Chirps from Center Ice

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

Paul Bissonnette has left the building…

1 Comment Posted by on July 21, 2010

At some point during the day today, the ever popular Paul Bissonnette deleted his Twitter account.

I can only assume if you are reading this, that you followed @PaulBizNasty on Twitter. I did. Your friends did. NHL insiders did. Other players did. Everyone who loved hockey did.

Problem is, unlike his NHL / AHL counterparts on Twitter. The “Biz Nasty” was different. Way different. He:

  • often misspelled words
  • gave money to bums
  • made fun of people
  • made fun of other peoples cars
  • made fun of players
  • used swear words

Bissonnette made NHL league minimum last year playing last year for the Phoenix Coyotes. Puts him in the neighborhood of $500,000. If you followed his career, you know his story. You know he basically worked his way from nothing to where he is today. If you know the type of player he is, he is a scrapper, a fighter, a stand up guy. I had the oppurtunity to meet and speak with Paul while he was in Wilkes-Barre / Scranton in 2008-09. One of the most genuinely nicest, most honest people you will meet. Certainly in the top five of my favorite hockey players of all time.

Read more of this post

Deliberately Uncategorized

You Decide 2010

1 Comment Posted by on July 20, 2010

I am putting this whole “Nicknames for the Players” to a vote.

If you haven’t noticed already, I have a poll on the right hand side of your screen. The subject is WBS Pens signing Ryan Craig. I came up with this totally awesome nickname “Craigslist” last night. Before I just added it to the list below, I figured I would tool around with the poll feature the fine people at WordPress offer bloggers such as myself.

Right now, “Craigslist” is getting smoked. But there is still time, (Friday) for people who like the nickname to vote for it.

Like I said, I am putting all the nicknames to votes. Well, some of them. I don’t think we have to put to a vote “Big Dog” or “Chicken” – but the others I may. If you like them, they stay. If you don’t, I never mention them again. If enough nicknames get scrapped, then I may drop the whole nickname thing altogether.

Do your duty (if you haven’t already) and do the following: 1) Vote in my poll. 2) Bookmark this page. 3) Follow me on Twitter.

WBS

Nicknames…

5 Comments Posted by on July 17, 2010

I figure since I have a blog now, why not have some fun with it?

Hockey players have nicknames. If you were with me back when I live-tweeted the Booster Club Awards Ceremony back in the Spring, you know that the guys on the team have nicknames. For example, Nick Johnson – WBS forward, was given the nickname “lunchie” because he was always out to lunch. Then Pens Defenseman Chris Lee was aptly named “Bruce Lee” after the kung-fu movie star.

A lot of the blog visitors are familiar with Eric Tangradi and know that his nickname as “The Big Dog”. What you may not know, is that the team called him “Super Rook” because he always had his own seat on the bus when they traveled.

I’d like to try to replicate the same thing here on the blog and on the Twitter feed. So I am looking for ideas on nicknames for some of the guys who will be doing time in Wilkes-Barre / Scranton this year.

Here’s is what I have so far, and this is just off the top of my head:

Eric Tangradi: (The) Big Dog
Casey Pierro-Zabotel: CPZ
Keven Veilleux: Beast Mode*
Zach Sill: Kevin Bacon*
Brad Thiessen: Chicken** (People who don’t know how to say the name say “Tyson” like the chicken)
Joe Vitale: Nice Teeth^
Mark Letestu: Frodo / Tubes^
Brett Sterling: The Ticket***
Brian Strait: Steak** (he looks at you like he is a piece of meat)
Tim Wallace: Chuck** (as tough as Chuck Norris)
Simon Despres: The Big Horse – I have never seen Despres in person, but credit Jamie Tozer for tweeting this to me.

This is a very early list, as I’d like to get nicknames up for just about everyone. I do plan on coming back and editing the list. I will even credit you if you came up with it.

Go ahead and leave a comment in the comment section for the rest of the guys you don’t see listed, or if you have a better name for one listed, leave it there as well.

* = credit @EricP55
** = credit Siena Slusser and her friend Tiffany for coming up with this one
*** = This one is all me. Figure Brett is the biggest free agent signing in WBS history, so you’re gonna want a “ticket” to see him right?
^ = credit Nicole Tracey from Pens Universe for this one.
WBS

Why you should follow me on Twitter

Comments Off on Why you should follow me on Twitter Posted by on July 16, 2010

I live tweet all the games. From who the referee and linesmen are for any particular game to the starting goaltenders for each team to the penalties, scores, shots on goal at the end of each period. I also do in-game analysis from my view and retweet a @CVBombulie or anyone else who may be at the game doing the same. I live tweet all the games, not just a few, all the games.  

You also will get live tweets of the booster club dinners where the players are and twitpics of the players and I. 95% of the twitter feed is dedicated to the WBS Pens, and all things affecting them directly or indirectly plus the trials and tribulations of me.

So do me a favor, if you have a Twitter account, click follow, and enjoy the ride!

(P.S. If you are spam, or smell of spam, I block you)

About Me

Blogs you need to follow (besides mine)

Comments Off on Blogs you need to follow (besides mine) Posted by on July 16, 2010

Much of the time I am either going to be referring to or quoting from the men who actually get paid to analyze hockey. These guys have been doing it a heck of a lot longer than I and are superb at what they do. Normally I will either piggyback the analysis or provide a counterpoint to the writer. 

Since I am heavy on the AHL, it’s all going to be guys who write for the AHL. I am getting acclimated to the blog, so I will put up a blog roll at some point with links on the side of the page. If they have twitter feeds, I’ll list them in this post only. For future posts, I will link the writer or even the blog post in my post. 

I’m combining numbers 2 and 3 in my post “Now that we have established that…”

  • Jonathan Bombulie, (@CVBombulie )- beat writer for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins for the Citizens Voice.
  • Patrick Williams, ( @AHLHockeyWriter )– he writes for The Hockey News. His coverage is “league wide”.
  • Michael Fornabaio, ( @fornabaioctp ) – beat writer for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers for the Connecticut Post.
  • Kevin Oklobzija, ( @kevinodandc ) – beat writer for the Rochester Americans for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
  • Tim McManus, ( @PSPhantoms ) – beat writer for the Adirondack Phantoms for the Post Star.
  • Michael Sharp, ( @SharpOnTheSens ) – beat writer for the Binghamton Senators for the Press Sun and Bulletin in Binghamton.
  • Tim Leone ( @timleone ) – beat writer for the Hershey Bears for the Harrisburg Patriot News.
  • Pete Dougherty – Pete doesn’t have a Twitter account. He should. He covers mainly the Albany Devils for the Albany Times Union – he does moonlight with the Adirondack Phantoms and also keeps tabs on the Charlotte Checkers (Albany’s old team)
  • Lindsay Kramer – Lindsay doesn’t Twitter either, but does cover the Syracuse Crunch with The Post-Standard in Syracuse.
  • Ryan Aber – ( @ryaber ) – covers the new Oklahoma City Barons for NewsOK (Powered by the Oklahoman)
  • Dave Eminian – covers the Peoria Rivermen for the Journal Star.
  • Tony Uminski – covers the San Antonio Rampage for the website mysantonio.com
  • Tris Wykes – beat writer for the Norfolk Admirals with the Daily Press. Sometimes is the defacto correspondent for the Voice whenever the Pens play the Admirals.

There are others, many actually, which are quite insightful. Some are fan run and do a great job, like the folks over at Hundred Degree Hockey ( @100degreehockey ) who cover the Texas Stars. Keith Wozniak does a fine job maintaining Let’s Go Amerks ( @LetsGoAmerks ). The Third Intermission also keeps tabs on the Houston Aeros. ( @3rdIntermission ) Chris Roy runs the Maine Hockey Journal ( @MEHockeyJournal ) chatting up hockey in Maine and the Portland Pirates.

I am not going to list Pittsburgh Penguin blogs for the simple reason that if I did, it’d take a half a day and I don’t want to miss anyone. Just search, “Penguins blogs” in your search engine, and you’ll have an array to choose from. But don’t go too far away!

The AHL

Why I am doing this / What to expect

Comments Off on Why I am doing this / What to expect Posted by on July 16, 2010

Why I am doing this:

There are a ton of hockey blogs out there. There are hundreds of Pittsburgh Penguin blogs out there. There are not too many AHL blogs out there and even fewer dedicated directly to the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. By starting this, I want to create a place where all WBS fans can come and get 100% WBS, all the time.

What to expect:

Occasional updates from me on hot topic issues which directly affect WBS, or the AHL in general. I am going to try and keep the bashing to a minimum and I am not going to use swear words here. I am never going to use the term “baby” to describe the WBS Penguins. More on that in another blog post soon. 

Deliberately Uncategorized

Now that we have established that…

2 Comments Posted by on July 16, 2010

Expect me to drop the following posts on you in the next few days:

1) Why you should follow me on Twitter.

2) Who you need to follow on Twitter as a serious hockey fan.

3) Essential blogs you need to read because these guys know what they are talking about unlike me.

4) Why “baby” should never be used when describing the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

5) AHL geekery (you are going to get a ton of this, so be prepared)

About Me

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