When I write my “Why you should care” blurbs in my Gameday posts, they usually I have seen ring true to what actually comes true for the game that night. Call it what you want, that I know my team top to bottom or beginners luck in blogging, but let’s have a look at what I wrote for tonight’s 3-1 loss to the Syracuse Crunch:

This Crunch team beat Wilkes-Barre the last time the teams met but have only won 5 games since. This is a game on paper the Pens should easily win, but it has “trap game” written all over it. Truly elite teams have no problems dealing with inferior competition. Are the Pens truly an elite team? I guess we get a chance to find out tonight.

The answer to the question, in my opinion, is a resounding no. You just do not let a 7th place team in your division, a 14th place team in the Conference and an overall 29th place team run over you in a 3-1 victory. They talk about gimmicks in the AHL to get fans in the seats, well tonight the Crunch staff and their radio guy wore garlic necklaces and the staffers taped “lucky” pennies to the seats at the War Memorial to sort of change the luck of a team which got blown out to a mediocre Binghamton Senators team 7-0 last night.

John Curry vs. JP Levasseur tonight. No lineup changes from last night.

First period: First 5 minutes in, it’s all Syracuse. Only after a scrum in front of Curry’s net does Brian Strait and Patrick Maroon fight. Seconds later, Captain Ryan Craig gets credit for a goal which was kicked in by Syracuse’s Joe DiPenta. As that happened, Keven Veilleux went off the ice and to the dressing room with an apparent upper-body injury. Radio called it a hand, Bombulie called it a hip injury, we’ll have to see. He did not return. Very late in the period, after an Eric Tangradi goaltender interference call, Joe Vitale and Ryan Craig skated in shorthanded on a 2 on 1 but did not score after what looked like the puck in the net with Craig too. I was not at the game, rather watching on AHL Live, and the home angle for Syracuse was not the greatest. The period would end 1-0 Penguins.

Second period: First ten minutes, not much of anything from WBS, the Crunch hung around. I tweeted something to this effect and seconds later, Steve Wagner and Corey Potter have a mixup defensively and the Crunch tie the game via a goal from the recently demoted Dan Sexton. The second period would end that way. I was still at that point waiting for the Pens to wake up and put this game away.

Third period: Dustin Jeffrey would hit the post twice this period and did not score. I recall Eric Tangradi having a frustrating night a few weeks ago I think against Binghamton and look what happened to him of recent. It’s hard when you have the skill set of Dustin Jeffrey to not be frustrated when you hit two posts in the third period of a tied hockey game to not be upset. Then, Carl Sneep unintentionally screens John Curry and Trevor Smith makes it 2-1. Less than two minutes later, Trevor Smith again and it would end 3-1. The Pens would get a late power play on a Syracuse delay of game and I really though head coach John Hynes should have pulled Curry to give the Pens a 6 on 4 advantage with 3 minutes to go but he did not, and we go into the Christmas break having lost 3-1 to the 29th best team in the 30 team league. Merry Christmas.

I love to compare this team to the Hershey Bears of last year, when the Bears were just murdering teams. Does last years Bears team put this Crunch team out of its misery in the first period tonight? I want to say yes. With this loss, this is three straight losses to division opponents. Not good when you have the pesky Norfolk Admirals which, oh by the way we haven’t beaten yet in three tries, breathing down your necks.

It’s just one game. It happens to the best. Yadda yadda. It stinks though because this sour taste is going to linger until next Sunday when the Pens are back on the ice vs. the Albany Devils at home.

Around the Division: Break up the Adirondack Phantoms. Winners of two straight in a long, long time. They beat the Abbotsford Heat 2-1 tonight. The Hershey Bears have lost three straight games. They were defeated by the Providence Bruins 2-1 in Hershey tonight. The Binghamton Senators, who last night destroyed this Crunch team as you know 7-0, lost to the Charlotte Checkers 4-2. I may spend all this week trying to explain that one. Finally, those pesky Admirals defeated the Albany Devils by a score of 5-1. I suppose the good news here is they can draw no closer to us as they too are off until December 26 as well.

Standings: WBS holds onto first with 46 points. Norfolk with the win is 42 points out. Charlotte is in third with 38 points. Hershey is in fourth with 33 points. Binghamton is in fifth with 30 points. Albany and Syracuse have 24 points apiece good for sixth and seventh respectively and the Phantoms are in last place with 14 points.

Can the Pens get caught sitting idle? No. As I mentioned Norfolk doesn’t play until next Sunday. Charlotte has a game tomorrow in Hershey. Binghamton is in Rochester tomorrow and the rest are too far back to matter so the Pens will remain first in the East.

Going to probably be quiet here on the blog this week with no games. Will probably check in with news and notes and stuff from around the league as best I can.

Let’s Go Pens!

Big night in Penguin land this evening with a 5-2 win and multiple point nights for a few guys. Luck in the standings tonight too with Norfolk losing in overtime to the Albany Devils. I think the Devils tied the score twice after being down to come back and win in overtime.

Brad Thiessen v. Leland Irving tonight. Dustin Jeffrey was back in the lineup after being in Pittsburgh. Jesse Boulerice and Robert Bortuzzo returned from their suspensions. Jason DeSantis took warmups but was scratched. Joey Haddad was sent back to Wheeling and Ben Street was the scratch as he did not partake in warmups.

First period: Wilkes-Barre, off the hop, was all over Abbotsford. Joe Vitale steals a puck from a Heat defenseman and he and Tangradi come down on a two on one. Joe passes to Eric he buries it. Later in the period Vitale would ge his goal while the teams were 4 on 4. Ryan Stone had a frustrating night for the Heat, he fought Keven Veilleux and hit a post later in the game. His frustrations capped off an overall frustrating night for the gritty Heat team.

Second period: Up 2-0, the Pens started the second flat-footed. Reacting instead of acting. Just letting Abbotsford dictate pace of play. Jesse Boulerice would sit for interference and (who else) Dustin Jeffrey would score shorthanded. At this point Joe Vitale had three assists and was for the evening a +3. Vitale would end +2 but he was right at the top of the +/- category, we’ll have to see where he shows up tomorrow in that category. Later, Heat rookie sensation Greg Nemisz would score to cut the deficit to 3-1. The last 8:00 of the second was just sloppy hockey by the Pens. If Abbotsford’s power play isn’t ranked last in the league or close to it we lose the game tonight in this time frame. The Heat went officially 0 for 4.

Third period: Pens up 3-1 to start the period. After Joe Piskula high sticked Keven Veilleux and drew blood for a double minor, Tangradi would sit for hooking and Jon Rheault for the Heat would score to bring it to 3-2. I felt at this point the game was going off the rails but Steve Wagner would fire a puck on net which Eric Tangradi would deflect in to make 4-2. I had not realized it at the time but tha ended any chance of a comeback for the Heat because the rest of the period they just spent chasing Veilleux and others, trying to get them off of their game instead of focusing on their own. Example: Tangradi scores at 6:17 on the power play. Ryley Grantham trip at 10:57. Brett Sterling scores on the power play to make it 5-2. Bryan Lerg throws a guy into the Pens bench, but Matt Pelech takes exception and pounds Lerg. Lerg doesn’t swing, and referee Mark Lemelin gives Lerg 2 for boarding and Pelech 4 for roughing. Instead of taking the obvious power play you get put yourself at a disadvantage and hurt your team. Undisciplined.

There were fights at the end. For two teams who are 3,000+ miles apart and only play each other in the Winter and Spring this season and may not again next year, the bad blood is evident. But, the Pens need to get used to this type of treatment because when you are the best team in the league, every team is going to send its goons after you to try to knock you off of your game.

Dustin Jeffrey, Joe Vitale and Eric Tangradi were your three stars in that order. All multiple points for them. Nick Johnson and Steve Wagner also had multiple points with two assists each.

Around the Division: Every team in the league played tonight. The AHL’s busiest night ever. Binghamton defeated Syracuse 7-0. Syracuse beat us way back when to give us our first loss of the year. Bingo is lukewarm and they hang seven goals on the Crunch? Imagine what Wilkes-Barre will do tomorrow… Hershey lost to Adirondack 3-1. Do not adjust your computer screens. You are reading that right. Lots of stories coming out of that game. Sheldon Souray looks like he hurt his knee, as he was hobbled and did not return. Patrick McNeill and Keith Aucoin returned from injury. None of it mattered though as Denis Hamel gets two goals, one of them being his 300th. The aformentioned Admirals lost to Albany 4-3 in overtime. Charlotte beat Providence 6-2. Certainly a much improved Checkers team from the one we swept in October in North Carolina.

Standings: WBS sits in first with 46 points. Norfolk gets the loser point in overtime and is 6 back in second with 40. The Checkers are in third, four back of the Admirals and ten back of Wilkes-Barre with 36 points. Hershey has 33 points and is in fourth. Bingo has 30 points in fifth. They would not crossover into the Atlantic if the playoffs started today. Albany has 24 points in sixth, Syracuse has 22 points in seventh and Adirondack has 12 points in last.

We will see how the team comes out and plays in Syracuse tomorrow. This can be a trap game for the Penguins. We will see how prepared they are.

Let’s Go Pens!

A 2-1 Penguin overtime victory tonight in what should have been a 1-0 Penguins shutout. Another quick recap tonight because no one pays me to do this.

John Curry v. Matt Keetley tonight. Leland Irving is the goaltender of the future for the Calgary Flames organization, but he’ll likely play when these two team tangle again Friday.

First Period: Off the hop, Keven Veilleux scored off of a Joey Mormina deflection at 3:43. Wilkes-Barre would then take three straight penalties in the first. A Jason DeSantis high stick at 10:21, a Brett Sterling trip at 13:01 and a Joey Haddad hold at 18:29. Abbotsford is in the bottom third in the league on the power play. You can really see why because it looks like, at least to me, that no one know what they are doing out there. It really to me at times looked like a Chinese Fire Drill. The first period would end with Wilkes-Barre up 1-0.

Second Period: The Pens had to kill off :28 of left over Haddad hold time from the first but that was easily disposed of. The second period would be all about Wilkes-Barre on the power play three times but no scoring. Both teams officially would be 0 for 5 on the powerplay. Our special teams looked just as bad, which can spell danger if the injuries and call-ups continue to pile up.

Third Period: I tweeted something about 15 minutes into the third period on how this was the sloppiest Penguins game I could recall in recent memory. I can’t put my finger on what the Pens were doing or trying to do the second half of the game. Finally Keith Seabrook tied the game at 18:17 while Curry was screened as John didn’t even flinch. After that, it was like the Heat woke up a sleeping giant or something because the Pens just jumped to life. Regulation would end tied at 1.

Overtime: Back to the twitter feed, I mentioned that if WBS had played the last 5 minutes of game time the entire game, I am in my truck heading home a winner. Finally a Steve Wagner point shot was deflected in by Nick Johnson and the Pens won it in overtime.

Final shots on goal would end up 30 for Abbotsford and 22 for the Penguins with the Penguins not allowing a shot in overtime and taking two.

The three stars were Keven Veilleux, John Curry and Nick Johnson.

Thoughts: Keven Veilleux had a solid game in my opinion. Really looked like the best player for Wilkes-Barre this evening. Call-ups Jason DeSantis and Ben Street didn’t look out of place to me much and weren’t really liabilities out there. It should be interesting to see what happens Friday when these two teams play again and with Leland Irving the likely starter for the Heat.

Around the Division: Only three other games on the docket tonight. One of the them saw the Adirondack Phantoms mount a comeback but ultimately lose again, this time to the Connecticut Whale 6-4.

Standings: WBS, Norfolk and Charlotte have all played 28 games apiece. The Pens are in first place with 44 points, Norfolk is in second with 39 points, Charlotte has 34 points in third. Hershey has played 27 games and has 33 points in fourth. Binghamton has played 28 games and is in fifth place with 28 points and Albany and Syracuse have played 27 games and have 22 points apiece, good for sixth and seventh respectively in the division. Adirondack has 29 games played and has only 10 points good for last in the division.

If I heard the postgame radio show correctly the next win for the Penguins would be its 450th all time. Boulerice and Bortuzzo return from suspension Friday and will be back in the lineup. Should be interesting to see if Jason DeSantis and / or Ben Street play or get scratched or sent back to Wheeling.

Let’s Go Pens!