Chirps from Center Ice

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

Asked and Answered 10/2

1 Comment Posted by on October 2, 2019

Well, the mailbag idea was a big hit which generated a lot of traffic and discussion. We will make it a bi-weekly thing going forward. For now, let’s hit the questions.

Hi! What’s your opinion of Oula Palve based on what you’ve seen so far? And what about Kasper Björkqvist?
– Mike

Palve played two preseason games. Small sample size, but I thought he looked good. Normally a good gauge on guys playing in their first contests is how tentative they are and whether or not they jump into a play or not. Palve mixed it up, had four total shots and played on second line with Ryan Haggerty in both games. If you’re trying to ease someone new into the North American game, you throw him on a fourth line and give him something like six minutes a period in low leverage situations. Palve didn’t and doesn’t fit that mold. It’s going to be interesting to see him adapt and develop to the North American game because the brass is really high on him.

Bjorkqvist played three games and while I thought he was invisible Wednesday, I started to notice his name more and more from Nick Hart on radio Saturday and Sunday. He had that nice goal Saturday in Hershey. It’s a transition game from college to pros no matter how strong you are. Everything you read with this kid shows that he is something special. Much like Palve, it’s all about building confidence with every shift.

Who do you think will be named Captain?
– Mike

I asked this question in part to Nick Hart on the interactive chat Sunday afternoon in the Penguins game against the Phantoms. From the sound of it, it didn’t seem like they were in a hurry to name one. Hart cited a “leadership group” vs. a straight up captain. I think that’s a fine idea in concept, but the concept didn’t work last season when Garrett Wilson went up and stayed up last year because in my opinion they lacked a direction last season. Tyler reported Tuesday that they would hope to have a captain named by Friday.

To specifically answer your question, my pick would be Ryan Haggerty. He has all the qualities you want in a captain. They have a plethora of options to choose from though; David Warsofsky, Kevin Czuczman, Joseph Cramarossa, Andrew Agozzino and Steve Oleksy off the top of my head would all be fine choices for the “C.”

How do you think they can improve attendance? I realize its not ” the new game in town” anymore, but they gotta draw more. With all these colleges around i would think there would be more interest from the students ( pitts ” student rush ” comes to mind. )
– icemanwbs

I mean they are doing all they can in ticket deals and the like. They have a strong season ticket holder base and realize that not everyone can shell out the thousand or so bucks every year to come to every single home game. The McDonald’s four packs, the $12 Friday deals with the beer specials are all fine ideas to get a casual fan with nothing to do on a Friday or Saturday to come to a game. The way that the schedule lines up (only eight weeknight games this season) it’s a weekend heavy matrix. As far as colleges go with deals and the like, you likely need to swing something with the school because not every student has a car or a viable means of transportation.

And I tell anyone who thinks that the attendance is bad here in Wilkes-Barre to attend a game in person at Hartford, Bridgeport or Springfield. If ours is what you could consider is bad, then in those arenas it would be seen as worse.

Glad to see Olesky back. I am guessing he is on a PTO because there is no contract space. At least two contract spots have to open up if they want him and the goalie.
– John C

Oleksy being signed to a PTO has no bearing on contracts because there is no cap on contracts or roster space in the AHL. You can have as many players as you want at any position in the AHL but you can only dress so many veterans on game nights. He’s a reliable insurance piece with Zach Trotman out with surgery.

Not a specific question or message at this time, but I like the idea very much of a bi-weekly feature and preferably on Monday as you say, after weekend action. And as a side note, has there been anything posted regarding AHL streaming? Is it the same as last year? Thank you for all you do!!
– Marilyn J.

Good to see that the idea of a bi-weekly feature works well. On streaming, AHLTV is back and the pricing structure is the same as it was last year with the addition of a $99.99 option to stream regular season and playoffs. The daily view (one price to watch all games that day) increased from $6.99 to $7.99. There is also a “Free View” this weekend you can also check out gratis.

Hey Jason, Excited for this new feature…Also still can’t wrap my head around that hockey season is here! Anyway, With the Big Pens not as deep on D, and a Jack Johnson trade potentially looming…Seems like the Baby Pens will need to rely heavily on young, inexperienced Blue Liners (Assuming the Penguins keep Trotman and Riikola up). Moreover, the Big Pens could call up Jon Lizotte or P.O Joseph, wiping out blue chip talent on the blue line..I know this is probably a little bit of a complex question ,but Is the Baby Pens blue line good enough for us to compete for a playoff spot?
– Matt

Ideally, if Jack Johnson is traded and there are prospects involved on defense, then the Penguins would likely go out and get a player like they did in Steve Oleksy. Oleksy is here because Trotman is out longer term after sports hernia surgery. (I’m as shocked you are that they disclosed the injury and means to correct it) So I like the fact that they are being proactive instead of putting all the pressure on the rookies.

Is the D corps right now good enough to compete for a postseason spot? I think so, but it’s a new season and we all are undefeated. Ask again in a month.

Great job as always. As a fan of “11 time”, I enjoy following your blog for news on the Bears rivals. Your coverage is not homerish (made that word up) which is enjoyable. Good luck to you and the Pens this year, just not against “11 time”
– Chris P.

I think the one thing that Penguins and Bears fans can agree on is that we all don’t like Lehigh Valley.

Will any of the new NHL rules also be used in the AHL?
– CyGuy

I think that any rule that they come up with in the NHL has been borne here in the AHL. I don’t think you are going to see anything with replay and coaches challeneges and all of that (for as much as I would like it)

Sam Lafferty, Jake Lucchini, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Anthony Angello. Which one of them do you think has the best shot at a steady NHL career.
– Josh

I want to back up this question to the opening night roster from three years ago and four, what you could consider “blue chippers” at the time. You had,

J-S Dea, 20 goals, 36 points the year prior. An undrafted kid that had huge potential. Now: Still in the AHL, 26 NHL games to his credit.

Josh Archibald – 176th overall pick. Not a lot of AHL points but speed got him to the NHL where he’s played over 100 games.

Oskar Sundqvist – 81st overall pick – kind of flamed out in Pittsburgh and ended up getting traded and blossomed with and won a Stanley Cup with St. Louis.

Jake Guentzel – the best homegrown player in the group, arguably all time.

Of that four, at that time, who would you have said?  Probably Dea, right?

So of your four, the obvious choice today is to say Kasper Bjorkqvist because of everything you’ve read about his off-season training habits and how strong he is along with his NCAA accolades. But I’d probably say that a player like Sam Lafferty has the best shot at a steady NHL career. He had a good training camp with Pittsburgh, is targeted for more this season in Wilkes-Barre and pretty much has all the assets.

Where are the AHL Previews that normally run this week?
– Barry

I scrapped the concept this season. Instead, I’ll have an opponent preview for all the teams that the Penguins play this season. Look for that noon Friday.

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Good first mailbag. I’ll send you more stamps in two weeks. The Pens will have four games under their belts at that time and their first three in three. For the time being at anytime you want to leave a comment, you can do so at any time. Thanks.

Mailbag

Mailbag Monday – 9/30

3 Comments Posted by on September 30, 2019

Kicking around some ideas here as the preseason is now in the rear view mirror and the run up to the regular season is fast approaching. I’ve seen some other blogs do this and it was suggested in the Reader Survey from a few weeks ago to open up the forum to some questions, ideas or whatever you want to talk about surrounding the Penguins. Rosters, outlooks, line combinations, anything.

I’ll move this around as I see fit, but I like the Monday Morning end of it as it comes off of a weekend of action in the AHL. Provided there’s enough feedback, we can make this a recurring feature. Ideally, it could be a bi-weekly feature, with it going maybe once a month if the interest isn’t there or weekly if there is a lot of input.

Just leave your name, it doesn’t need to be a real name, and your input, comment or questions. I’ll include a bunch of them in the first installment of reader mail, if you want to call it that.

Fire away…

This Mailbag is closed. Check back for another on on or around October 14, 2019!

Mailbag

Preseason Game #4 – Phantoms 3, Pens 1

Comments Off on Preseason Game #4 – Phantoms 3, Pens 1 Posted by on September 29, 2019

There are too many preseason games.

That out of the way, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins played their final preseason contest Sunday afternoon in Allentown against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and lost a special teams duel 3-1.

Lines were:

And for the Phantoms,

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So no preseason for Penguins goaltender Dustin Tokarski. It could be something, or it could be nothing. You don’t really need to run the risk of a guy who you know will be on your opening night roster vs. evaluating two goalies in Emil Larmi and Alex D’Orio who are competing for the backup job, barring any roster jockeying with Jim Rutherford and Company up top in Pittsburgh.

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In the first, it seemed like there were way too many penalties; three aside for each team. The Phantoms cashed on a late one when Andy Andreoff tip din a Greg Carey shot for a goal at 19:26 for a 1-0 Phantoms lead.

In the second, there were just three penalties, with two for the Penguins but no goals. There were chances both ways.

Nick Aube-Kubel scored 56 seconds into the third period that gave the Phantoms a 2-0 lead.

With just under seven minutes to play, David Warsofsky takes a shot which is deflected off the end wall, corralled by Ryan Haggerty and put in to put the Penguins on the board.

But the Phantoms would strike back in the same minute on the power play when Mikhail Vorobyev would score on a power play which reestablished the Phantoms two goal lead.

Penguins went with an empty net in the final 90 or so seconds of the game, but didn’t get any closer.

Impressions: Seemed like a game which was largely decided on special teams and with an offensively explosive team built like Lehigh Valley, not a game you want to start playing if you are the opponent of the Phantoms. With the two teams playing twelve times this season, it is something that they may need to key in on if they want to have any success against the Phantoms.

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In other news, the Pittsburgh Penguins re-assigned Adam Johnson back to Wilkes-Barre Sunday afternoon. Wilkes-Barre also made a round of cuts Sunday which were sent to Wheeling who one their training camp this week. They are Forwards Christopher Brown, Jan Drozg, Brandon Hawkins, Yushiroh Hirano, Renārs Krastenbergs and Myles Powell and defensemen Macoy Erkamps, Blake Siebenaler, Craig Skudalski and Aaron Titcomb. Sum total of 10. No real surprises.

So that concludes the preseason. It counts for real this Saturday in Hershey. The Penguins play just one game on opening weekend, then are back in Lehigh Valley next Friday, home for the opener against Utica on October 12 then in Hershey Sunday afternoon.

This week, I’ll have a new feature here Monday that requires participation from you, a mailbag! Look for that around 9:15 Monday morning. Then, news and notes as it comes during the week, a look at the Penguins opponents this Friday. I opted against a full 31 team division by division preview because I found the exercise pointless because the Penguins don’t play every team. One shot of all the teams and outlooks the Pens play. Look for that Friday.

Back here Monday morning with the stamps for you to send me stuff for the mailbag.

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Preseason Game #3 – Bears 2, Pens 1 (OT)

Comments Off on Preseason Game #3 – Bears 2, Pens 1 (OT) Posted by on September 28, 2019

The Pens were in Hershey Saturday night for their third preseason game. They had a lead going into the third period, but ultimately fell 2-1 in overtime Saturday night in Hershey.

I flew blind listening to the game and Nick Hart on the radio as there is no AHL Live for preseason. That will be the same story for Sunday afternoon in Lehigh Valley.

Lines were:

Essentially Wednesday’s lineup but for Steve Oleksy in the game for Craig Skudalski.

Lines for the Bears were:

Provided that the Penguins’ opponents tweet something like this similar for all games, consider its a regular season. More importantly, provided I remember, too.

Steve Oleksy wore the “C” for the Penguins and Jake Lucchini and Matt Abt were in the “A’s.”

In the first, not much action in the way of scoring. The Penguins had two power plays in the period but didn’t score on them. Jordy Bellerive had three of Wilkes-Barre’s nine shots in the period.

There was a fight at the end of the period when Renars Krastenbergs hit Kris Bindulis. Kale Kessy took offense and fought Krastenbergs. First fight of the preseason three games in. You’d normally have three fights in the first minute of a preseason game, but it’s a different game now.

In the second, the Penguins killed two Bears power plays and got a late goal by Kasper Bjorkqvist to give them a 1-0 lead after the end of two periods.

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In the third, Hershey finally gets on the board and tied the game when Matt Moulson tipped in a shot for a goal on a power play with Brandon Hawkins in the box for a cross checking penalty right around halfway.

Wilkes-Barre would continue to find themselves in penalty trouble but were able to negotiate out of it. Yushi Hirano hit a post with about :20 left, but it was off to overtime.

There, Matt Abt off the hop nearly ended it early, but the puck squirted wide past Parker Milner. A few minutes later, with it being as wide open as it is in 3-on-3 overtime, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored to win it for the Bears.

Impressions: Hershey wasn’t at full strength but were stronger than they were last night, while the Pens dressed a “B” team if you want to call it that and but for a few late penalties in the third,. we’re dangerously close to shutting out the Bears and sweeping them in preseason. We will have to see what the team looks like in the preseason finale Sunday at 3 in Allentown against the Phantoms.

Talk to you Sunday evening after the Penguins final preseason game against Lehigh Valley at 3 p.m.

Postgamer

Preseason Game #2 – Pens 2, Bears 0

Comments Off on Preseason Game #2 – Pens 2, Bears 0 Posted by on September 27, 2019

Second preseason game for the Penguins where they win 2-0 on an impressive 28 save performance from Emil Larmi.

Bears didn’t bring a full AHL crew with them to Wilkes-Barre, but it’s still live fire out there.

Apologies for formatting, typing this up on the fly in the phone.

Lines were:

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Glad that this graphic is back for another season.

Larmi opposed Logan Thompson who was scheduled for the entire game, just like Larmi.

In the first, much like Wednesday, it took over ten minutes for the Penguins to register a shot on goal. This was against a lesser experienced team on paper in the Bears. Wilkes-Barre failed to convert on two power play chances.

Play of the period came when Hershey was on a power play and Emil Larmi flicked his pad out to deny a slam dunk sure goal for the Bears Brett Leason.

In the second, ten seconds into a Kale Kessy charging penalty, Sam Lafferty picked a spot and scored a power play goal to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

Larmi continued to steal the show to this point, stopping the Bears on a 5×3 which led into a long power play chance on an Andrew Agozzino double minor for high sticking.

The Penguins netminder continued to weather the storm in the third. The Pens killed yet another penalty late when Hershey pulled Thompson for the extra man.

Joseph Blandisi finished off a two in one into an empty net that essentially sealed it.

Larmi finished the night with 28 saves.

Impressions: Whoever gets sent to Wheeling between Emil Larmi and Alex D’Orio is going to be an extremely difficult decision to be made for Mike Vellucci and company. Absent Jake Lucchini from Wednesday and maybe a guy like Lafferty with the goal in the second, the two best players thus far have been in goal. Nice to see the competitive fire between the two as well. Dustin Tokarski is likely the number one goalie, and may actually be number two if Casey DeSmith is somehow waived and makes it though to get the NHL Penguins cap compliant. But regardless, good competition brewing between D’Orio and Larmi.

In other news, the Penguins signed D Steve Oleksy to a PTO Friday. Nick summarized the transaction nicely:

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So that concludes the home portion of the preseason games for the Penguins. The Pens are back at it Saturday at 7 in Hershey and Sunday afternoon in Allentown against Lehigh Valley. More then.

Postgamer

Preseason Game #1 – Pens 1, Phantoms 4

Comments Off on Preseason Game #1 – Pens 1, Phantoms 4 Posted by on September 25, 2019

Preseason for bloggers too so in seasons past, nothing too dressed up for you tonight. Apologies on the formatting issues if there are any.

Alex D’Orio opposed Alex Lyon.

Lines were as follows:

Ryan Scarfo – Jordy Bellerive – Jan Drozg
Kasper Björkqvist – Chase Berger – Yushi Hirano
Jake Lucchini – Miles Powell – Brandon Hawkins
Jamie Devane – Chris Brown – Renars Krastenbergs

Matt Abt – Macoy Erkamps
Michael Kim – Aaron Titcomb
Craig Skudalski – Blake Siebenaler

Alex D’Orio – Emil Larmi

Matt Abt wore the C with Chase Berger and Jake Lucchini in the A’s.

Pens got run over in the first, taking two penalties and getting scored on once when Steven Swavely popped in a rebound of an Isaac Radcliffe shot a little past half way at even strength.

Pens had just three shots on goal, and one of them came on the penalty kill, an innocuous clearing bid from their own end that they counted.

In the second, penalty trouble bit the Penguins as the Phantoms scored twice on the man advantage. Pascal Laberge put in a pass / shot from Greg Carey and then Carey again with another setup to Matt Strome for a 3-0 lead.

Things settled from there for the Pens who started to get a few power plays which looked sharp. Finally Jordy Bellerive scored on the back door on a power play to make it 3-1. A really nice setup for Jake Lucchini, who I thought was the Pens best player tonight.

Things evened out a bit in the third but when you’re down two goals and chasing the bad start you had you start to run out of time. Alex D’Orio did his part in keeping it a two goal deficit but the Pens wouldn’t draw closer. Then with under five to play and D’Orio vacated, Greg Carey hit an empty net for a three point night and it was 4-1.

It ended that way.

Impressions: I thought Jake Lucchini was far and away the Penguins best player tonight….Alex D’Orio is probably going to start the season in Wheeling but if he played like he played tonight it shouldn’t be for long. He did all he could to keep the Penguins in the game but all Wilkes-Barre did was take penalty after penalty. Take those two power play goals out of the equation and it’s a completely different game.

Penguins head coach Mike Vellucci told Tyler postgame that Emil Larmi will start and play the full 60 against Hershey Friday. Let’s hope the Penguins play a little better in front of Larmi as they did in front of D’Orio.

More then unless there’s breaking stuff Thursday.

Postgamer

A Little More Off the Top

Comments Off on A Little More Off the Top Posted by on September 23, 2019

Cuts continued Monday as the Pittsburgh Penguins trimmed their roster to 27, sending 15 players to Wilkes-Barre and two, Nathan Legare and Sam Poulin, to their junior teams.

The players sent to Wilkes-Barre are Andrew Agozzino, Justin Almeida, Anthony Angello, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Joseph Blandisi, Joseph Cramarossa, Thomas Di Pauli, Ryan Haggerty, Sam Lafferty, Jake Lucchini, Sam Miletic and Oula Palve; defensemen Niclas Almari, Kevin Czuczman, Pierre-Olivier Joseph and David Warsofsky and goaltender Emil Larmi.

Agozzino, Blandisi, Cramarossa, Czuczman, Di Pauli, Haggerty and Warsofsky all must clear waivers. I don’t expect them to get claimed by another team.

Updated roster from Pittsburgh here.

10 defensemen, 14 forwards and three goalies remain. Pittsburgh needs to trim four more players to get to the roster limit of 23 and also become cap compliant.

John Marino, Juuso Riikola and Zach Trotman are three names who are possibly battling for the final spot if Pittsburgh wants to go into the season carrying eight defenders with Chad Ruhwedel as the seventh defender.

In the other positions, it really depends on what to do with Matt Murray’s backup. One of Tristan Jarry or Casey DeSmith is hitting the waiver wire later this week. DeSmith would probably be the more cap friendly choice if you believe it.

Forward wise, it’s a tough call. Adam Johnson is the only name that sticks out as a name that could be odd man out due to roster size and pushing maximum cap limits. If the Pens needed to clear three more players, a case could be made that you send some combination of defenders and DeSmith down and keep Johnson up. But that isn’t the case, they need to shed four more bodies to  get to 23 and save cap space. It’s essentially two defenseman, one forward and a goaltender.

Tough calls.

In other news, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton area was named in the top ten of the minor league markets by the Sports Business Journal. Our area ranked eighth. Not bad, overall.

Camp opens Tuesday on Coal Street. Preseason game Wednesday at home against Lehigh Valley. More then, if not sooner.

Pittsburgh, WBS

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