Day 2 Update, 7 Cuts, 1st Preseason Preview

Brian Gibbons has impressed many with his speed and skating ability to create plays. Gibbons along with Paul Thompson and Ben Street  will be the three guys I would expect the most from tonight.

A lot of news and updates before tonight's opening preseason game against the Adirondack Phantoms in Saratoga Springs.

• First off, the game will not be on the radio. We'll have updates over on the Twitter side when we can.

• The Pittsburgh Penguins made another round of cuts today sending defenseman Scott Harrington back to his junior team, the London Knights (OHL). Goaltenders Scott Munroe and Brad Thiessen and forwards Ryan Craig, Nick Johnson, Colin McDonald and Eric Tangradi were assigned to the AHL Penguins. This coming from the team's press release:

Craig, Johnson, McDonald and Munroe will have to clear waivers by Thursday at noon before joining WBS.

• The Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins were back at the Coal Street Rink in Wilkes-Barre Tuesday morning for their second straight practice this week. There weren't any new arrivals, which gave me a better chance to watch the same guys competing on the ice.The Penguins practiced for an hour and used the second hour for a 20 minute scrimmage. We exclusively covered the scrimmage on Twitter, with team white beating team black.

• They had a pregame skate this morning then off to Saratoga Springs to face the Adirondack Phantoms tonight.

• According to Penguins beat writer Jonathan Bombulie, Penguins head coach John Hynes commented that tonight's lineup would be heavy on tryout players. I overheard Zach Sill telling a fan he was unsure if he was playing after yesterday's practice session ended.

A preview of tonight's preseason game as well as who might be in the lineup for the Penguins after the jump.


Preseason Preview
So let's look at the roster the WBS Penguins have right now not included those cut today. With 16 forwards, nine defensemen and two goalies, it appears that four forwards and three defensemen will not be in action tonight against the Phantoms.

With Hynes mentioning that the lineup might be heavy on the tryout players, I think it's safe to say that the Kevin Veilleux - Bryan Lerg - Geoff Walker line I saw at Tuesday's scrimmage will likely be scratched and the fourth forward could be Zach Sill. All four of those players are pretty safe in terms of securing a roster spot with the AHL Penguins. Guys like Carl Sneep and Joey Mormina might be out of the lineup on defense for the same reason.

Basing the rest of my predictions on line combinations I saw from yesterday's scrimmage, here's my best guess at what the lineup might look like tonight:


(T) = tryout
Paul Thompson - Ben Street - Brian Gibbons
Brian Day - Denver Manderson (T) - Chris Barton (T)
Cody Chupp (T) - Zach Torquato (T) - Martin Moucha (T)
Devin DiDiomete (T) - Brandon DeFazio - Ryan Schnell

Simon Despres - Alex Grant
Andrew Hotham - Nick Plastino (T)
Cody Wild (T) - Philip Samuelsson - Chad Langlais (T)

Patrick Killeen - Alex Kangas (T)