Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: The AHL

Pierre Gets His Deal

Comments Off on Pierre Gets His Deal Posted by on November 7, 2013

Just a few things to touch on today…

Pittsburgh announced today that they have signed Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Lebond to an NHL deal. As a result, he was put on waivers today. We will know by noon Friday if he clears.

If you remember, we had the same situation with Tom Kostopoulos last year. He signed an AHL deal with Wilkes-Barre, Pittsburgh signed him to an NHL contract, waived him, and he was then claimed by the New Jersey Devils.

Jonathan had an update today on the Leblond news and a graph on the inequities of the Pens in shoot outs this season.

I talked Wilkes-Barre pucks with Jesse Marshall and Faceoff Factor this week.

Andy Chiodo signed a contract with the ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors.

Speak of the devil, Albany is in tomorrow!* Gameday for that affair will be up at 3 p.m.

* – see what I did there?

Not AHL, Pittsburgh, WBS

Week 5 AHL Power Rankings

Comments Off on Week 5 AHL Power Rankings Posted by on November 4, 2013

Things are starting to shake out here in Week 5 of the Power Rankings. No team has gone higher than 9 spots or lower than 8. There are also five teams that haven’t changed from last week.

But there’s been a change at the top, as the Manchester Monarchs rule over the Week 5 AHL Power Rankings. Can they hold onto the top spot for another week? Seems that whatever team gets named #1 is out of the top spot the next week.

If you didn’t link in from someplace else, please click through to see the rankings…

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Power Rankings

Thursday Tee Up

Comments Off on Thursday Tee Up Posted by on October 31, 2013

Heading into a home and home series with the Hershey Bears, here’s a few things to knock around.

— For Hershey, the top two leading scorers, C Micheal Latta and D Dmitry Orlov were called up to Washington on Wednesday.

— For Wilkes-Barre, G Eric Hartzell is healthy and he was assigned to the Wheeling Nailers on Wednesday also.

— For Hershey, Tim Leone’s piece on the Bears perspective heading into a big three in three, starting with the Penguins Friday and Saturday and ending with the Norfolk Admirals on Sunday.

— For Wilkes-Barre, Jonathan’s Thursday blog update. There’s blurbs on Hartzell, Dustin Jeffrey and most notably the news that Jeff Deslauriers will get the start for the Pens on Friday.

Elsewhere in the division, Dave Steckel signed a contract with the Norfolk Admirals. Some fans in these parts may remember Steckel when he was a part of the Hershey Bears a few years ago….The Syracuse Crunch have won four games in a row and are third in the East Division, just two points back of Wilkes-Barre….Binghamton gets Jean-Gabriel Pageau back from parent Ottawa.

I’ll have the Gameday setup for the first of the home and home with the Hershey Bears tomorrow on the blog at 3 p.m.

The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

This Crow is Tasty

Comments Off on This Crow is Tasty Posted by on October 29, 2013

I never thought I would see the day.

After being the only player in Chirps from Center Ice history to get an “F” in the Quarterly Grades blog feature, Jayson Megna has proved me wrong.

Big time.

Megna scored his first NHL goal Monday night, along with his first NHL assist and was named first star of the game when the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1.

What a night and day turnaround from last year for the undrafted Megna. I have polished off my plate of crow in record time.

Elsewhere…

— Jonathan’s Tuesday update. Tom Kostopoulous is back and Eric Hartzell is poised to start his pro career.

— What do you mean Tux isn’t a real person? Our own flightless fowl was part of a series called “Behind the Mask” which you can watch on Hulu.com

— Wheeling beat writer Shawn Rine’s piece for The Intelligencer on Wilkes-Barre native Patrick McGrath.

— The AHL has this new weekly feature called, “The A-List” worth taking a look at.

Also, if you haven’t yet, take a look at the Week 4 AHL Power Rankings.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

Week 4 AHL Power Rankings

1 Comment Posted by on October 28, 2013

Them Pigs are hot!

The Rockford IceHogs are the top team in the Week 4 AHL Power Rankings this week. They are tops in the ultra competitive Western Conference, where three points separate fifth to thirteenth.

Biggest riser this week are your Hamilton Bulldogs, up twelve spots to fourteenth this week.

Biggest faller this week are the Hartford Wolf Pack, a team decimated by call ups this week. Such is life in the AHL.

After the jump if you just happened to the blog without a link from somewhere, are the Rankings…

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Power Rankings

Wednesday Update

Comments Off on Wednesday Update Posted by on October 23, 2013

Just a few things to touch on today since I last blogged….

— To no one’s surprise, someone other than Brian Gibbons was named AHL’s Player of the Week. Gibbons was pointless on Saturday in Worcester, so it’s not unexpected that he was snubbed not nominated.

— In case you don’t have a newspaper subscription to the Citizens’ Voice here’s my game story I did for them Saturday that ran in the Sunday paper.

— Here are a couple of articles that are out there. One ran in this past weekend’s Breakaway and got picked up by the AHL.com site on the Penguins third period successes. The other is a video / article on Brian Gibbons’ hot start.

— Finally, Harry Zolnierczyk and Chris Conner were reassigned by Pittsburgh today.

If there isn’t anything in the can worth blogging about tomorrow, the next update for the blog will be the Gameday setup for the away game in Binghamton on Friday.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Week 3 AHL Power Rankings

Comments Off on Week 3 AHL Power Rankings Posted by on October 21, 2013

Okay, I put the Penguins at the top spot. There, I said it. Please don’t let that fact coming from this, “fan blog about the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins” devalue the intent of the Rankings.

The Penguins left me no choice. I had to rank them number one. There isn’t another team right now hotter in my opinion.

The Iowa Wild are your biggest gainer this week, up 9 spots from 25th last week. The San Antonio Rampage are still getting scored on by the Texas Stars, and are on a big 16 spot slide down the Power Rankings to 27th.

After the jump, if you just happened here without a link from someplace else, are my rankings. If you think your team should be higher or their rival lower, let me know in the comments.

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Power Rankings

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