Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: The AHL

AHL Power Rankings: Week 28

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on April 20, 2015

Year Two of another season of the Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings is in the can. This has been my most popular segment that is run here on the blog, viewed hundreds of times when it is published. Thank you for reading, sharing and commenting. When I put these together on a Sunday night, I often wonder if there is anyone in Milwaukee, Chicago or Portland that would care if I don’t give full effort on a capsule. To know that I have readers in other cities that visit and share the rankings and even pass off words of, “how can you underrate us?” (I am looking at you, Utica) is a real treat because the intent with these wasn’t to just put the Penguins at the top every week, it was to grow a readership base and let other people in other cites know that there is a blogger in Wilkes-Barre that doesn’t just “cover” his local team but also keeps tabs on the other 29 teams in this great League.

In keeping with last years theme, winners of the Eastern Conference and Western Conference are 1-2 in the season finale of the Rankings and the divisional winners fill out spots three through six. All the other playoff teams fill out the top 16 and then the best of the rest fill out the rest of the rankings.

I have a boatload of other stuff to write this week, so I won’t keep you any longer. Click through the jump to see where your favorite team ended up in the final offering of the 2014-15 Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings and rest assured that we will be back and better than ever again in 2015-16.

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Power Rankings

Before the Weekend, Award of Caution

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on April 16, 2015

The AHL has been announcing awards this week and Matt Murray has won pretty much every one he has been eligible for.

Earlier this week, Murray was named the AHL’s Most Outstanding Rookie. This goes with his prior nominations to the 2014-15 AHL All-Rookie Team and the 2014-15 AHL First Team All-Star.

Today, he was named the AHL’s Most Outstanding Goalie.

You don’t need me to tell you what Murray has accomplished this season. Nearly every statistical category that Murray has gone up against he has broken. And not by a little, he’s basically taken a sledgehammer and shattered the records to pieces.

He still has three more games to bust up some more of the smaller fragments of what used to be AHL records.

The AHL still has yet to hand out its regular season MVP award. Cases can be made for other mortals, but the AHL’s players and media who vote on these end of year awards would be hard pressed not to give the award to Murray, hell, he has won everything else.

Outside of Murray’s crease, Coal Street added more insurance pieces.

First, Scott Wilson was recalled to Pittsburgh. He was the only forward recalled. As you know, Brian Dumoulin and Scott Harrington went up Sunday.

The Penguins added Jaden Lindo, Pittsburgh’s 2014 sith round pick, to an Amateur Tryout Agreement. The vibe picked up by Jonathan is that Lindo isn’t expected to get into any games.

The Penguins also added Sean Escobedo to a Professional Tryout Agreement. Escobedo is an ECHL’er, wrapping up his season with the Greenville Road Warriors. Jonathan had a dossier of Escobedo’s play in his Wednesday update.

The Penguins clinched a playoff spot last week, but their seeding and whether or not they can win the East Division remains up in the air.

Hershey lost to Lehigh Valley 4-1 on Tuesday. The Bears have a three point lead (96) on the Penguins (93) and have two games left to play, Friday and Saturday against Binghamton and Lehigh Valley, respectively.

The Penguins have three games left, two at home against Albany and Norfolk and then Sunday in Allentown against the Phantoms.

Seeding wise, the Penguins can finish as high as second but no lower than sixth. Right now, they have a two point lead over fifth place Syracuse (who has two games left) and a four point lead over sixth place Providence (three games left) and have the tie breaker (regulation or overtime wins) over every team they are competing with for seeding.

The Penguins need two more points to wrap up a finish of no less than fourth. That is because Syracuse and Providence can only max out 95 points.

It is becoming highly unlikely that the Penguins and Bears meet in the first round. The Penguins would need to lose out and Syracuse or Providence would need to finish a point ahead of Wilkes-Barre to drop them to sixth. Hershey would also need to finish third, but the Bears would only need a point more to finish no higher than second, because they are five points up on third place Hartford (91 points, three games left) and the Wolf Pack can only max out at 97 points and the Bears own the tie breaker. Hershey would need to lose out and have Hartford win out in order to get passed for second.

My head hurts.

The picture will get clearer as the weekend goes on. First things first though, the Albany Devils. Gameday for this hits the blog Friday at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

AHL Power Rankings: Week 27

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on April 13, 2015

Come on in, the water is warm!

If your team punched their ticket to the Calder Cup Playoffs, congrats! If your team is close, buckle up, this is your last week to make a run. If you are eliminated, better luck next year.

This season, the Calder Cup goes through Manchester, New Hampshire. The Monarchs won the regular season championship Sunday and will have home ice in the Calder Cup Playoffs until further notice.

But there is another team in Cedar Park that got in this week that will look to keep what they have earned last season, the Texas Stars.

Some great things to watch out for this week. The Western Conference Championship hasn’t been decided yet. The Midwest Division is still a great race to watch. The East Division race is getting interesting.

All 30 teams ranked from top to bottom. All you have to do is click through the jump….

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Power Rankings

Everything’s Even, Except the Chocolate

1 Comment Posted by nafsnep on April 10, 2015

Friday night in the AHL’s Eastern Conference has come and gone. Every team in the top eight has played 71 games except for the Hershey Bears, who have played 72. Here’s who did what tonight which matters to the Penguins: (sorry Syracuse)

@ stj14_200

3 2

Bears were down 2-0, but came back and scored three unanswered and win 3-2 up in St. John’s. The win shrinks Hershey’s magic number to clinch the East Division to four. Bears could clinch tomorrow with a win and a Wilkes-Barre regulation loss in Portland Saturday.

1 5

Providence takes Game 1 of the home and home series between them and Worcester by a score of 5-1. The win sealed up a spot in the 2015 Calder Cup Playoffs for Providence.

0 5

Hartford blasted the Springfield Falcons tonight by a score of 5-0. Yann Danis had a 29 save shutout. Hartford clinched a spot in the Playoffs with the win.

2 3

Was probably the best game of the night in the Eastern Conference. Manchester takes it in a shootout, 3-2. Portland has a two point cushion over Springfield for the last and final spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Here’s an updated look at the standings. Top three are division leaders.

Rank	Team	Points	Saturday Opponent
1	MCH	99	@ Providence
2	HER	96	@ St. John’s
3	SYR	91	vs. Springfield
4	WBS	89	@ Portland
5	PRO	87	@ Worcester
6	HFD	87	vs. Albany
7	WOR	86	vs. Providence
8	POR	83	vs. Wilkes-Barre

–

Here’s Jonathan’s Friday update with news on Conor Sheary’s return and thoughts from Coach John Hynes on the possibilities of recalls to Pittsburgh come Sunday or beyond.

Gameday setup for the first game against Portland will be up at 3 Saturday.

Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL, WBS

I’m Free on Friday

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on April 10, 2015

Wilkes-Barre is off on this 13 game night in the AHL after punching their ticket to the Calder Cup Playoffs but there is a lot to look forward to tonight. Here’s what’s up….

The Penguins, with 71 games played, have the four seed currently which means home ice in the first round. Five through eight is Worcester, Providence, Hartford and Portland. These four teams I just mentioned have 70 games played and hit the ice tonight. Here’s who plays who…

>> Worcester is in Providence tonight. It’s actually a home and home series between the two this week, and has huge obvious playoff implications.

>> Hartford hosts Springfield. The Falcons are on the outside looking in, currently with 81 points in ninth but have 72 games played. Hartford is on the heels of Syracuse for the Northeast Division lead. Another big game with major playoff impacts.

>> Tomorrow’s opponent, the Portland Pirates, is in Manchester tonight taking on the Monarchs. Manchester has a healthy five point cushion over Hershey for the top overall seed in the Eastern Conference so there is some things left to do for the Monarchs too.

>> I conceded the East Division to the Hershey Bears about ten days ago. They are in St. John’s this weekend taking on the already eliminated IceCaps. It’s a matchup of a nothing left to play for IceCaps team that is getting a new affiliate next year against a Hershey team that stumbled last week, losing to the Sharks in a shootout and splitting a series with the Norfolk Admirals. Who knows what can happen. The Penguins trail Hershey by five points, if the Bears get swept by the IceCaps and the Penguins sweep the Pirates, it’s a one point deficit coming into the final week of the season………

So I am saying there’s a chance. It’s slim, but there is still a chance.

Housekeeping….

– The Penguins essentially ended the Phantoms season Wednesday as Lehigh Valley was officially eliminated in Thursday’s Playoff Primer.

– J-S Dea and Josh Archibald hopped an Uber from Reading back to Allentown Wednesday and made the bus in time back to Wilkes-Barre. Both were reassigned to Coal Street Thursday.

– Another day, another postseason selection for Matt Murray. Named to the AHL’s First Team All-Stars.

Anyway, I’ll drop another blog post later after the games I listed go final for the setup heading into Saturday later tonight.

The AHL, WBS

AHL Power Rankings: Week 26

2 Comments Posted by nafsnep on April 6, 2015

Has your ticket been punched yet?

Is your team still in it? Are you done? How you looking these last few weeks? Are you going to go deep? Are you one and done? Rebuilding for next year?

For some cities, these are questions which are yet to be answered. Hopefully, this Week 26 edition of the Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings will be your guide as you navigate though these final weeks.

Oh, there is a new number one again this week. Word got around and….well, I am just going to let you hop through the jump and read through….

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Power Rankings

AHL Power Rankings: Week 25

2 Comments Posted by nafsnep on March 30, 2015

So this week, the AHL saw two teams punch their tickets to the Calder Cup Playoffs. Neither team is the number one team in this edition of the Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings.

I’m not going to give it away, so you will have to pop through the jump to see who it is. And it is probably a team that will surprise you, but shouldn’t.

Anyway, there are teams that are shuffling in and shuffling out as playoff contenders. Some teams are in free fall mode. Some teams are ascending to glory. When you click through the jump below, you will see who, or perhaps as a fan of that team you already know what I am talking about.

I will shutup now and let you read on….

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Power Rankings

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