Chirps from Center Ice

Man, I love summer. I mean, I really love summer.

Afternoons by the pool. After 8 p.m. sunsets. Walking around the backyard in bare feet. What are shoes? What are socks?

Music to Set the Mood…

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This song slaps, and I broke records listening to this on walks and out by the pool….

Yeah you can have Spring, Fall and Winter. Like, take them away. I want my summer back.

I used to think Seasonal Affective Disorder was a joke. Nah, buddy, I’m the living embodiment of it today.

Sigh.

Anyway, back and marginally better for the god-knows-how-long-it’s-been time (16 years?), I’m back in full time blogging up the local hockey team. You can’t get rid of me that easily!

A Quote…

Summertime is always good. It is what it is.
— Oscar Peterson

The Setup….

Out of the box I expect them to contend this year better than they did last year. They normally hit the ground running in October and the first parts of November, but they finally have a fully stocked prospect system which, barring trades and the plague affecting the team in Pittsburgh, should keep a large cadre of hungry, good prospects here chomping at the bit keeping the wheels going on the farm.

Oh, opening night Friday off, they open with Springfield on Saturday and then are (sigh) right back at it Sunday at home against Hartford, the first of EIGHT Sunday home games this season.

Records

Neither Springfield or Hartford play Friday. Hartford is in Allentown Saturday.

Ch-ch-changes…

So here’s the major hits in case you have been under an umbrella at the beach or out by the pool all summer, like I have been….

– They have a new ECHL affiliate. It’s the Florida Everblades who have won three straight Kelly Cups. The Hoffmann Family, who, now owns the Pittsburgh Penguins, already had the Everblades in their portfolio. Yeah, it sucks losing Wheeling as an affiliate, but it’s a business. Get ready for a lot of Reading, Trenton, Adirondack, etc. PTOs if bodies are needed in a pinch. Closest Florida comes up to these parts is Cincinnati, I think. And, yes, airplanes exist. I am aware!

– The Nailers partnered with the Columbus Blue Jackets, so they landed on their feet, so to speak.

– The Pens have a new radio home, moving to Fuzz 96.1 FM

– The AHL will let coaches challenge for offsides now. Let’s just call this the Providence Bruins rule.

– Big offseason adds from Coal Street include Hugh McGing, late of Springfield, Ryan Mast, late of Rockford and Rafael Harvey-Pinard, who needs no introduction, to straight up AHL deals.

The Rest of those Rascals…

Charlotte is in Hershey for a pair to start the season….Lehigh Valley only has one game against Hartford Saturday….Providence hosts Utica Friday, Springfield Sunday.

It’s too early for this!

Give me a bunch of sentences on the rest of the division…

Boy you are asking a lot just coming off a summer break, but here goes….

Providence: I would expect them to contend again with the Pens for tops in the division all season.
Hartford: Biggest unknown. Same thing with them year after year, they look great on paper in October but are out of it by Christmas.
Springfield: Could contend / could surprise. How do they survive playing Providence a thousand times with Bridgeport gone will be the answer, I think.
Hershey: Scrambling late, because they lost Clay Stevenson to waivers this week and don’t have a bonafide number one goaltender. They will play the Pens tight, as always.
Lehigh Valley: I don’t see them as a playoff team. Jonathan Gruden plays for them now. Could be a pain in the ass team, as per usual.
Charlotte: I expect them to contend but in no way do I think they are better then the Penguins or Providence.

 Records

Everyone is 0-0. Again, it’s too early for this!

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Tristan Broz made the NHL team but Broz is banged up, so he remains up. EDIT: In staying in ‘this always happens after I publish these things’ Pittsburgh sent Broz and new acquisition Oliver Okuliar (late of Charlotte) to Wilkes-Barre Friday afternoon … Owen Pickering, Harrison Brunicke are down. Rutger McGroarty joined them Thursday. Wilkes-Barre sent a bunch of bodies to Wheeling, err, Florida, (where’s that fine jar?) earlier in the week.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

First impressions are lasting ones. I don’t see any reason why they can’t win both of these games easily, but I really haven’t paid attention to what they did in the offseason or preseason. They only had one scheduled home game which was last Friday but that got cancelled due to “mechanical” issues at the arena.

(Guess the ice wishes it was a pool, too)

No reason to think however, based off of the current roster construct, that they can’t pick up where they left off last season and run at the top of the division.

They will be strong on defense, probably the deepest corps in the Atlantic to start, Conference to challenge and League to be seen.

Only question I have is how AHL ready Taylor Gauthier is. He set every record imaginable in Wheeling last year in goal and is more than ready. But the AHL is a level up and it’s own animal.

Also, some of the rookies and first year guys may be tested. It’s 72 games and a grind of a season, after all, but the defense is elite and goaltending is more than capable, so we will see.

Are they better then they were last year? Let’s temper our expectations on this no matter what happens this weekend, or this month.

Who’s in Goal?

Joel Blomqvist should start Saturday and then Taylor Gauthier should make his debut Sunday.

Who’s Running the Show?

Mason Riley and Adam Tobias don the orange arm bands with Dominic Moore and Onni Hautamäki running the lines on Saturday. Sunday sees Mathieu Menniti and Graedy Hamilton in town with Moore and Hautamäki sticking around and keeping them onside.

Looking Ahead…

They aren’t home again until October 23, next weekend takes them to Hartford next Saturday and Providence on Sunday. They knock out their Cleveland trip in a fortnight.

Give us a bold prediction…

They win both games, handily, and at the end of the weekend they will be in the top five on the power play.

YOU DIDN’T THINK I WOULD FORGET DID YOU!

NASCAR: I don’t see any reason why Yung Money can’t continue his run of form and win in Vegas, but give me Denny Hamlin.

MLS: New York City Football Club is off till October 10. They need points if they are to make playoffs. A trip to Chicago October 10 isn’t going to be easy, but you can never count the pigeons out.

After beating the Hershey Bears in four games and the Springfield Thunderbirds in five games, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2014 where they will face off against the Toronto Marlies, who were last here in 2019.

The Setup

The Penguins put the Bears away in four games and had a chance to put the scrappy Springfield Thunderbirds away in four games but were shutout 2-0. In the decider last Saturday in Game 5, they obliterated the Thunderbirds 8-1. It’s the best team assembled and in my opinion, the best chance they have for their first championship in the 27 years they have existed as a franchise.

How They Got Here…

The Toronto Marlies, the four seed in the North Division, advanced in three games in the First Round against the Rochester Americans, then took out the top seeded Laval Rocket in five, and then came back from a 2-1 series hole to beat the Cleveland Monsters in five games this past Sunday. The Marlies had a 36-26-5-5 record good for 82 points in the regular season.

The Schedule…

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Give Me Three Keys…

1) Special teams. Toronto has given up 8 power play goals against, by far the most in the Playoffs thus far. Make them pay when they take penalties, which they take a lot of, 43 total which leads the teams left in the playoffs.

2) Start on time. I told you in the Hershey series and in the Springfield series that this would be a theme. Get used to it. Get on them early, often, hold the lead, and take control.

3) The job isn’t done. It’s half way in the series that you need to win, sure, but they still need eight more wins to win it all. Don’t rest on your laurels and think that you can just put up eight goals every night. Stay five on five, walk away when a guy is messing with you after a whistle, keep your head and you’ll be fine.

X Factors

Penguins: Bill Zonnon, Sergei Murashov and Alex Alexeyev. I’m not even mentioning Avery Hayes or Tristan Broz because you hope that those guys will carry the freight when needed, as Broz with his 2-2 did in game five against Springfield. Toronto has been shutout three times each in each series, once in each series that they have played and the competition gets stiffer here with Wilkes-Barre. Rightly, the Penguins will be heavily favored top to bottom, and it starts with Murashov, keeps riding with Alexeyev, in my opinion the best they have at defense and keeps going with fourth liner and rookie sensation Bill Zonnon and builds from there.

Marlies: Vinni Lettieri, Logan Shaw, Artur Ahktyamov. A forward, a defenseman and a goaltender in that order. Lettieri has thirteen points (6-7) for the Marlies and leads all skaters in points in this postseason, William Villeneuve is a puck slinging defenseman who has ten assists to go with a goal and Ahktyamov is their horse in goal. He’s not on the same level as Georgii Romanov was for Springfield a series ago, but when you are the highest scoring team in the playoffs (the Marlies have 39 goals for, six better than Colorado) a save or two when needed is all you need, often. But, for all that scoring the Marlies do, they have also fished 32 goals against out of their nets, which is half of what the Penguins have allowed so far. But remember that the Pens had a First Round bye, while the Marlies did not.

Who’ll be in goal?

Sergei Murashov and Artur Ahktyamov. Dennis Hildeby has three appearances for the Marlies in the postseason and could also be a factor.

Prior Results

Wilkes-Barre had a 3-0 lead coming into the third period at home back in November and lost 4-3 in overtime. Filip Larsson started that game and the Penguins were without, at the time, Avery Hayes, Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen, to name three.

They had a 4-1 lead coming into the third in Toronto in March and old buddy Alex Nylander clipped Joel Blomqvist for a pair of third period goals but the Pens held on and won 4-3. Hildeby started the March game, Ahktyamov the game in November.

What about the other guys?

The other guys? That’s the Chicago Wolves and the Colorado Eagles, who meet in the Western Conference Finals tomorrow in Colorado. Jayson Megna captains the Eagles who are coached by Mark Letestu. Chicago is the AHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes, who if you remember were with Charlotte for years before the divorce and outed the Penguins all those years ago in the playoffs.

Provided the Penguins handle the business before them currently with the Toronto Marlies, we will focus on the winner of that series in due time. It should be a great one nevertheless.

Remember what the great Tim Leone says, worry about your own damn series.

Predictions?

Gave them to you at the start of the playoffs. I had Cleveland here against the Penguins. I had the Penguins winning it all, as in it all then, nothing changes that here. Keep your nose clean, play the way that has gotten you home ice throughout the remainder of the playoffs and you should be fine and hopefully it’s a short series. As fate usually has it, it rarely is.

Sigh, go ahead with your NASCAR predictions already!

They are in Nashville. Ryan Blaney won it last year, but give me Chase Elliott. Ring that damn, sigh-reen in Dawsonville, Georgia and ring it loud and long!

New York City FC are off now until after the World Cup. So they can’t lose like they have been in of recent. Hey, progress!

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Talk to you later after Game 1’s results.

After a thrilling series with the Hershey Bears, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have advanced to the Atlantic Division Finals and will take on the Springfield Thunderbirds.

The Setup

Wilkes-Barre ousted the Hershey Bears in four games. They played their most complete game of the series in the put away Game 4 and had that look in their eye that they didn’t want to play a Saturday game. Are they rounding into form? They better be, because their next opponent does not say die.

How They Got Here…

The Springfield Thunderbirds, the six seed in the Atlantic Division, have knocked off the three seed Charlotte Checkers in the First Round and the 54 win, top overall seeded Providence Bruins in four games. The Thunderbirds have done the dirty work for the Penguins, taking out arguably Wilkes-Barre’s biggest threats. But now the two teams meet in the Atlantic Division Finals in a Best of Five Series for a chance to move on to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Schedule…

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Give Me Three Keys

1) The Penguins finished 29 points better than the Springfield Thunderbirds but none of that matters now. Springfield is battle tested against the Charlotte Checkers who they beat in three games and the Providence Bruins who they dispatched in four games. Simply put, the Penguins have to out scrap the Thunderbirds, something that the Checkers and the Bruins could not do. The reasons for that were that the Bruins never got slapped in the face in the regular season and the Thunderbirds were a bad matchup. The Penguins can scrap with the best of them, so it should be fun to watch. Who out scraps who determines who moves on I think.

2) Start on time. This is going to be a theme you better get used to. The Penguins started on time in Games 1, 3 and 4 in the Hershey series and that carried them to wins, scoring goals at the 3:01, 3:15 and 1:15 marks of the first period. Do that here in the Springfield series and your chances to advance go up.

3) Make them pay on special teams. Springfield, with all that scrappiness that they have, stretch the rules and are the most penalized team in the postseason coming into this weekend with 24 times shorthanded. But watch out! The Thunderbirds have two shorthanded goals, but so do the Penguins.

X Factors

Penguins: Rutger McGroarty, Harrison Brunicke and Ville Koivunen. McGroarty scored the overtime game winner for the Penguins in Game 3 and has improved in every game of the series. Ville Koivunen leads the team in points with a goal and three assists, tied with Tristan Broz’s four assists. Harrison Brunicke is growing up right before our eyes and is steadily becoming one of the Penguins best offensive defensemen, who can pretty much do it all. All four mentioned here are gunning for full time NHL work next season and I’d say are off to a good start.

Thunderbirds: Chris Wagner and Georgi Romanov. Here, I will let Mark Divver, who covers the Providence Bruins better than anyone, describe it for you here:

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I have tried not to pay attention to the other series, but it’s hard not to watch what Springfield has been doing. They got shelled 8-1 in Game 1 in Charlotte in the First Round, then respond for a 5-2 win and then an 2-1 OT win, all in Charlotte because of time and distance. They just don’t care. The puck drops, they find ways to win.

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This? This right here is a dangerous team. Do not be fooled by their .500 record at all. They dispatched one of the greatest regular season teams in AHL history and made mincemeat out of the league MVP in goalie Michael DiPietro. The only thing stopping them from being heavy favorites is their regular season record but again, none of this matters at the present time. This will not be an easy series because the Thunderbirds do not have the word quit in their vocabulary.

Who’ll be in goal?

It’ll be Sergei Murashov vs. Georgi Romanov. Thunderbirds head coach Steve Ott went to Romanov in Game 2 of the Charlotte series and the T-Birds haven’t looked back.

What about the other guys?

The Cleveland Monsters ousted the Syracuse Crunch in four games and await their opponent in the North Division Finals and that opponent will be known when the Laval Rocket host the Toronto Marlies in the winner take all Game 5 Saturday from Laval. That series will probably start around the same time as the Penguins / Thunderbirds series, early next week.

But, to quote the great Tim Leone, worry about your own series first.

Okay, okay, give us your NASCAR picks….

This is the only reason why I am doing this you know. They are in Watkins Glen, New York and it’s a road course which means it’s Shane van Gisbergen’s race to lose.

But give me Christopher Bell, seven top fives in last eight road courses and a top five in his last four road tracks.

NYCFC is in a skid, and I don’t like their chances Sunday at home against an equally bad Columbus Crew team. 3-1 Crew and I hope I am wrong.

Enjoy the weekend off, get amped for some great games next week with Springfield and we will talk to you Tuesday after Game 1.

Let’s see how far this goes here in the postseason. With a little luck, you will be reading Weekend Previews all the way to June.

The Setup

The Hershey Bears are the opponent of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins in the Best of Five, Atlantic Division Semifinals.

How They Got Here…

The Bears dispatched the Bridgeport Islanders in two games, sweeping them. They won Game 1 2-0 and then Game 2 5-2.

The Schedule…

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Give Me Three Keys…

Goes without saying but here are my three keys.

1) Start on Time. The longer it’s a 0-0 game, the more that favors a mistake. Get on the Bears early, get a few goals in the first period, adjust from there, don’t go into a defensive shell and bomb away.

2) Keep your nose clean. Stay out of the box. Don’t engage if you are leading. Don’t play down to shenanigans. They cannot touch you five-on-five.

3) You can’t win or lose the series in the first game, but you can set the tone. If the Penguins win, they are in the catbird seat Saturday looking to go up 2-0. If they lose, then Saturday basically becomes must win. Using #1 and #2, above, what does #3 become?

X Factor

Penguins: Aidan McDonough – The Penguins owe their season to this guy. Where would they be without the guy? Let Sergei Murashov, Avery Hayes and Phil Kemp get the glory, let McDonough continue to cook and carry the freight and hopefully the Penguins to the Division Finals.

Bears: Clay Stevenson – He already has a shutout against Bridgeport and the last thing the Penguins need is to run into a hot goaltender. Stevenson is 2-1-1 against the Pens in the regular season with a 1.86 GAA and a .934 SV%. If the Penguins play with jitters and the Bears get one or two goals Stevenson, who has Calder Cup experience, will likely shut the door.

Who’s in Goal?

Sergei Murashov for the Penguins, Clay Stevenson for the Bears. I think those are no brainers.

Suspensions

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But nothing for Rochester’s Olivier Nadeau, whose high hit to the head area of Avery Hayes resulted in no penalty, knocked Hayes out of the game and started the nonsense.

Beau Halkidis shouldn’t see a playoff game as a result of this ineptitude.

What about the other guys?

The great Tim Leone once told me to worry about your own series first. What the other teams are doing in the other series is irrelevant to your own matters because if you aren’t successful in your series, what you are worrying about or interested in is irrelevant.

But since you asked nicely…

Springfield, as you know if you are a regular reader here, upset the #3 seed Charlotte Checkers. They will now play the Providence Bruins beginning Friday with Game 2 on Sunday, then Games 3, 4, if necessary and 5 if necessary are the same days as the Penguins / Bears series.

Who’s Running the Show?

Morgan MacPhee and Nik Isaacson have the Game 1 assignment with Dylan Blujus and John Rey on the lines. Nothing for Game 2 on Saturday yet. With our luck it’ll be some combination of Rob Hennessey, Beau Halkidis or Mike Sullivan.

Give me the real reason you’re doing this!

My soccer and NASCAR picks, duh!

NYCFC has hit the skids. Winless in six straight, up two goals in stoppage time last Wednesday only for FC Cincinnati to score two goals for the draw then a 1-0 loss in Montreal this past Saturday, it’s not been fun for me. DC United is on the up and up, so I predict a 2-2 draw this weekend.

On the NASCAR circuit, they head to Texas, where I think it’s Tyler Reddick’s race to lose. He already has five wins this season and it’s a track he’s won at. I’m starting him in my fantasy team this weekend and you should too.

Talk to you after Game 1.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have nothing to play for in the final week of the 2025-26 AHL Season. They are locked into the two seed and will be on a bye as the best of three shakes it self out middle to end of next week. They will play the highest seed remaining in the Atlantic Division Semifinals in a best of five series that begins in Wilkes-Barre, a date and opponent to be determined.

So, what else do you want to talk about?

The Setup…

Reminder to myself that when I do this again next October, music to set the mood and a quote.

Hershey this Wednesday, Bridgeport Friday and Rochester making their only visit of the season on the last game of the regular season.

The Penguins have the Bears to thank (indirectly) for beating the third place Charlotte Checkers on Saturday, but the Penguins beat the visiting Cleveland Monsters Saturday 4-1 anyway. They lost in overtime to a playoff bound Bridgeport Islanders team on Thursday.

The Bears split a series with the Checkers in Charlotte, losing Sunday after winning Saturday.

Bridgeport punched a postseason ticket Sunday with a win over Hartford but the night before they faced a desperate Lehigh Valley team that pounded them 7-3.

The Americans beat Syracuse, then lost to Springfield and Providence and have yet to, but are in decent enough shape, to claim the final North Division playoff spot.

Records

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton is locked in at the two seed with a 44-16-7-2 record and 97 points.

Hershey is fifth in the division with a 30-30-6-3 record and 69 points.

Rochester is fifth in the North Division with a 31-29-5-4 record good for 71 points.

The Rest of those Rascals…

Providence claimed the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the regular season champion. The Penguins have won that trophy before and as we know it’s meaningless. Providence played a cupcake laden schedule, went 1-2-1 against Wilkes-Barre, only playing a divisional foe four times this season while feasting on closer opponents in Bridgeport (11-1 record) Hartford (8-2) and Springfield (7-5) – they host Utica, a sub .500 team, for their fifth and sixth games against the Comets this season where they are presently 4-0.

Please tender your expectations for this team. I could probably score 20 points easy in a basketball game against a team full of middle schoolers too if you let me.

I find it laughable that Providence plays a team not even in their division more times than teams in their own division. Spare me your thoughts of the Bruins being anything close to a Calder Cup favorite.

Charlotte is locked in the third seed after splitting with Hershey. They never really had enough to challenge the Penguins as their dry spells were more prevalent than the Penguins. They wrap their regular season hosting the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. They have a 43-22-5 record, for 91 points.

Bridgeport will be in Hartford on Wednesday and conclude their regular season in Hershey on Saturday.

Hershey hosts Rochester on the final day of the season Sunday afternoon.

Springfield may have choked their playoff chances away. They beat Rochester Friday, lost to Hartford Saturday and were shutout by Providence on Sunday. They have a 30-31-3-3 record.

Lehigh Valley needed to win both of their games this weekend and did, crushing Bridgeport 7-3 and then beating Cleveland 4-3 in a shootout. They head to Charlotte, who doesn’t have anything to play for either, for a pair this weekend. The Phantoms have a 30-33-3-3 record.

(to be fair, the Penguins have a 10-0-1-1 record against the Phantoms and a 7-2 record against the Bears)

Hartford’s goose is cooked. They lost to Providence, beat Springfield and then lost to Bridgeport this weekend. They host Bridgeport and Springfield for a home and home this weekend before they pack up for the summer. They have a 25-35-5-3 record. Thanks for the fish.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Up: Joona Koppanen, Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen. I would expect all four back fairly soon. Avery Hayes was sent back to Wilkes-Barre on Sunday. Rafaël Harvey-Pinard went up Tuesday.

Down: Nolan Renwick is up from Wheeling. Goaltender Maxim Pavlenko is up, the ECHL has crazy roster rules I have never cared enough to understand.

Out: Melvin Fernstrom and Tristan Broz are week to week with upper body injuries. Broz will likely be ready for game one of the division semifinals if I had to guess.

What Can We Learn About the Penguins this week?

How do all of these rookies fare in what is probably a preview of next season for most of them? Expect almost a preseason like look to the Penguins this week with nothing to play for. You will likely see a lineup laden with ATO guys and rookies.

Hershey and Rochester have something to play for. Bridgeport is already in but would like to have home ice in Round One, so there aren’t any “easy opponents” for these kids, so it should be a decent enough of learning experience / trial by fire for all.

Just please, if there are any regulars that are going to dress this week, for the love of god stay healthy and your noses clean.

Who’s in Goal?

I’d call up Gabriel D’Aigle and give him a game, Taylor Gauthier has earned one too. If Max Pavlenko is here, hell give him a game too.

What I am trying to say is don’t expect Joel Blomqvist or Sergei Murashov unless there is an AHL award the coaching staff is trying to get them.

Mitch Gibson, Henrik Tikkanen, Scott Ratzlaff for the opposition is my blind guess.

Who’s Running the Show?

Rob Hennessey and Adam Tobias are here Wednesday with Jud Ritter and Tommy George on the lines.

Beau Halkidis will spend Friday and Saturday in Wilkes-Barre, here with Morgan MacPhee on Friday with Shawn Oliver and Anthony Lapointe on the lines.

Cole MacDonald tags in for MacPhee on Saturday with Davids Rozitis and John Rey on the lines.

Give the refs a pass this week, the Penguins have nothing to play for.

Looking Ahead…

First Round Bye. I’ll be here next week with a Calder Cup Playoff prediction. I’m trying to talk myself into the Penguins. I think you see a surprise winner this season, I just have no idea who yet.

Give us a bold prediction…

We will all have fun this week having nothing to realistically play for and knowing that we can rest easy while four other divisional teams knock the hell out of each other for the right to lose to us in the divisional round.

Hey wait…

Oh yeah. NYCFC get back to their winning ways with a 2-1 win over Charlotte FC and give me Kyle Larson to go back to back at Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

Officially made official about ten days ago, the Bridgeport Islanders are relocating to Hamilton, Ontario for the 2026-27 season. They will play in the North Division. The Penguins will be losing a divisional foe, but more than that, a city loses a team.

It seems nonsensical that you would move your AHL affiliate further from you and in a different country. But that is what the New York Islanders are doing, for some strange reason.

So next time you want to complain about anything related to the Penguins, think about Bridgeport, or any team really (Binghamton, Manchester, Worcester, Portland, Norfolk, Albany) that lost their team.

For me, I’ll miss Bridgeport incredibly.

Mike Fornabaio, who covered the team for years, is the teams defacto living encyclopedia. His writing style inspired me to start this blog. I already knew how to write and was good with a keyboard, etc., but it was still good to see how an actual professional did it and to mimic that in whatever mess this blog has been for the past 15 years. He’s an incredible follow on Twitter and a great human being.

My first media credential was signed out of Bridgeport. I think it was a booster club trip if I remember correctly. I think they had been to Hartford, then up to Springfield and then played a Sunday game in Bridgeport at the time. Suzanne, who ran game ops for the Sound Tigers at the time, messaged me to see if I was coming to the game and when I told her I was, she without hesitation wrote me out a press credential. It’s a good thing I packed a button-down shirt that day because it would have been weird wearing a hockey jersey on press row.

Actually I wasn’t on press row for that game, I was on an end. I didn’t want to be on press row because I would have bothered Fornabaio at his job and probably would have bothered him the whole game and watched in awe at the master at his craft. I didn’t know what I was doing then, and really like to treat hockey games as fun and a distraction from my regular 9 to 5 salaried job where I have to act like an adult and a professional and not make puns, cat jokes or other hijinks. That’s one of the reasons I stopped bothering the Penguins and really have no interest in media access. You have to act with some level of decorum. I consider this a hobby and don’t want to conform to someone else’s rules with said hobby.

Bridgeport has had some really great broadcasters. I remember Sound Tigers play by play man Phil Giubileo hosting the weekly Around the AHL show on AHL Live and would look forward to that like a kid at Christmas to learn about the other teams in the AHL that the Penguins never saw. When Giubileo moved on, Alan Fuehring stepped in. Fuerhing recently graduated to the NHL Islanders but was on the call for the AHL All-Star Classic in Rockford. That was the first televised AHL broadcast I watched of the festivities in years. Fuehring made it enjoyable and at the end I said to a few people that I would pay money to listen to that guy read the phone book. He’s good, really good at what he does.

The Sound Tigers / Islanders have given the Penguins fits over the years. I wasn’t around in 2006 for Konstantin Koltsov taking us to the promised land, but I was there sweating in my seat when the Sound Tigers were good enough to make playoffs and gave the Penguins some scares in the mid-2010’s.

I think I have prattled on long enough about this team, but I sure will miss them and sincerely thank them, from the bottom of my heart, for the memories.

The Penguins make their final regular season trip to Bridgeport, Connecticut on Thursday.

Let’s abridge the usual, and get through this in under 1500 words maybe? I’m at 671 right here.*

Hold Me Closer Gandy Dancer….

After the Thursday meeting in Bridgeport, the Penguins have a Friday off and then host Cleveland in the AHL Game of the Week when they transition into the Steamtown Gandy Dancers.

Steamtown, affiliated with Scranton, which is in Lackawanna County, presented to you by Visit Luzerne County.

Make it Make Sense!

Last Week / Records

Bridgeport had one game, a 4-2 win at home against Hartford. This solidified the Islanders playoff hopes, as one of either Hershey or Lehigh Valley along with Hartford isn’t making playoffs out of the Atlantic. The Islanders are 30-28-3-5 and have 68 points, good for fourth in the Atlantic. After hosting the Pens Thursday, they are in Allentown Saturday then home against the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Cleveland swept the visiting Milwaukee Admirals last weekend and then lost to the Rochester Americans in a shootout on Monday. The Monsters have a 35-25-6-2 record with 78 points and sit third in the North Division and have locked up a playoff spot.

Magic Numbers and Rascals that Matter…

Providence’s magic number for the division is 1. They beat Syracuse and lost to Rochester in overtime last weekend. They have Hartford Friday. If the Penguins lose in any form or fashion against Bridgeport later, the division is theirs.

Wilkes-Barre’s magic number for a first round bye is four points. They presently have 94 points and Charlotte can only max at 97. The Penguins have a game in hand on the Checkers. If the Pens win tonight they will have 96 and then the magic number will be 1. Any points lost by the Checkers who host Hershey for a pair of pivotal games for the Bears this weekend, will also give the Penguins the first round bye, thus avoiding a three game series to open the Playoffs.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Up: Avery Hayes and Sergei Murashov went back up this week. Murashov because Stuart Skinner took a puck to the face while sitting on the bench. I think Pittsburgh is crazy if they carry three goaltenders. Skinner is their number one, Murashov is their number one in Wilkes-Barre. Don’t overthink it, don’t stunt the kids development by having him backup Skinner in playoffs. As result of all of this, Taylor Gauthier was reassigned from Wheeling to Wilkes-Barre.

Down: Nolan Renwick and Zach Urdahl went to Wheeling on Easter Sunday.

Out: Tristan Broz and Melvin Fernstrom are week to week with upper body injuries.

привет товарищ

A big addition to Wilkes-Barre came Wednesday when Forward Mikhail Ilyin was reassigned from Severstal in the KHL to Coal Street. He was at practice Wednesday so he’s in town getting acclimated. I would expect to see him make his debut in North America in a mere few hours. Pittsburgh is high on the kid.

ATO Szn…

Forward Tiernan Shoudy from Sparty (Michigan State) signed to an AHL Contract for 26-27 but joins the team now as Coal Street continues to amass B1G talent. Shoudy was sent to Wheeling, who also signed Penguins draft pick goaltender Gabriel D’Aigle.

Ryan Miller and Quinn Beauchesne are actual ATO signings. Fifth round picks from Pittsburgh this year, join Wilkes-Barre for the remainder of the season. Don’t get used to these kids yet, they are too young for full time AHL work next season as Miller is only 18 and is committed to the University of Denver for the fall semester.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

Don’t shed a tear about Murashov going up. Taylor Gauthier is long overdue for an AHL recall and owns just about every record a Wheeling Nailers goaltender can have. We will probably see Gauthier in one of the two games if Murashov isn’t sent back.

The Penguins still have work to do, but it’s like a four day work week. It’s Thursday morning (literally as this post goes up) and you want to get all of your work done today plus whatever leftover stuff you let sit for the week before 5 o’clock for the long weekend. Trust me, I know, I’ve been in a 9-5 job with the same company for 25 years. I have been there.

So you want to get all of the important stuff done today so you can come in fresh on Monday to essentially let your ATO’s and new kids clean up the three remaining home games you have left in your regular season next week and not have to worry about magic numbers.

The thought is that Kirk MacDonald has them primed to do just this, this weekend. The proof, as always, is in the pudding.

Who’s in Goal?

Joel Blomqvist tonight then depending on results, possible Taylor Gauthier on Saturday or Murashov deepening on what Pittsburgh does in the next 48/72 hours.

Henrik Tikkanen and Ivan Fedotov for the opposition.

Who’s Running the Show?

Liam Maaskant and Mike Dietrich have the assignment tonight in Bridgeport with Trevor Disbennett and Anthony Lapointe on the lines.

Saturday sees Dietrich again with Andrew Bell with Tommy George and Jud Ritter on the lines.

Looking Ahead…

Final week of the regular season and three home games. Hershey is in Wednesday, Bridgeport here Friday and Rochester makes their only visit of the season in the last game of the season.

Come on, City!

The Pigeons have their first real test of the season when they host the defending Western Conference Champion Vancouver Whitecaps this Saturday. I see a 2-2 draw.

It’s Bristol, Baby!

I remember when Elliott Sadler won the 2001 Food City 500. Some of you that read this blog probably weren’t around then. The Sadler victory was seen as an upset at the time. Do I see an upset this weekend at the Last Great Coliseum? No, I do not. Give me Ryan Blaney.

Give us a bold prediction…

Gabriel D’Aigle gets recalled next week, starts against Rochester as the Penguins play with house money after wrapping up a first round bye and pitches a 27 save shutout in his AHL debut.

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* – this little trick here I stole from, “Soundin’ Off” and the great Mike Fornabaio**
** – 1672 words

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are already a shoo-in for the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs and will look to solidify themselves as one of the two teams in the Atlantic Division that gets a First Round Bye.

Music to Set the Mood…

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A Quote…

Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.
— Winston Churchill

The Setup

Paying off the series with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms with a home and home, starting tonight in Wilkes-Barre and concluding tomorrow in Allentown.

Last week the Penguins hosted the Laval Rocket and won 3-1 and these Phantoms on Sunday and won 5-1. Quietly, the Penguins have won four games in a row.

The Phantoms beat the reeling Hershey Bears the Saturday night before traveling up to Wilkes-Barre on Sunday.

Hope this isn’t some kind of weird foreshadowing, but the Penguins have not lost in regulation to the Phantoms yet this season.

Records

The Penguins are second in the division with 90 points and a 41-16-6-2 record.

Lehigh Valley is presently seventh with a 28-31-3-3 record with 62 points.

The Rest of those Rascals…

Providence’s magic number to win the division is 4. They have feasted on terrible teams of late, beating Bridgeport, losing to Springfield and needing a shootout to beat Utica. They are in Syracuse Friday and Rochester on Saturday. They have a 50-14-1 record and 101 points.

Charlotte swept Hartford in Hartford last weekend but needed overtime and a shootout to do it. They beat Rochester on Wednesday. They are in Toronto for a pair this weekend. The Checkers have a 40-21-5 record and 85 points.

Bridgeport is on a tear and is up to fourth in the division. They beat Laval in a shootout last Friday, lost to Providence Saturday and then beat Hershey Wednesday. They host Hartford Friday then have the weekend off. The Islanders have a 29-28-3-5 record and 66 points.

Hershey has gone cold at the wrong time of the season. They beat Syracuse last Friday which is something the Penguins can’t seem to do, but then were dropped by Lehigh Valley and Bridgeport. They are in Springfield and Hartford this weekend. They have a 28-28-6-3 record and 65 points.

Springfield holds the final playoff spot heading into this weekend with a 27-29-6-2 record with 62 points and beat Lehigh Valley and Providence last weekend. They host Hershey for a pivotal game Friday and then host Syracuse Saturday.

Gave you Lehigh Valley’s body of work above.

Hartford lost 2-1 in overtime and 2-1 in a shootout to Charlotte last weekend at home. They are in Bridgeport Friday and host Hershey Saturday. They have a 24-32-5-3 record and have 56 points.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Up: No one. Ville Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty and Avery Hayes were all up with Pittsburgh but were returned Thursday (McGroarty, Koivunen) and Friday (Hayes) – this would mean that Wilkes-Barre is at full strength (or as full as full can be) with no recalls to Pittsburgh.

Down: Emil Pieniniemi was assigned to Wheeling Tuesday. Raivis Ansons remains up.

Out: Tristan Broz and Melvin Fernstrom remain out with injury.

ATO Season

Wilkes-Barre signed defenseman Broten Sabo from The Ohio State University and forward Daniel Russell from Sparty (Michigan State) this week. Their contracts will kick in next season, but they join the team on ATO’s now.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

Do they take a weekend off against a desperate opponent or hammer down and bury the Phantoms this weekend and their playoff chances and solidify themselves as a two seed and lock up the bye?

One would hope. All signs would point to it but they play the games to be absolutely sure.

Having McGroarty, Koivnen and Hayes back help, but please don’t rest on these laurels. Bury these fools.

Who’s in Goal?

Interesting conundrum. Both Sergei Murashov and Joel Blomqvist played well last weekend, who starts Friday? I’d go Murashov and Blomqvist Saturday in Allentown.

Aleksei Kolosov should get the start Friday and Yaniv Perets, who the Phantoms called up from ECHL Reading might get the start Saturday, but the Phantoms did start Kolosov in back to backs last weekend.

Who’s Running the Show?

Graedy Hamilton and Austin Rook are here Friday with Tommy George and John Rey on the lines.

Saturday it’s Rook again with Patrick Hanrahan with Rey again on the lines with Jud Ritter.

Looking Ahead…

A Thursday trip to Bridgeport, a Friday off and then a Saturday home game against Cleveland.

Come on, City!

I don’t think New York City Football Club has any trouble with visiting St. Louis, and will win 3-1.

NASCAR Picks…

Cup is off but Truck and O’Reilly are in Rockingham. Give me Carson Hocevar in Trucks and Justin Allgaier in O’Reilly at The Rock this weekend.

Give us a bold prediction…

One of our goaltenders gets a shutout this weekend. Penguins win both games.