Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: Wheeling

Coattails and Cuff Links

Comments Off on Coattails and Cuff Links Posted by on February 7, 2012

Riding on the coattails of beat writer Jonathan Bombulie Tuesday update with an update of my own:

–> Nick Petersen is back from his Wheeling excursion. From the Bombulie update, Coach John Hynes wanted Petersen to get game action with important minutes. He did, and thrived. Nine points in seven games. Not too shabby. Petersen is up because…

–> Jason Williams was recalled to Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh link has Arron Asham on long term IR to make room for Williams. He’s not expected to play tonight in Montreal.

–> Jordan Staal and Simon Despres should be back “within 5-10 days.” Out of this, I would expect Despres and either Williams, Colin McDonald or both back in Wilkes-Barre, hopefully by this weekend.

–> On the subject of this weekend, Bombulie noted that Alex Picard could play this weekend ad Eric Tangradi could also go too.

Here’s some links for you:

–> PA Puck had a nice article on the March of the Penguins.

–> The 2013 AHL All-Star Classic is headed to the Divine City. Announcement Wednesday.

–> Goaltender Antero Niittymaki was loaned to Syracuse today from San Jose. He’s been injured and has only played five games this season. Does Niittymaki make Syracuse contenders? Not necessarily. Does he make them relevant? Absolutely.

–> Non hockey link for you. This ship never sailed.

St. John’s hosts the Providence Bruins tonight and tomorrow. St. John’s is playing its two games in hand on Wilkes-Barre. They are a a point behind the Pens for the overall lead in the Eastern Conference.

Leading the Conference in February is irrelevant to the players and in the ultimate scope of things. However, leading the Conference is important to me, as a fan.

Penguins aren’t planning on practicing tomorrow, so I’ll be updating again possibly Thursday, as long as content allows.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

Cody is Rusty and Ryan is Wild

Comments Off on Cody is Rusty and Ryan is Wild Posted by on February 2, 2012

Fun with blog headlines today as Cody Wild and Matt Rust signed AHL contracts today and Ryan Schnell and Cody Chupp were recalled from Wheeling.

Straight out of the Bombulie update from this afternoon, here’s your lines in practice today:

Gibbons-Lerg-Williams
Tangradi-Street-Thompson
Craig-Sill-Walker
MacIntyre-Rust-Chupp/Schnell

Boris Valabik and Alex Picard practiced in red today, which usually means no contact. So too, Brandon DeFazio.

Jonathan also had a note on Nick Petersen, who remains in Wheeling and is thriving. Petersen was actually named a runner-up for ECHL Player of the Week, so he isn’t sulking from his demotion.

Tomorrow starts a “three out of the next five games are with Hershey” series. Beat the Bears, and serious separation is had between Wilkes-Barre and Hershey. Lose, possibly get left in the dust. Gameday for the Hershey game tomorrow will be up at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Let’s Go Pens!

WBS, Wheeling

Windows Ain’t No Mac Killer

Comments Off on Windows Ain’t No Mac Killer Posted by on January 12, 2012

Personnel moves affecting the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins made today.

–> Colin McDonald was reassigned. Nothing official, but I am assuming he is with the team in St. John’s, Newfoundland for the weekend set against the IceCaps.

–> Steve MacIntyre cleared waivers and will report to Wilkes-Barre on Monday, presumably after the team returns from the Canadian Maritimes.

–> Patrick Killeen was reassigned to Wheeling. This means that Scott Munroe is ready to play. Now the question becomes who starts Saturday. Whoever does most likely sits Sunday afternoon.

That may be all the news I can scrape together until Saturday. Programming note for those looking to tune into the games this weekend. St. John’s is an hour and a half ahead, meaning that the game will be at 6 p.m. Wilkes-Barre time on Saturday and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Adjust your schedules accordingly.

Let’s Go Pens!

WBS, Wheeling

Old Faces; New Places

Comments Off on Old Faces; New Places Posted by on January 9, 2012

Shuffling of some faces you are familiar with to new places. Here we go:

–> Eric Tangradi to Pittsburgh. That’s it. No one else was called up which is surprising to me, but it looks like Arron Asham, Steve MacIntyre and Dustin Jeffrey (yeah, he still plays for Pittsburgh) could play tomorrow.

–> In the wake of the Tangradi recall, Cody Chupp was recalled to Wilkes-Barre from Wheeling and Brian Day (yeah, he is still in Wilkes-Barre / Scranton) was assigned to Wheeling. Probably a conditioning thing for him, having just come back from an injury which has sidelined him all season.

–> Ex-WBS bench boss Todd Richards is back behind the bench again, this time with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

This next link doesn’t apply at all to the above, but the ever popular Pensblog had a great “point / counterpoint” regarding the status of Sidney Crosby. By far the most popular Penguin blog from a fan perspective, I am thrilled the brain trust over there is making light of the total lack of news regarding it’s star player.

Gameday for tomorrow’s matchup at Norfolk will be up here on the blog at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, WBS, Wheeling

A Killer Amongst Us

Comments Off on A Killer Amongst Us Posted by on January 3, 2012

AHL Transaction Page was active this morning with the news that Patrick Killeen was recalled to Wilkes-Barre / Scranton. In 21 games played for Wheeling this year, Killeen sports a 10-8-1-1 record, a 2.86 GAA and an 0.880 SV%.

WBS was mum on this on the website, Twitter and Facebook pages. But Bombulie confirmed Killeen was here for Scott Munroe who has a “minor” lower body injury. It’s expected that Brad Thiessen gets the start tomorrow vs. Norfolk.

I wanted to look at the numbers vs. Norfolk for both Thiessen and Munroe. In a word, ick. Both have 85% save percentages and goals against over three, with Munroe sporting a 4.99 GAA.

Elsewhere around the AHL, ex-WBS Penguin Luca Caputi is on the move again. This time basically across the hall as he was traded to the Anaheim Ducks for Nicolas Deschamps. The AHL team for the Ducks, the Syracuse Crunch, are in Toronto to play Caputi’s old team the Marlies tonight. It’s expected that Deschamps and Caputi play against their old teams later.

Finally, the AHL All-Star Classic rosters are going to be announced at 3 p.m. tomorrow. Fans will be able to then vote on starters. I’ll go on record now and say that Colin McDonald and Eric Tangradi get nods from the WBS side. Cases can also be made for Ben Street and Bryan Lerg, but not with who Hershey, St. John’s, Norfolk and Manchester are going to send. (more than three each, IMO)

I’ll run a quick congratulatory blurb on whomever it is from the Pens the gets the nod sometime before the Norfolk game tomorrow, for those who are signed up for blog e-mail notifications. Left hand bottom of your screen if you haven’t signed up already. You’ll get my epistles delivered straight to your inbox so you don’t have to go searching for me on the internet.

On the subject of the Gameday post for Norfolk, I’ll have it up at a special time of 1 p.m. tomorrow in advance of the All-Star announcements.

Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

Coastal Reassignments

Comments Off on Coastal Reassignments Posted by on December 20, 2011

In moves that shouldn’t surprise anyone, Wilkes-Barre announced today that they have returned Chris Barton to Wheeling and released Dan Henningson and Peter Merth. Henningson will go back to the ECHL’s Chicago Express and Merth will rejoin the Wheeling Nailers.

Merth and Henningson did well while they were here. That said, I hope that they aren’t needed again. I’m not knocking them by saying this, I’m simply stating that I hope that Pittsburgh gets healthy enough to the point to where signing guys to tryouts in the middle of the season isn’t needed again.

Barton didn’t really stand out much to me. I meant yeah, the kid worked hard and he was probably a product of his environment in his two games (both WBS losses) here but I don’t know. If you come up from the ECHL and work hard you are bound for a second look, no?

I’ll be playing casual observer tomorrow night watching Bears vs. Crunch. Should be interesting and fun.

Let’s Go Pens!

WBS, Wheeling

This Post Brought to You by the Number Three

Comments Off on This Post Brought to You by the Number Three Posted by on December 18, 2011

Nice little three-pack of information for you this Sunday evening…

–> Three moves directly affecting the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins made today. Carl Sneep and Brian Strait were reassigned by Pittsburgh. Paul Thompson, according to the ECHL and AHL transaction pages is back in Wilkes-Barre also.

–> There’s a three way tie for first again atop the East Division this evening after the Norfolk Admirals defeated the Hershey Bears by a score of 6-3. The Admirals were down 3-1 going into the third period and scored five unanswered goals. The Bears were an impressive 14-1-1-0 leading after two, but only managed six shots on goal in the period. At one point the shots were 11-1 Norfolk. That’s simply fire fighting fire with those two offenses.

The East Division Standings look like this:

1) WBS (16-8-1-4) 37 pts. 0.638 win percentage
2) HER (16-8-3-2) 37 pts. 0.638 win percentage
3) NOR (18-11-0-1) 37 pts. 0.617 win percentage

–> Finally, the Gameday post for tomorrow’s game vs. Albany will be up at…wait for it…three p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

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