily available online and anyone with a stopwatch and a piece of paper can manufacture how much time a certain player is getting. 

Also, the dry scrape is sticking around. Lots of fans don’t like it because it kills momentum, but some buildings are more suited to do it the way the NHL buildings do it and others aren’t. So to make it fair for everyone they dry scrape the ice. 

Same divisions and parent clubs for next year too. I think that may be the first time in a while that nothing would change from one year to the other. 

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There was some Pittsburgh news that had an affect on Wilkes-Barre today. 

First, the news that Conor Sheary and Scott Wilson are back with Pittsburgh after the parent Penguins come off of NHL All-Star break. That was to be expected. Chris Kunitz did not participate in practice today, so recalling both makes sense. The Pens play the Ottawa Senators Tuesday.

The other news today was that Tom Sestito was signed by the Penguins to an NHL contract. He will be on waivers until noon Tuesday and if no one claims him, he will be assigned to Wilkes-Barre. 

More later after the games tonight. The Atlantic Division plays the Central Division in the second game of the night, the Pacific Division in the fourth and the North in the sixth and final game of the night before the championship game. Game is local on My Network TV or on Root Sports Pittsburgh tonight at 7.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

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