Chirps from Center Ice

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

Mike Sullivan Interview on NHL Network Radio

1 Comment Posted by nafsnep on August 6, 2015

I didn’t see it anywhere else on the internet, and I don’t even know if I am could post the audio, but it’s my audio I recorded on my iPod that I used to take off of Sirius XM which I am a subscriber to, but here is the Mike Sullivan interview from Thursday.

If you are a copyright ace and I for some reason can’t post this audio for whatever reason, let me know and I will take this post down. If not, here’s the interview.

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Some highlights…

— His called his return to head coaching was, “the right time.”
— He sees his role of developing players in the AHL for the NHL, “really important.”
— The interview goes a good fifteen minutes. Sullivan says all the right things you would expect out of a coach.

All in all, it sounded like he has a solid plan in place. Sullivan comes from a cloth of experienced coaches from all facets of hockey. He sounded confident. I’m sure he can’t wait to get started.

With the preseason schedule already out and the main schedule expected in a few weeks, hockey season is right around the corner.

WBS

2015-16 Preseason Schedule Announced

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on August 6, 2015

Coal Street announced a four game preseason slate Thursday against three opponents. Here are the details:

Wednesday, September 30 at home against Lehigh Valley at 7:05
Friday, October 2 at home against Albany at 7:05
Saturday, October 3 in Hershey at 7:0
Sunday, October 4 in Allentown against Lehigh Valley at 5:00.

Venues are Mohegan Sun Arena for both Penguins home games, GIANT Center against Hershey and PPL Center against Lehigh Valley.

Ticket information will be announced at a later date.

Now, go back in your pool.

WBS

Fosters. Australian for…Who?

2 Comments Posted by nafsnep on August 3, 2015

Knowing that Jeff Zatkoff is going to be Marc-Andre Fleury’s NHL backup and the uncertainly of carrying a sophomore goalie in Matt Murray and a rookie goalie in Tristan Jarry, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins were in the market for a veteran goaltender.

There are a few names left on the Top 100 AHL Free Agent Big Board that rolled out last month. Familiar names like Rob Zepp and David Leggio and AHL veterans like John Muse, but the Penguins went in a different direction.

They signed Brian Foster.

Yes, dear reader, I had vaguely or never heard of him either. You can check out his hockeyDB page here and find that he has all of 20 games of AHL level or higher experience. The numbers are, to put it plainly, not good. The numbers in the ECHL are pedestrian at best as well.

My reaction on Twitter was met with, “well, maybe it’s a WBS signing that is really meant for (the ECHL affiliate) Wheeling.” I don’t think so. I think if it were, then it’s Wheeling that announces Foster’s signing and WBS signs him under emergency conditions only. Your goaltending tandem heading into the home opener set for October 17 in Wilkes-Barre appears to be Matt Murray and Brian Foster, barring the extraordinary.

My guess is that Pittsburgh wants Murray and Jarry to be 1A options in goal as they continue to develop. Since Wheeling doesn’t share a dual affiliation with Montreal anymore, they can have Jarry start down in the ECHL while Murray gets the load of starts in the AHL. If Jarry sets a pace at the ECHL level that Murray set in the AHL, then you probably see a swap of Foster for Jarry in the future.

Now, back to summer.

WBS

Penguins Acquire Three 7/28

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on July 28, 2015

Out of nowhere Tuesday, Pittsburgh announced the signing of a player and a trade for two more.

Eric Fehr was signed to a three year deal. You may remember Fehr as a Hershey Bear / Washington Capital. He’ll add center depth in Pittsburgh. He’s coming off of surgery and probably won’t be ready to start the season.

Brandon Sutter for Nick Bonino and Adam Clendening from Vancouver. Bonino is a full time NHLer, while Clendening is a depth defenseman that has played in the AHL’s Western Conference with the Rockford IceHogs and Utica Comets. Clendening was on the Comets team that went to the Calder Cup Finals against Manchester.

It’s a great move all the way around for the Pittsburgh organization because it adds much needed depth to the Pittsburgh Penguins which means some tweener NHLers like Bryan Rust, Oskar Sundqvist and Scott Wilson are competing for one or two final spots in Pittsburgh with the loser ticketed for Wilkes-Barre and top line minutes. It’s a win-win.

I think the possibility that we see Adam Clendening in a Wilkes-Barre jersey is high. I’ll go ahead and add him to the 2015 Offseason Moves List.

Nothing else of importance going on in the AHL to note so if you’ll excuse me, I am going back to enjoy my summer.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, WBS

Uher Re-Signs / New Beat

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on July 17, 2015

News from Friday was that Dominik Uher re-signed with Pittsburgh. Uher was the last of the qualified restricted free agents to re-sign with Pittsburgh. I think that Uher pushes for a spot on Pittsburgh’s roster, but ultimately gets sent down to Wilkes-Barre again. It would be cool if he were paired on a line with Dominik Simon, who was a 2015 Pittsburgh draft pick ready to make the jump to North America. If Wilkes-Barre were to sign another Dominik and they all played on one line, someone would dub that line, “Dominik Cubed.” or something silly like that. If the line failed to produce, you could re-name the line, “Domin-Ohs.”

Or something.

Anyway, we found out today who Jonathan’s replacement is going to be at The Citizens’ Voice. His name is Seth Lakso. He’s coming over from the Charlotte Checkers beat for The Charlotte Observer. I’m sure he’ll introduce himself to the Penguins fans in due time. If you’d like to get a jump on following Seth, you can do so @SethLakso on Twitter. His first day on the Wilkes-Barre beat will be August 9.

Have a nice weekend.

WBS

Farnham / Seymour Re-Sign 7/13

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on July 13, 2015

Pair of signings today.

Coal Street re-upped Clark Seymour to an AHL pact today. Seymour is heading to Pittsburgh Tuesday to partake in Development Camp 2015 and was already listed as part of the camp when the rosters were announced about a week ago, so the signing comes as no surprise. Seymour could and should challenge for a spot in Wilkes-Barre come the Fall. Alan Saunders took a stab at defensive parings:

[tweet https://twitter.com/ASaunders_PSN/status/620656449316716544]

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The other news today was that Pittsburgh signed Bobby Farnham to a one year deal. Lots of debate as to the use for a player like Farnham. Bottom line is, with Farnham being waiver eligible now and fighting and grit and sandpaper and whatever other kind of adjective you want to use to describe a player of Farnham’s caliber being phased out, I see Farnham as more of a minor leaguer than I do a full time, every day NHLer.

Question as to whether or not Farnham clears waivers if he’s placed on them, I don’t see that as an issue at all.

The 2015 Offseason Move List has been updated.

Pittsburgh, WBS

AHL Rule Changes, A Commentary

6 Comments Posted by nafsnep on July 10, 2015

The AHL confirmed today what was long rumored for months. The five teams that are playing in California will play 68 games in the 2015-16 season while the other 25 teams in the 30 team league will play 76 games.

The two teams in the same division as the “California Five” which consist of San Diego (Anaheim affiliate) Bakersfield (Edmonton) Ontario (Los Angeles) San Jose (San Jose) and Stockton (Calgary) are Texas (Dallas) and San Antonio (Colorado) These Texas teams will play 76 games, while their divisional counterparts play eight fewer games.

The AHL, in an effort to somehow make things fair, indicated in their release today that qualification for playoffs will be based off of points percentage (points earned divided by points available ) vs. actual points for wins, losses or overtime or shootout losses.

For the 25 teams that are playing 76 games, it’s season ending points divided by 152. For the California Five, it’s season ending points divided by 136.

Say San Antonio and Bakersfield are in a battle for a playoff spot. They have an identical 88 points. But, based off of points percentage, San Antonio trails Bakersfield by .068 percentage points with a .579 points percentage vs. Bakersfield’s .647.

You may look at that and say that is not much of a deficit. But consider this. San Antonio plays the next night and loses in a shootout. They get a loser point, bringing their total points up to 89, one more point than divisional rival Bakersfield. Yet they still trail the Condors in points percentage by .061 points with a .586 points percentage.

Oh, by the way, the crossover is back. There are two conferences, with two divisions per conference. In each conference there are eight teams in a division and seven teams in the other. If the fifth place team in the division with eight teams has a higher points percentage than the fourth place team in the division with seven teams, they get the playoff spot over the fourth place team in the division with eight teams.

So the potential exists that San Antonio or Texas could lose out in a playoff battle to a team in the Central Division, a division that will have all teams play 76 games, because of points percentage.

It isn’t fair.

It isn’t fair because San Antonio or Texas is relegated to fourth place in their division with five other teams playing less games based off of points percentages. It was calculated that a win for a California Five team is worth 1.47% in the standings as opposed to 1.32% for the 25 other teams in the AHL, San Antonio and Texas included.

Play less games, your wins count more.

Nope, not fair.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

How do the scoring races get decided? What about the veteran rule? (320 pro games) Salaries? Per diems? Less games mean less travel, less travel means less wear and tear on a California Five body vs. the wars waged in Wilkes-Barre, Hershey, Lehigh Valley and Binghamton or anywhere else not domiciled in the Golden State. How do you collectively bargain all of this?

The reality is that the situation is still in flux. Nothing has been announced yet regarding a collective bargaining agreement for next year. What I mentioned in the last paragraph was probably only a thumbnail of the other issues that are up in the air which I haven’t even thought of.

Other, relatively minor, rules announced were three on three overtime for 5:00, bringing the AHL on the same level as the NHL and ECHL. If there is no winner at the end of overtime, it’s onto a three player shootout. Also announced was a “coaches challenge” rule which, provided you have a time out, can challenge a reviewable play via video review. Finally, the face-off rule was changed. If you are defending in your zone, your stick goes down first. At center ice, the visitors stick goes down first.

What do you think of these rule changes? Fair or foul?

Just Rambling, The AHL

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