Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: The AHL

Conor Sheary Named AHL Player of the Week

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on November 16, 2015

It’s always a welcome surprise when you don’t expect something, especially if that something is good news.

Well today, the AHL announced that Conor Sheary was named Player of the Week for the period ending November 15.

Sheary had a goal and seven assists this past weekend to put him just one off the team lead in points held by Scott Wilson.

Sheary had four assists in yesterday’s big 7-6 overtime win over the Hartford Wolf Pack Sunday. Interestingly enough, Sheary wasn’t named a star in that game.

The Week 6 AHL Power Rankings hit the blog at 4 today.

The AHL, WBS

It’s Those Guys Again…

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on November 12, 2015

It’s really hard to imagine that it’s nearly mid-November and the Hershey Bears and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have yet to play a hockey game against each other yet this season, but that will all change Friday.

Hershey is third in the Atlantic Division with a 6-3-0-3 record through 12 games good for 15 points and a .625 points percentage.

It is easy to keep tabs on these guys. So here’s what I know.

They rotate two goalies, Justin Peters and Dan Ellis. Both have played six games each. Peters is in the top ten in goaltending leaders in the AHL with a 3-1-2 record with a 1.96 GAA and a .932 SV% and I am guessing that the Penguins see him Friday against Matt Murray.

They are middle of the pack in goals scored (2.92) and goals allowed (2.75) meaning that they can score them and give them up at will.

Whoever leads after two periods tomorrow is probably going to win the game. The Bears are 3-0-0-1 leading after two while the Pens are 6-0. Tied after two is almost dead even too with the Bears showing a 2-0-0-1 record and the Penguins with a 2-0 record.

Bears are 4-3 away from Giant Center and the Penguins have yet to lose at home.

The Penguins have the top power play in the AHL connecting at 27.5% of the time while the Bears are in the bottom third of the AHL with a 14% success rate. On the kill, Wilkes-Barre is in the top ten with a 87.8% kill rate while the Bears are middle of the pack at 83.7%.

No big surprise here, Chris Bourque is their leading scorer with a point a game (4-8-12 through 12 games) and Carter Camper is second on the team with 10 points (2-8-10)

Hershey will be without Liam O’Brien and Jakub Vrana. Vrana is out long term with a wrist injury while O’Brien is out midterm with a knee ailment.

Their last five games were as follows:

A 4-2 win over St. John’s at home on October 31. IceCaps cough up a 2-0 lead.
5-4 shootout loss at home November 1 to Lehigh Valley. Phantoms cough up a 4-1 lead, Bears tie it late on a Zach Sill goal. It led to Whiteboard-Gate.
A pair of 4-2 wins over the Sound Tigers on November 4 in a kids day game in Bridgeport. Bears scored two goals in 1:06 late in the third and then…
November 6 in Allentown against the Phantoms in a game that the Phantoms were never in.
A 4-3 shootout loss to the St. John’s IceCaps on November 7. The IceCaps scored three consecutive goals after going down 3-0.

So what do we see Friday?

Honestly I don’t know. The Penguins have been the more consistent team. Remember Hartford a few weeks ago? They were the up an coming team in the division that got obliterated by Wilkes-Barre. Hershey is on that same ascent but the Penguins are a better team that St. John’s, Lehigh Valley and Bridgeport. Who knows. Remember the old saying, “buy the ticket, take the ride?” It applies here.

I think this is a big game for the Penguins, the best team in the AHL right now. Their biggest rival is coming in wanting to knock them down. I am not saying that the team that wins is going to win the division or that the team that loses is going to miss the playoffs, I am just saying that it’s a big game. The Bears feel the same way.

Gameday will be up on the blog Friday at 3.

The AHL, WBS

AHL Power Rankings: Week 5

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on November 9, 2015

Five weeks into the AHL season and teams are starting to gain an identity. Some are great no matter what, some are good one week and poor the next and some are terrible no matter how you slice it.

The challenge in curating this weeks version of the Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings was that the top 10 teams were all pretty easy to sort, as were the bottom 10. 11-20? Much harder. These are the teams I think that, depending on where you are (closer to 10 or closer to 20) can be great one week or bad the next.

It’s a familiar team atop this weeks rankings and when I say familiar, if you are a regular reader to this blog, you will see why when you click through the jump if you didn’t link in direct…

AHL Power Rankings: Week 4

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on November 2, 2015

Week 4 of the Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings have rolled in and teams are up and down on the elevator while others remain where they are.

There are surprise teams, great teams and teams that a month into the season, we still can’t get a handle on.

There is a team at the top that gave last week’s team at the top all they could handle and beat them, twice in their building.

There is a team at the bottom who we are waiting, and waiting, and waiting on to get good and haven’t yet. Maybe they just aren’t as good as we thought?

Anyway, I don’t want to spoil it all for you, so pop through the jump if you didn’t link in direct to see the order of teams.

Scott Wilson Suspended One Game

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on October 27, 2015

In basically what is becoming “America’s Most Wanted, Location Wilkes-Barre,” the American Hockey League announced today that Scott Wilson has been suspended for one game for a checking from behind incident on October 24 vs. the Springfield Falcons. Kael Mouillierat was suspended two games last week.

Here’s the box. As you can see, Wilson was never penalized for a hit, let alone penalized at all in the game.

Wilson will miss Wednesday’s game against Binghamton, who will also be down a man as in the same release they suspended Zack Stortini two games.

The AHL, WBS

AHL Power Rankings: Week 3

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on October 26, 2015

So Week Three of the AHL season is in the books and there are a lot of questions.

What the heck happened to the Central Division? Many had the Central as the most competitive division at the start of the season. It isn’t. It is a division of haves and have nots. It’s a division of surprises (Lake Erie) and disappointments (Grand Rapids)

There are two teams that have yet to suffer a regulation loss this season and they both reside in the Pacific Division, both are at the top of the Week 3 Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings and both play each other twice this week.

If you haven’t figured out who they are yet, click through the jump and see, as well as where your favorite team ended up this week.

Monday Morning Leftovers

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on October 26, 2015

Couple things that happened after the Penguins 3-2 overtime win against Springfield Saturday that hasn’t been mentioned here on the blog yet.

– Most noteably, Bobby Farnham is currently on waivers. He was waived Sunday by Pittsburgh. If ~~New Jersey~~ nobody claims him, he will be assigned to Wilkes-Barre today at noon.

Makes me wonder what would happen with a guy like Tom Sestito if Farnham clears and is assigned here. Does Wilkes-Barre part ways with Sestito and go with Farnham every night? I think yes, because one is on an NHL contract (Farnham) and one is on an AHL PTO (Sestito)

– Bryan Rust was injured in Saturday’s overtime win in Nashville against the Predators. Rust took a puck off of the hand and wasn’t seen since. Pittsburgh Penguins Head Coach Mike Johnston didn’t have an update at Sunday’s practice (shocking) but said that the injury is, “long term” in nature.

Speculating, but it’s probably a hand fracture. Something like that is an 8-12 week recovery time, longer depending on where the fracture was an even more if they delay surgery or if he has surgery. You are looking at 4 weeks in a cast, then 4 weeks in a splint, then an additional 4 weeks of therapy at the very least. He’ll lose strength because he won’t be able to use the hand and probably upper body strength because he can’t lift weights with one hand. 12 weeks from now is the middle of January.

If hockey teams just disclosed injuries, then this is all avoidable. It is the one thing that I detest about the business.

– In case you missed it, I watched the Wheeling Nailers on ECHL.TV Sunday afternoon and blogged about the result, a 4-3 win against the Brampton Beast that propelled the Nailers into first in the North Division.

– Finally, the Hershey Bears had their home opener Saturday night and their GM, Doug Yingst, announced his retirement effective at the end of the season. Yingst is one of the greater minds in this business at this level and will leave a big hole when he steps down in the Spring.

My Week 3 AHL Power Rankings hit the blog at 4 today. Check those out then.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

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