Chirps from Center Ice

The Penguins announced today the additions of Olli Maatta and Scott Harrington to ATOs today. They are both defensemen and both played junior hockey with the London Knights.

And that’s all I know about them. Wait, I know that Harrington was in Pittsburgh’s camp before and played in the Black and Gold Game two seasons ago.

Jonathan had more on them and, oh yeah, the Eastern Conference Finals goings on with the Syracuse Crunch. Maatta and Harrington practiced today. Derrick Pouliot is on his way.

Jonathan and I disagree about either Pouliot (once he signs) Harrington or Maatta playing a game. He thinks so, and has pretty good logic behind it.  I don’t think so, reasoning they have an entire offseason and whole first half of next year to learn and ease into the pro game. Look, putting up video game numbers is nice playing against players in your own age bracket. But playing against men, professionals, in the biggest stage in the AHL right now? I don’t think that’s a risk I want to take.

But that’s just me. Here’s a poll:

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Up north, MVP Tyler Johnson’s status for Game 3 is up in the air and the Penguins are apparently in the head of Radko Gudas.

Gameday for Game 3 will be here Wednesday at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Halfway there.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have just completed an improbable comeback, stunning the regular season champion Providence Bruins and completing a “reverse sweep” in winning four straight games after being down three games to none. The Penguins became the first team in AHL history to win Game 7 on the road after being down 0-3 in a series. A remarkable, if not inconceivable, accomplishment.

However, the battle is only half over.

Standing in the way of the Calder Cup Finals are the Syracuse Crunch, who, haven’t lost a game in the postseason. They swept the Portland Pirates in Round One and then did the same thing to the Northeast Division Springfield Falcons in four games in Round Two.

The Penguins were 3-5 against the Crunch during the regular season. The Crunch shut out the Penguins three times, with three different goaltenders. It seemed, at times, that the Crunch just had the Penguins number this season.

The Crunch are led by Tyler Johnson, Brett Connolly and Ondrej Palat. Johnson is your MVP of the AHL. The trio have combined for 33% of the Crunch regular season goal scoring and a sum +71 combined!

With the Tampa Bay Lightning’s affiliation swap from Norfolk to Syracuse this off season  a lot of what is leftover from the team that won the Calder Cup makes up this Syracuse Crunch team. That guy Trevor Smith plays for us now and G Dustin Tokarski was traded to Montreal this season, but G Cedrick Desjardins is equally as formidable.

The people of Syracuse expected this unit to do exactly what they have accomplished to date. East Division Championship? Check. MVP of the AHL? Check. Sweep first round series? Check. Sweep second round series? Check. Sweep third round series?

Not so fast my friend. Here is the breakdown:

Forwards

The Crunch had ten forwards with ten or more goals during the regular season. The Penguins had only seven. The aforementioned Johnson, Connolly and Palat collectively were 81-99-180. The Penguins top three scorers were Chad Kolarik (31-37-68) Trevor Smith (23-31-54) and Riley Holzapfel (21-30-51) who are collectively 75-98-173. It actually isn’t that much of a difference on paper, but given the fact that the Crunch have three more forwards than the Penguins that have scored 10 or more goals, the advantage has to go the Crunch’s way in this department.

Advantage: Syracuse

Defense

The Crunch were tenth in the AHL in goals allowed in the regular season at 2.64 GA/game. The Pens led the league in goals allowed during the regular season at 2.34 GA/game. The Crunch relied more heavily on offense to win them games. That league leading 3.25 goals per game stat tells that story.

In the postseason, the Pens rank 4th in defense only allowing 2.20 / goals a game. The Crunch have only allowed 2.14 goals against in the postseason. The Penguins, after falling in an 0-3 series hole, only allowed the Providence Bruins to score two goals in four games.

Individually, take Mark Barberio’s 8-34-42 out of the equation and you have an even match up on defense. Looking at the numbers, it appears that all of the Crunch blueliners chip in offensively and put up decent enough numbers.

Advantage: Penguins, slightly, based on regular season. Penguins running away in the postseason.

Goaltending

The Crunch will rely heavily on Cedrick Desjardins. His backup is Pat Nagle, who spent all of the regular season in the ECHL. The Penguins have a 1A-1B option in goal. Although, after this historic series with Providence, Brad Thiessen is taking this Penguins team all the way.

Advantage: Penguins

Intangibles

The Crunch were slightly ahead of the curve on power play this year, ranking in at 12th, succeeding 17.4% of the time. The Penguins power play floundered in bottom third of the league for the most part all season before settling in at 22nd overall. However, in the postseason, the Penguins power play brought them back from the brink of elimination and sit at the top of the AHL in postseason play at 25.5%. That all said, I don’t think that a game in this series is going to be too heavily decided on special teams but if if does it’s still a toss up in my opinion.

The Penguins had far and away the best penalty kill all season. The Crunch showed themselves well, settling for 9th, but the Penguins get the edge in the penalty kill department.

The Crunch were a ridiculous 35-3-4-2 when scoring the first goal, best in the league. A fast start usually lead to a great finish for Syracuse this season. The Penguins were 7-2 in overtime this season while the Crunch were a very unimpressive 3-6. However, the Crunch are 2-0 in overtime in playoffs currently and the Penguins 2-1.

Rob Zettler pilots this Crunch team. He is the big unknown because Penguins Head Coach John Hynes hasn’t matched wits with him this season. Jon Cooper was “called up” to replace Guy Boucher after he was fired as head coach of the parent Lightning. I am going with Hynes here on the fact that he has guided this Penguins team to the second round of the playoffs for the third consecutive year and now past the second round in thrilling turnaround fashion. His adjustments as the series with Providence wore on turned the tide in favor of the Penguins. He and his staff broke down every.single.shift from Game 6.

Social Media Coverage:

For the Penguins:

Twitter: @WBSPenguins
Radio: @MikeOBrienWBS // @TGracePens
Beat: @CVBombulie
Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins
Fan Blogger: @nafsnep

For the Crunch:

Twitter: @SyracuseCrunch
Radio: @Dan_DUva
Facebook: /syracusecrunch
Beat: @syrhockey
Fan Blog: @Allovimo of Chairman How’s Glorious Army

A lot of teams were obliterated by last years Norfolk Admirals team, a squad that tore through the final four and a half months of the AHL season last year. That core moved to Syracuse. This current team sustained the success that was left over the year before. But the luster seemed to wear off as the season wore on. Yes, the Crunch won the East Division, the toughest division in the AHL. But the Binghamton Senators stayed in lockstep with the Crunch all season long and finished one point behind Syracuse then were swept away by the Penguins in the first round. The Crunch needed overtime twice to beat the Portland Pirates. Credit the resolve of the Crunch to never give up the fight, but what were they doing there in the first place? Then they dismantled a very solid Springfield team by sweeping them. However, I don’t think the Penguins are scared of the Crunch at all. That said, anyone wearing blue and white for the Crunch have the same mutual feelings for the Penguins. I see a dogfight brewing…

Prediction: Penguins in six. Goaltending, coaching and overall team defense is going to be the difference in this series. Yes, the Crunch may jump out to a lead in a game or a lead in the series. No, that won’t faze the Penguins.

Gameday for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals will be up here on the blog Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.

What was accomplished yesterday in Providence by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins drew the attention of the national media, as well as put into words by people familiar to you and me.

— Leading off, the historic accomplishment was picked up by NHL.com
— Always nice to see Puck Daddy writing nice things about you.
— The Salt City has us on their radar now.
— Love when the AHL braintrust dedicates ten paragraphs to my favorite team.
— Then when they come back the next day and use, “Penguins” and “elite” in the same sentence.
— Wilkes-Barre’s own log on its legacy left.
— The great Jonathan Bombulie with his perspective.
— Across town, Tom Venesky’s story from today’s Times Leader.
— In case you missed it.

No rest for the weary. The series preview of the Eastern Conference Finals will be out Friday at noon. Check that out then.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

On the eve of game seven tomorrow night in Providence, here are a couple of stories for you to check out:

First, check out Jonathan Bombulie’s post game blog recap from last night. He used the adjective “unbelievable” regarding the performance of Brad Thiessen and meant it.

Mark Divver from The Providence Journal sets up tomorrow’s series finale between these two clubs.

edit: Literally as soon as I hit “publish” on this post, Jonathan did the same for his look ahead at tomorrow. Here it is.

Peeking ahead, here is the potential schedule for the Eastern Conference Final. And that’s all I have to say about that.

The Gameday setup for tomorrow’s Game 7 will be up here on the blog Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

Mark Divver from The Providence Journal tweeted this, this morning:

P-Bruins and Pens both have submitted clips to the AHL office. League will rule today on Robins hit on Reese & Mormina on Florek

— Mark Divver (@MarkDivver) May 11, 2013

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It was from the Game 1 aftermath in where Bobby Robins for Providence left his feet in the second period and checked and injured Dylan Reese in the upper body / head area. Also from where Joey Mormina checked Justin Florek late in the third period setting off a melee in the third period where a sum of 67 penalty minutes were handed down. No penalties were assessed on the Robins hit to Reese by referees Geno Binda or Graham Skilliter.

More from Divver here, with quotes from Robins and P-Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy.

I would be shocked if Joey Mormina got any suspension and less so if Bobby Robins, he of his AHL league leading penalties (316) and major penalties (36) got sat down a game, if not more.

The situation will develop more as the buildup to Game 2 draws nearer. Latest on Twitter as always.

EDIT: No suspensions forthcoming, per Divver

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Boy it seems like a whole offseason has gone by, hasn’t it?

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins advanced to the second round last week via a sweep of the Binghamton Senators. The regular season champion Providence Bruins advanced to the second round after winning in five games over the Hershey Bears after being down 0-2, making them the tenth team in AHL history to attain that feat. Impressive.

So the Penguins were 0-1-1 vs. the P-Bruins in the regular season. There really isn’t much to breakdown in head-to-head on this series. Jonathan had a blurb about it yesterday. That may be the one unknown here in that these teams, despite being in the Eastern Conference, really don’t square off against each other as often as say, Albany, Adirondack, Worcester or Portland.

The P-Bruins boast young forwards who can put up points. You better get to know Ryan Spooner, Carter Camper, Craig Cunningham and Jamie Tardif who alone make up for 82 of the total 222 regular season goals scored by the P-Bruins (nearly 37%!)

One more thing about the P-Bruins. It’s where all the successful ex-Hershey Bears who have won Calder Cups have gone. Chris Bourque and Graham Mink have rings from the Bears championship runs. Christian Hanson played for the Bears last year.

Goaltender Niklas Svedberg won Goalie of the Year this season. He’s going to be a tough nut to crack.

This is a Big Bear Machine.

While I paint a grave picture, the task ahead is not insurmountable. Here is the breakdown:

Forwards:

Providence’s top three scorers are the aforementioned Spooner, Cunningham and Camper who are collectively 52-98-150. Tardif scored 30 goals for them, too. The Penguins top three scorers are Chad Kolarik (31-37-68) Trevor Smith (23-31-54) and Riley Holzapfel (21-30-51) who are collectively 75-98-173. Spooner, Cunningham and Camper did this mostly against weaker divisional opponents within the Atlantic and the Northeast, who only saw Springfield make playoffs. Kolarik and company did this against elite competition in the East Division on a nightly basis.

Advantage: Penguins

Defense:

Providence ranked right behind the Penguins in total goals allowed in the regular season (the Penguins league leading 2.34 GAA / game vs. Providence’s 2.41 GAA / game) – no matter how you cut it in this series, the defensive units are similar. However, Providence allowed Hershey to score seventeen goals in the first round series and are 12th in GAA (3.4 GA/gm) in the playoffs. The Penguins currently rank fourth, tops amongst Eastern Conference teams.

Advantage: Based on regular season, push. Based on playoffs, Penguins.

Goaltending:

Make no bones about it. We could easily see this series go seven, with five games decided in OT, with the series going 1-0, 2-1, 2-0, 3-2, 1-0, 3-1, 2-1. It may boil down to which goaltender blinks first. Svedberg was outstanding for the P-Bruins all season long, boasting an insane 37-8-2 record with four shutouts, a 2.17 GAA with a 0.925 SV% that garnered him Goaltender of the Year honors. Jeff Zatkoff put up a 26-20 record with five clean sheets, a league leading 1.93 GAA and a 0.920 SV%. Who is blinking? Will Zatkoff’s playoff experience win out? Will Svedberg continue to put up video game numbers? Until that question is answered, it’s a….

Advantage: Push

Intangibles:

Providence had the eighth ranked power play in the regular season, the Penguins finished with the 22nd best power play. Having gunners like Bourque, Cunningham and a power forward in Mink on the man advantage is a huge asset. The power play is what brought the P-Bruins back from an 0-2 hole and you could say won them the series, as timely power play goals by the Bruins doomed the Bears.

The Penguins had the best penalty kill for pretty much the entire season. Providence had the fifth best penalty kill probably due to in large part the stout defense employed by the P-Bruins all season long. It’s a push here.

Bruce Cassidy piloted the P-Bruins from obscurity last year to a regular season championship this season. John Hynes has the Penguins in the second round of the playoffs for the third straight year. At this point in the season, I don’t think one coach will outfox the other. You almost want to give Hynes the advantage by default just because the Pens swept the B-Sens last round but on the same hand, Cassidy and his P-Bruins completed a “reverse sweep” of the Bears by winning Games 3, 4, and 5. Push.

Social Media Coverage:

For the Penguins:

Twitter: @WBSPenguins
Radio: @MikeOBrienWBS // @TGracePens
Beat: @CVBombulie
Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins
Fan Blogger: @nafsnep

For the P-Bruins:

Twitter: @AHLBruins
Radio: @nickgagalis
Beat: @MarkDivver
Facebook: /providencebruins

I see a lot of comparisons between last years second round series against St. John’s in this series vs. Providence. What doomed the Penguins in that series and really in all series that the Penguins bowed out in the past eleven consecutive seasons of playoff heartbreak was finish. Chad Kolarik is a finisher. How many overtime game winners does he have? A lot. Trevor Smith is a finisher. Don’t believe him? He’ll show you his Calder Cup ring from last year. Derek Nesbitt wasn’t brought over here to live in Wilkes-Barre for a month. Equally, Chris Bourque has terrorized AHL opponents for all of his career. Graham Mink will show you his Calder Cup rings. Christian Hanson is a big body. Carter Camper and Craig Cunningham will be playing in Boston soon. That all said, I like my damn chances with the Penguins in this series.

Prediction: Penguins in six. Using lessons learned in the series against the Bears, the Penguins will put the Bruins on the brink and put them away, something the Bears weren’t able to do in three straight tries.

Gameday for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals will be up here on the blog at 3 p.m.