Don’t get used to me using emojis in my blog headlines, but the emoji used in today’s entry about sums up the week for Penguins fans in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Let’s review:
Friday Morning: Coal Street signs goaltender Anthony Peters to a PTO from the Cincinnati Cyclones. Peters is not a slouch. He has pretty good numbers with the Cyclones, he has a 7-4-1 record. His .929 SV% and a 2.26 GAA both rank fourth in the ECHL with Cincinnati.
That said, the Penguins play in the AHL and have the second place in the Central Division Milwaukee Admirals coming in Friday night, the second place in the North Division Rochester Americans coming in Saturday night and then travel to their blood rival Hershey Bears Sunday afternoon. The goaltending situation right now is not ideal. If Maguire can’t go tonight or Saturday, Wilkes-Barre is all in with two guys on PTO agreements.
Gameday setup for tonight’s matchup with the Milwaukee Admirals hits the blog at 3 p.m. In the meantime, this entrance song may be playing on repeat at my office until puck drop tonight…
On Monday, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins released Colin Stevens from his professional tryout agreement. Sean Maguire was recalled from the Wheeling Nailers.
Monday night, in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers, goaltender Matt Murray was injured on this play:
Bob McKenzie had this to say on the status of Murray as of Tuesday afternoon. Read both tweets.
Whatever the precise timeline, sounds more like week to week than day to day. So, for now, Tristan Jarry is the man, backed up by Casey DeSmith. PIT is likely to be in market for (low cost, both in acquisition price and cap hit) experienced back-up/stop-gap guy.
Once you wash the sarcasm drippings off of your hands from my last paragraph and the tweet above, know that the Penguins placed Murray on injured reserve.
Other news surrounding the walking wounded in Wilkes-Barre from Tyler…
Tom Kostopoulos is still week-to-week, but it sounds like more of a long-term week-to-week if that makes sense. Prow is back and good to go. Josephs is still week-to-week.
Other tidbits include the return of Garrett Wilson from his personal matters and Tom Sestito appears good to go, returning to practice this week as well.
More as it comes, hopefully it quiets down. Pittsburgh next plays Friday in a home and home with Buffalo, and Wilkes-Barre plays three in three beginning this Friday against Milwaukee, who haven’t been seen around these parts since they took home the Calder Cup in the Finals in 2004.
Comments Off on So Long and Thanks For All of the Fish, Colin
Posted by nafsnep on November 27, 2017
With the Penguins upcoming three games in three days looming on the schedule for this weekend, a decision needed to be made as to what to do at the backup goaltending position. Casey DeSmith had started every game in the month of November (probably a Wilkes-Barre record of some sort) so the backup needed to see a game in one of the three games this upcoming weekend against either Milwaukee Friday at home, Rochester Saturday at home and Hershey on the road Sunday.
It’s a bit of a raw deal for Stevens, who never saw a minute of game action for the Penguins in the entire month, but such is the business.
Apparently the plan all along since Pittsburgh lost Antti Niemi to waivers in Wilkes-Barre and Wheeling was to keep having Maguire eat starts in the ECHL while DeSmith handled the workload here in Wilkes-Barre. The Nailers went out and got themselves a quality ECHL goaltender a few weeks ago in Adam Morrison in a deal with Rapid City, so they should be OK at the goaltending position. Wilkes-Barre plays fourteen games in the month of December which includes two Sunday and three Wednesday games. DeSmith would have simply gotten worn out had he continued to eat starts.
For Maguire, I don’t want to call it a fish or cut bait situation for him, he’s been sparingly used by Wilkes-Barre as he has continued his development in the ECHL. He’s 8-3 with a .910 and a 3.28 GAA with Wheeling this year. Nailers are second in the North Division, tied with the Manchester Monarchs with 24 points so far. I think it’s fair enough to say that the next step in his development is to backup at the AHL level. I’ll be interested to see when he gets a start this weekend, and how he does.
Comments Off on AHL Power Rankings: Week 8
Posted by nafsnep on November 27, 2017
After Week 8 and American Thanksgiving, it’s a pair of Canadian teams that are 1-2 in this weeks edition of the Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings
The Manitoba Moose are the hottest team in the AHL right now, but the Toronto Marlies are the actual best statistical team in the league. Both teams are virtually identical, 9-1 in their last ten games, but the Moose are running away with the Central Division right now which is always tight.
Rochester slots in third. Anytime you smoke an opponent with 10 goals like the Americans did to Binghamton on Saturday, you open some eyes.
Two teams that faced off this week for a pair of games fill out the top five. That’s your Tucson Roadrunners and your Stockton Heat.
Jump past the Heat if you didn’t link in direct to find out who the sixth place team is all the way down to the last place team.
1
Last Week: LAV 2 @ MTB 3 (SO), MTB 3 @ GR 1, MTB 3 @ MIL 0
9-1 in their last ten, Moose are the hottest team in the AHL right now. Normally the Central is a dogfight, but Manitoba right now as the calendar flips to December is turning it into a runaway.
+2
This Week: @ RFD 11/28, vs. CLE 11/30, vs. CLE 12/2
Record: 14-5-1-1
2
Last Week: TOR 5 @ UTI 2, BEL 1 @ TOR 2 (SO), BEL 1 @ TOR 5
League’s statistically best team remain second this week behind the smoking hot Moose team. Favorable schedule this week can keep the Marlies on a tear to start December.
n/a
This Week: vs. SYR 11/29, @ BEL 12/1, vs. HFD 12/2
Record: 16-4-0-0
3
Last Week: RCH 5 @ SYR 6 (OT), BNG 3 @ RCH 10, RCH 4 @ BNG 3 (OT)
Don’t want to look past Utica and Hartford, but meeting the Pens in Wilkes-Barre Saturday night will be a good litmus test for this Rochester side who have surprised of late.
Comments Off on Power Failure — Pens LOSE 4-3
Posted by nafsnep on November 25, 2017
vs.
4 3
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I have recycled this headline tonight, I think for the third time if the slug is any indicator, but it bears repeating again that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins had a chance to win tonight;’s hockey game against the Syracuse Crunch, but due to the inability to score on five power play opportunities, at key times in the contest, mind you, they were unsuccessful in winning tonight’s game, losing 4-3.
There is also something about the Syracuse Crunch that gave the Penguins fits this weekend. Maybe it was the speed, maybe it was a rag tag group fo Crunch players all playing out of position (defenders were playing forward and vice versa) that had teh Crunch wanting it more than the Penguins. I wouldn’t have faulted you at all if you thought that the Penguins were going to easily win this series with the Crunch. Count me in with those that believed that the Penguins were going to steamroll Syracuse in these two games.
Casey DeSmith opposed Connor Ingram.
A lot of chatter on my social media outlets that was wondering when Colin Steven was going to get a start in goal for the Pens. I think that DeSmith wanted tonight’s game as a revenge for what the Crunch did to the Penguins last night. Wilkes-Barre has three games coming up in a row Friday, (vs. Milwaukee) Saturday (vs. Rochester) and Sunday (at Hershey) next weekend, so Stevens is going to have to get a game. My money is on next Sunday at Hershey, but I could probably go with Saturday at home against Rochester too.
Lines were…
Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Thomas Di Pauli – Teddy Blueger – Daniel Sprong
Dominik Simon – Colin Smith – Christian Thomas
Adam Johnson – Gage Quinney – Freddie Tiffels
Andrey Pedan – Lukas Bengtsson
Chris Summers – Kevin Czuczman
Jarred Tinordi – Frank Corrado
Casey DeSmith – Colin Stevens
Lineup Notes: 400th AHL game for Chris Summers…Andrey Pedan was back in the lineup after seeing his three game suspension for Zack Trotman, who was given the night off. But for some shuffling up front, no changes to the forward core.
First Period: Daniel Walcott scored his first of the season with this tap in goal at 1:39 that put the Crunch out in front…
Great offensive zone shift by the Penguins set all of that up. I personally thought that the entire play was offsides, myself, but that was never raised.
Here’s the turning point in the game in my opinion…
Reid McNeill interfered with Thomas DiPauli, so much so that I caught the infraction myself without even having to look at a referee’s arm go up. After the play stopped, referee Tyler Puddifant signaled the interference call but also indicated to DiPauli that he was guilty of something also. That something was embellishment, or formerly diving. I don’t see where that could apply here. McNeill stepped in front of DiPauli while DiPauli was hustling for a puck and knocked him down. Clear interference. How Puddifant saw a dive from DiPauli from the sequence is beyond me. Penguins had all the momentum at this point and had it all go poof because of a questionable at best embellishment call.
What’s better, is that after all of that nonsense, the other referee working the game, Pierre Lambert, got Teddy Blueger for a holding penalty. That player that Blueger held went down like a house of cards, but no embellishment call was called there.
Pens would kill that penalty, but Frank Corrado was called for interference and then Carter Verhaeghe scored on the power play to even it at two…
Second Period: Penguins get three straight power plays given to them. The first one was bad, the second one was worse, and the third one Michael Bournival scored a goal shorthanded…
Third Period: Penguins played with vim and vigor this period but couldn’t dig out of a two goal deficit with a Crunch team playing confident in front of their young goaltender. Frank Corrado scored this goal to bring the Penguins back within one…
… but with a late power play that came and went and later with DeSmith pulled, the Penguins never found the equalizer.
While I am ragging on officials, linesman Jud Ritter had an overall embarrassing game for himself. There was a sequence late with the Penguins pushing for the final goal that Syracuse would go for a clear and Rutter (who called the delayed too many men on the ice penalty on the Penguins in Game 5 against Providence last year) tried to get out of the way of the clear but couldn’t, thus keeping the puck in the Penguins offensive zone. Play was halted for some reason by likely one of the referees killing all momentum. Oh, and it was the other linesman, J.P. Waleski that missed the offsides call on the Penguins second goal, just to show that I am being fair.
Three Stars: 3) Freddie Tiffels (goal, even) 2) Matthew Peca (goal, +1) and 1) Carter Verhaeghe (goal, assist, +1)
Around the Division: Bridgeport scores a goal late to tie it at 4-4 in Allentown, but Will O’Neill scores 1:22 into overtime to give the Lehigh Valley Phantoms a 5-4 win at home against the Sound Tigers….Hershey beats Hartford 4-1 in Connecticut and Charlotte crushes Providence 8-2 in a game between two teams that are up and down like the stock market. Springfield was off.
Standings: Penguins (.735 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.650) — Charlotte (.600) — Providence (.588) — Bridgeport (.583) — Hershey (.500) — Hartford (.425) — Springfield (.357)
Comments Off on RAPID RECAP – Pens LOSE 4-3
Posted by nafsnep on November 25, 2017
Styles make fights?
The Syracuse Crunch took it to the WBS Penguins for a two game series here on Thanksgiving weekend and swept the AHL’s best team. They won again tonight 4-3.
Pens seemed to have the momentum taken away from them tonight on the power play. Whenever they would get one, it would be a fire drill of errors. Syracuse easily killed it.
Cassette DeSmith loses back to back games. I’d love to know if that is his first time losing back to back games.
Comments Off on GAMEDAY: vs. Syracuse 11/25
Posted by nafsnep on November 25, 2017
vs.
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Who: Syracuse Crunch
Where: Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza
When: 7:05 p.m.
Last Game / Last Meeting: Last night in Syracuse, the Pens lost 5-2. Syracuse jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first, the Penguins got goals from Colin Smith and Dominik Simon but couldn’t score to tie it on a late 5:00 major power play and their 12 game winning streak ended in Syracuse last night. Louis Domingue stopped 23 of 25 for the win, Syracuse’s first back to back of the season.
Record: For WBS: 12-3-0-1 (25 pts., 1st place Atlantic Division) // For SYR: 6-9-1-2 (15 pts., 7th place North Division)
Referee(s): Pierre Lambert / Tyler Puddifant
Linesmen: Jason Mandroc / Jud Ritter
Why You Should Care: Revenge against the team that ended the 12 game point streak for your favorite team. Expect a refocused Penguin team ready to go from the drop of the puck tonight,
Other Game to Watch: Rochester smoked Binghamton last night 10-3. The two teams rematch tonight in Binghamton. There could be fireworks.
Next Five Games: MIL 12/1, RCH 12/2, @ HER 12/3, @ LV 12/6, CHA 12/8
vs. 
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