A turbulent offseason is upcoming in the American Hockey League. Seven franchises are planning to be playing in a different city in the 2015-16 season and at least four other teams are swapping NHL affiliations.
The Penguins have had their top minor league club in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. since 1999 and that doesn’t seem likely to change any time soon. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be affected by the changes.
The Columbus Blue Jackets will be moving their prospects from the Springfield (Mass) Falcons to the Lake Erie Monsters, who play in the Cleveland, Ohio. The Monsters have been in the AHL since 2007, but what seems like a natural pairing has taken a while to develop.
Now that it has, some more changes are afoot. The Blue Jackets are the Penguins’ nearest NHL opponent at just 188 miles apart. As a result, their television coverage areas form a complicated border across Eastern Ohio.
Areas with traditional ties to the Penguins, such as the Ohio Valley towns, Youngstown, and Cleveland (who housed the Penguins affiliate in the 1990s) remained able to watch the Penguins when the Blue Jackets came into the NHL in 2000.
Now that the Blue Jackets have put down some roots in the Cleveland area, they would like some of that to change. According to this report by Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch, the Blue Jackets are attempting to renegotiate the boundaries to allow the fans of the Monsters to watch the Blue Jackets.
“The Penguins aren’t simply going to cede their ground to the Blue Jackets, and it’s unlikely the NHL will step in and force it. Instead, sources said, the Blue Jackets and Penguins will trade areas in a way both clubs can live with.”
That means that if a deal is reached, some Ohio-based Penguins fans — most likely those in Northeastern Ohio — that are currently able to get the games on TV may no longer be able to. The Penguins have not commented on the negotiations.
MINOR MATTERS: Speaking of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, they dropped a dramatic Game 1 in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference Semifinals with the Manchester Monarchs on Wednesday night.
Three times, the Monarchs got out to a one-goal lead, and all three times, the Penguins came back to tie things up, with defenseman Taylor Chorney and forwards Scott Wilson and Conor Sheary scoring goals.
With the score tied at 3-3, the teams went into overtime, and then another, and then another, before Zach O’Brien’s shot found beat Penguins goaltender Matt Murray at 4:13 of the third overtime.
Murray stopped 52 of 56 shots in the loss. The Monarchs, who are the top farm club of the Los Angeles Kings, outshot the Penguins 56-43. Game 2 is tonight at 7:00.
WORLD’S GREATEST: Both Penguins players that are participating in the World Championships recorded points in their teams’ games on Wednesday.
Sidney Crosby was had an assists and was a minus-2 in Canada’s back-and-forth 6-4 victory over Sweden. Evgeni Malkin had two assists and was a plus-2 in Russia’s 5-2 thrashing of Denmark.
The American squad has been acquitting itself nicely in the tournament, but had a bad loss this morning, falling 5-2 to Belarus. Team USA is now one point behind the Belarussians in Group B, in a three-way tie with Finland and Russia.
Photo credit: Columbus Blue Jackets
