Chirps from Center Ice

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

You Left the Offense at Home – Pens LOSE 2-0

Comments Off on You Left the Offense at Home – Pens LOSE 2-0 Posted by on March 8, 2013

   button_adk200       @       WBS

  0                                              2

–

The offensive woes continue.

The Penguins kicked off their seven game road trip in Providence and were shutout 2-0. Michael Hutchinson makes 20 saves for the clean sheet.

Cody Wild, Steve MacIntyre and Jasyon Megna were the scratches. Tom Grace said on radio pregame that Megna was driven up today by a WBS front office staffer and didn’t make the bus trip yesterday so as not to infect the bus with the stomach bug he had.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. the aforementioned Michael Hutchinson

First Period: Could best be described as a feeling out period for the two teams. The Pens had the better of the power plays but only took three shots on goal and only allowed the P-Bruins the same amount. It would be the lowest amount of shots taken by both teams all season.

Second Period: For two teams that only play each other twice in a year, there were five fights, including four in 7:34 and 79 PIMs. Zach Sill fought Tyler Randell. Randell clipped Sill with a punch that dropped him. Colby Cohen and Paul Thompson fought after a scrum in front of Hutchinson’s net. Then Bobby Farnham fought David Warsofsky, Christiaan Minella / Kevan Miller. Pens had to penalty kill halfway through the period but dispensed of the Providence power plays. Then, Bobby Robins, the AHL’s penalty minutes leader, charges Philip Samuelsson then fights him. Robins would get a five minute major for charging. The Pens, during the extended power play, only manage a single shot on goal and the P-Bruins played “bend but not break” and killed it.

Third Period: The P-Bruins looked out for blood. Zatkoff made save after save. Alex Grant takes an interference call. Jamie Tardif feeds Craig Cunningham on the back door. Power play goal. Pens get a power play. Puck flutters just past the cage of Hutchinson. No goal. Then the Bruins continue to pressure, come in three on two and score. That would be all the offense that the P-Bruins would need. Zatkoff was pulled but the Penguins did not score a goal.

Three Stars: 3) Jamie Tardif (assist, even) 2) Michael Hutchinson (20 save shutout) 1) Craig Cunningham (goal)

Around the Division: Binghamton shuts out Connecticut at home, 3-0. Syracuse takes down St. John’s in a shootout 3-2. Hershey was dropkicked by the Norfolk Admirals in Virginia 5-1.

Standings: Syracuse 77 — Binghamton 74 — Hershey 64 — Penguins 63 — Norfolk 57

Conference: 1) SYR (77) 2) SPR (75) 3) PRO (73) 4) BNG (74) 5) POR (70) 6) HER (64) 7) WBS (63) 8) MCH (62)

SendToNews Highlights: I don’t think Providence has them.

Wheeling Update: Wheeling wins 5-2 in Trenton.

Pens travel to Portland for a 7 p.m. game against the Pirates. I will have the Gameday setup here for you at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

Postgamer

GAMEDAY: @ Providence 3/8

Comments Off on GAMEDAY: @ Providence 3/8 Posted by on March 8, 2013

@ 2012_PRO

–

–

Away Game: 27

AHL Game: 856

Who: Providence Bruins

Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center

When: 7:05 p.m.

Media Kit

Last Game: Saturday at home vs. Albany, the Pens won 2-1 in a shootout. Trevor Smith had a goal in regulation and Adam Payerl won it in Round 6 of the shootout. For Providence, the P-Bruins drop kicked the Portland Pirates at home Sunday 7-1. Craig Cunningham had a hat trick, Justin Florek had a four point night (2-2-4) and Niklas Svedberg stopped 29 of 30 shots.

Record: For WBS: 30-24-2-1 (63 pts., 4th place East Division) For PRO: 33-18-0-5 (71 pts., 1st place Atlantic Division)

Why you should care: The Penguins take to the road starting off a seven game stand away from Mohegan Sun Arena. In their way, is the Atlantic Division leader the Providence Bruins. The P-Bruins are a strong team that will provide a stiff challenge to the Penguins.

Referee(s): Geoff Miller

Linesmen: Bob Paquette / Brian MacDonald

Twitter: @WBSPenguins / @AHLBruins

Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins // /providencebruins

Beat Writers: @CVBombulie / @MarkDivver

Broadcasters: WBS: Tom Grace @TGracePens and Mike O’Brien @MikeOBrienWBS / PRO: Nick Gagalis @NickGagalis

Fan Bloggers: @nafsnep 

Radio: For WBS: 102.3 The Mountain / For Providence: WNRI 1380 AM

Television: AHL Live

Other Game to Watch: Binghamton is in the Connecticut capital tonight facing off against the Whale in Hartford.

Next Five Games: @ POR 3/9, @ MCH 3/10, @ WOR 3/13, @ WOR 3/15, @ POR 3/16

Gameday

The Devil Went Down to Wilkes-Barre

Comments Off on The Devil Went Down to Wilkes-Barre Posted by on March 6, 2013

News of the day is that Tom Kostopoulos, a day after being signed by the Pittsburgh Penguins, was claimed off of waivers this afternoon by the New Jersey Devils.

I am sure Jonathan will have more on the Penguins Insider later, but here are some quotes from Kostopoulos from JB’s twitter feed earlier:

“One side of me is a bit torn because I was excited to be part of Pittsburgh’s organization and to come back here and play in Wilkes-Barre, but I’m definitely excited to go to New Jersey.”

Sometimes I hate the business of hockey. Before Kostopoulos came to Wilkes-Barre for his second tour of duty, he could have signed on with any of the 30 NHL teams, New Jersey being one of them. When he was with Wilkes-Barre on a PTO, he could have still signed with any of the 30 NHL teams. I don’t know, it seems a little underhanded to me that New Jersey would wait for Kostopoulos to sign with an NHL team (Pittsburgh) and claim him off of waivers from the Penguins to have as their own.

Anyway, the immediate effect of the Kostopoulos loss is lessened by the fact that Paul Thompson is back practicing in contact and could play as early as this weekend.

Thinking more long term, I believe that Pittsburgh is going to be more active between now and trade deadline day for the farm team, having lost Kostopoulos and Brian Strait to waiver claims. The NHL deadline this year is April 3, the AHL’s is April 10. Time will tell.

If you haven’t yet, check out the Third Quarter Grades.

But for more news like this, the next blog update will be Friday for the Gameday setup vs. Providence.

Let’s Go Pens!

WBS

Third Quarter Grades

2 Comments Posted by on March 5, 2013

After Saturday’s 2-1 shootout win at home vs. Albany, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins officially entered the stretch run, that being the fourth quarter. They currently sit 30-24-2-1, with 63 points good for fourth in the division and seventh in the conference after 57 games. The Penguins enjoyed moderate success in the win column, relying heavily on their defense and special teams penalty killing to keep them in close games. Bolstered by two very good goaltenders, the Pens have been involved in a bevy of one goal games.

In keeping with Quarter One and Quarter Two, below is my take on the players who suited up for the Penguins during this quarter. Each player is assigned a grade based off of third quarter performance only. Here goes:

Read more of this post

Quarterly Grades

Grades Are Due, But First the News!

Comments Off on Grades Are Due, But First the News! Posted by on March 5, 2013

Third Quarter Grades will be out today at 3 p.m., but first the news of the day:

— Pittsburgh signs Tom Kostopoulos to an NHL contract. He was placed on waivers at noon today. If he clears, he’ll then be re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre.

— On waivers, the Nashville Predators claimed Zach Boychuk from the Penguins. That really has no direct bearing on the everyday goings on at Coal Street.

— The direct effect on Wilkes-Barre was the recall of Beau Bennett, if you even want to call it that. Bennett was moved off of the NHL roster last night to make room for Evgeni Malkin’s return. Now that Boychuk is out of the picture, Bennett was returned to the NHL roster.

Alright. Grades will be up at three o’clock. Check back then or afterwards.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, WBS

Gotta Go Down to Go Back Up

Comments Off on Gotta Go Down to Go Back Up Posted by on March 4, 2013

Few things to note on an otherwise quiet Monday:

— Pittsburgh put Zach Boychuk on waivers. Since the Penguins claimed him off of waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes, Carolina has the right of first refusal to claim him back and assign him to their AHL affiliate, Charlotte. That said, there is little to no chance Boychuk ends up in Wilkes-Barre.

— Beau Bennett was re-assigned back to Wilkes-Barre. But before you rejoice, Seth Rorabaugh from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette had a series of tweets that explain a bit further the Bennett move.

My takeaway from this is that regardless what happens with Boychuk, it does Bennett no good to play third or fourth line minutes toiling in and out of the lineup night in and night out in Pittsburgh. Let him be a point a gamer here in Wilkes-Barre before he goes up and stays up. I will continue to beat this drum.

— Binghamton got help from Ottawa, in the return of Derek Grant.

— The AHL Playoff Primer is back. The Penguins magic number to make playoffs is 37. Their pace points is 84, slotting him where they are now, at the seven seed. I may be math inept, but I love this information put out by the League.

— Third Quarter Grades are coming together nicely. In the 19 games, Philip Samuelsson leads the Penguins in +/- with a +7, Chad Kolarik is at the bottom of this list at -7. Of players that have played more than 10 of the 19 games in the quarter, only six players have a positive +/-.

The plan is to have the Grades here on the blog sometime tomorrow. Stick with me on Twitter for the latest on this front.

Edit: The Third Quarter Grades will be up Tuesday at 1 p.m., after waiver moves are announced at noon.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

A Bear Market

Comments Off on A Bear Market Posted by on March 3, 2013

The Penguins were off Sunday afternoon but plenty of action in the AHL to keep tabs on.

BNG    1

TOR    2

Recap: Binghamton loses in a shootout 2-1 to the Toronto Marlies and take five of six points this weekend.

SYR    3

HER    5

Recap: Down 3-1, Bears head coach Mark French pulls starter Dany Sabourin in favor of Phillipp Grubauer. The Bears offense roars to life, scoring four unanswered, and the Bears stomp the Syracuse Crunch at home 5-3. Ex-WBS Penguin Jeff Taffe had a hand in four of the five Bears goals. (2-2-4)

The Crunch go one point out of a possible six, Bingo goes five for six, Wilkes-Barre goes two for four and the Bears have a perfect weekend. That midweek loss to Norfolk will sting for a bit. Here’s the new East Division point standings:

1) Syracuse 75
2) Binghamton 72
3) Hershey 64
4) Penguins 63
5) Norfolk 54

Syracuse, Hershey and Wilkes-Barre have 57 games played. Binghamton has 56.

Let’s also not forget about the Norfolk Admirals, idle today, who took four of six points this weekend and have 55 games played and have 54 points.

Here’s a snapshot of the Conference standings points right now:

5) POR (67)
6) HER (64)
7) WBS (63)
8) CT (61)
9) ALB (59)
10) WOR (58)

The top eight make playoffs. Albany has 54 games played. Portland and Worcester have 55 games played. Everyone else listed above has 57 games played.

This week is pretty quiet in the East Division and in the conference, relevant to the Penguins. Connecticut hosts Portland Tuesday night in Hartford. A Whale win puts them even points-wise with the Penguins. The Pirates got obliterated by the Penguins next opponent, the Providence Bruins 7-1 in Rhode Island today.

Third Quarter Grades are due. I’ll have them sometime either Tuesday or Wednesday. Debating giving a player a failing grade. For instance, Paul Crowder for the Wheeling Nailers had a NINE point weekend and had four assists today helping the Nailers beat the Kalamazoo Wings 5-3. Meanwhile there is a certain player that every time he touches the puck, it’s a turnover.

Anyway, that’ll be all on the blog until Tuesday likely for the grades, unless something huge breaks in between.

Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL

← Older posts

Newer posts →