Hershey Bears

The Hershey Bears and Washington Capitals lost some defensive depth Tuesday when Dean Arsene and Staffan Kronwall both signed with NHL clubs in Alberta, Canada.

Arsene, 28, nicknamed the "Mayor of Hershey", signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Edmonton Oilers. He had spent the last six seasons in Chocolatetown and had shown a desire to remain with the team. However, he was looking for an NHL deal, and with numerous Capitals prospects in the system, that wasn't an option here in D.C.

"I talked to Doug (Yingst) before I left," Arsene told pennlive.com. "He said he wanted to have me back. I was honest with him. I said I would love to be back, but it has to be an NHL contract. I wanted to get my chance, like everybody else."

The picture above tells the perfect story of the type of player Arsene exemplifies: A tough, hard-nosed defenseman that'll put his body on the line for his team. He'll surely be missed by teammates and fans alike.

"It's tough to kind of fathom," said Arsene, "It's difficult to think that I'm not coming back to Hershey. To come and play in a different jersey is going to be very surreal. I had a good run in Hershey. I didn't want to leave. I guess it's the nature of the game."

Kronwall, 25, signed an undisclosed deal with the Calgary Flames. He came to Washington as a waiver claim from Toronto back in February. The younger brother of Red Wings great Niklas, he only played in three games with the big club before being assigned to Hershey for the remainder of the season. 

The six-foot, four-inch, 209 pound Swede led all Bears defensemen in scoring during the team's playoff run tallying 3 goals and 12 points in 21 games.

He plays a solid two-way game and can be described as a puck moving defenseman that have become so valuable since the lockout. However, he never really received a quality chance to prove himself in both of his NHL stops with the Maple Leafs and the Capitals, so perhaps the move to Calgary will provide him with just that.

The organization will turn to 2005 first round pick Joe Finley and 2007 second round pick Josh Godfrey to reload on the back-line in Hershey for the upcoming season. 

With veterans Tyler Sloan and Sean Collins already resigned and 2009 second round selection Dmitri Orlov also contemplating a move to North America, the Bears should continue to be stacked on the back end despite these loses.

For more on the Washington Capitals, Hershey Bears, and the NHL follow Allen Pope on Twitter at http://twitter.com/allenpope 

Last season the Capitals had the best minor league system in all of hockey. Their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, won their 10th Calder Cup title, while their ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays, won their third Kelly Cup title. However, since the end of the season, both teams have had to replace their head coaches; a price that comes with success at the minor league level.

The search for the next head coach of the Hershey Bears finally came to an end Monday as the team promoted Assistant Coach Mark French. He had been an assistant in Chocolatetown since January of 2008, when he took the vacated position available after Bob Woods had been promoted to the top job.

Woods received his promotion after then Head Coach Bruce Boudreau was called up to the big club in Washington back on Thanksgiving in 2007. Now with Woods as his assistant with the Caps, Boudreau was able to reflect Monday on how things have come full circle for French and the organization.

"I think George (McPhee) is doing it the right way," said the Capitals head coach.  "If you have success and within the system you can keep the continuity, than let's give guys opportunities.  They gave me a chance and so far it's been okay.  Mark probably would not have got this chance, Bob Woods might not have got this chance if George didn't think that these guys are capable of doing it just because they've been in other leagues. So I'm really happy for him."

"That's a big part of it," said Capitals General Manager George McPhee. "To bring someone in from outside the organization that doesn't know the players as he knows them, and what they're capable of and basically what we've been all about the last four years in Hershey, there was some risk in that."

"It's been a good few months," said French. "Winning the Calder Cup and now getting this.  I guess the initial feeling was there was a lot of pride in the position.  The American Hockey League is something. Hershey is an institution and with that, there was a lot of honor attached to it."

The team also announced Troy Mann had been hired as an assistant coach. Mann was the associate head coach of the Charlotte Checkers in the ECHL last season. Prior to his stint with the Checkers, Mann was the head coach of the Columbia Inferno in the ECHL for two seasons.

"Troy's a smart guy," said Boudreau, who coached Mann when he was at Mississippi Seawolves back in the '90s. "He's caught on really well and he's dedicated and determined. As an assistant coach in the ECHL and in the CHL, he stayed with it. We're really happy he came to Hershey just to watch our training camps and get ideas. Guys that are determined like that deserve chances."

French and Mann will have their work cut out for them as they prepare the Hershey Bears to make a run for an 11th Calder Cup championship this fall.

So much can happen in the world of professional hockey over the course of seven days.

Given that this is the first opportunity I've had to blog in a while, I shall focus on all three of the games that I have had the pleasure of attending over the last week.


NHL — Capitals vs. Bruins:

Last Saturday we headed to DC for the much-anticipated clash of the Eastern Conference Titans. The Boston Bruins were in town, and looking to continue a streak of road victories that commenced after their last visit to Washington.

The Verizon Center was rocking on Saturday night.

Both teams knew the importance of this game and the whole 60-minutes was filled with a level of intensity more appropriate for a playoff game.

Given how both teams have performed during the first half of the season, it remains probable that these two giants may clash in the postseason — so, the crowd was ready for a preview of things to come.

With some early penalty troubles, the Caps would give up the opening goal when Marc Savard beat Jose Theodore early in the second period.

Washington would respond just more than one minute later with a power play score from Mike Green.

The game remained 1-1 after two periods of hockey.

The sold-out crowd was very loud during the last 20-minutes of play and the decibel meter must have exploded when Alexander Semin broke away with some fancy puck handling, raced down the ice and beat Tim Thomas to give the home team the go ahead score.

I had the (dis) pleasure of being seated amongst Bruins fans, so it was nice to jump out of my seat and cheer like a man possessed.

The Caps would hold on to the lead, and kill a penalty in the dying seconds of the game to seal the win. Both teams had played a strong game, and I am sure that the two remaining games between these two teams up in Boston will be as equally intense.

AHL — Hershey Bears vs. Worcester Sharks:

Sunday evening was spent at the Giant Center where a regular season hockey game was completely overshadowed by the potential for Alexandre Giroux to break a 20-year record for goals scored in consecutive games.

AHL and NHL legend Brett Hull had established a record of 14 consecutive goal-scoring games and Giroux had equalled that impressive tally during a shoot-out loss to the Philadelphia Phantoms on the previous night.

Trailing 0-2 after some quick scoring opportunities from the Sharks, Hershey seemed lackluster until defenseman Sami Lepisto fired a rocket from the point into the back of the net.

The Lepisto goal sparked a stagnant Hershey team that dominated offensively down the stretch only to be denied by a strong performance from Worcester goaltender Thomas Greiss.

With a tripping penalty assessed against Worcester midway through the third period, the crowd at the Giant Center would erupt when Giroux beat Greiss and tied the game at 2-2.

With 13:33 left in the game on 18th January, Alexandre Giroux removed Brett Hull from the AHL record books and set a new benchmark of 15 consecutive games with a goal.

Congratulations to you Alex — what an accomplishment!

The score sheet would remain the same through the remainder of regulation and the overtime period. Michal Neuvirth, the rookie Bears goaltender, would stand tall during the shootout and deny all five of the Sharks attempts.

Griess was almost as impressive, preventing four of the five shots he faced — Kyle Wilson would connect and give the Bears not only the victory, but the icing on the cake for a night Alexandre Giroux will never forget.


AHL — Hershey Bears vs. Wilkes-Barre Penguins:

With a convincing road victory over Norfolk on Wednesday, the Bears returned home on Friday night to face the baby Pens.

The thought of having to watch the Penguins is always enough to make me frown, but I would be the recipient of "bad vibes" once I learned that our good friend Terry Koharski would be officiating the game.

Now, granted, Koharski is a much better option than Nygel Pelletier or the grinch David Banfield, but even so, to put it bluntly, Koharski is a little less than descent too.

This game was everything we knew it would be.

These two divisional rivals have no liking for each other — the usual physical altercations, cheap shots, trash talking and the like were to be expected, but for Koharski to penalize Chris Bourque five minutes for a simple tripping penalty was simply ludicrous.

Again, five minutes for a trip!

What next?

A game misconduct for too many men on the ice?

The Pens would rebound from a two-goal deficit with power play goals that resulted from the often-dubious calls from Koharski.

Hershey would go on to lose in a shootout, with goaltender Michal Neuvirth giving up two goals as opposed to John Curry who would be beaten only once.

The Bears played the better game, but the Penguins got the breaks from Koharski that kept them in it, and they won the old-fashioned way after the overtime period expired.

… And a big kudos to Keith Aucoin for dropping his gloves with Janne Pesonen during the second period.

Given his size, I was always concerned that Aucoin was an easy target for opposing teams, but he has proven time and time again that he is not only a great hockey player, but that he has the mental and physical attributes to stand his ground.

Well done, Keith!


The Bears can put this game behind them, and concentrate on the task at hand this evening as the Manchester Monarchs make an appearance at the Giant Center.

We can't wait for that one.


Notes:

* Congratulations to Bears goaltender Michal Neuvirth for being awarded the third star in the ECHL All-Star game. Neuvirth represented the South Carolina Stingrays.

* Good luck to former Bears defenseman Josef Boumedienne, who has returned to Europe. We still miss you Boomer.

* Nice to see Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau in attendance at the Giant Center last night.

* Good luck to Alexander Ovechkin during the All-Star weekend in Montreal — and props to Nicklas Backstrom for snubbing his invitation to the young stars game. Good luck also to the Bears players and coaches that will be part of the AHL All-Star game in Worcester.

With the Christmas break behind them, the Hershey Bears took to the ice last night at the Giant Center against the Binghamton Senators. What Hershey did not know, however, was that the Grinch would also be at the Giant Center.

The Grinch in question was a referee by the name of David Banfield—a referee who seemed bent on ruining any post-Christmas celebrations for the Bears.

I am not taking anything away from a Senators team who played a strong 60 minutes of hockey, but the Bears were royally screwed last night! With a remarkable effort between the pipes, Brian Elliot stopped all but one of the 44 shots on goal (the lone score coming from Keith Aucoin in the first period) and left Chocolatetown with a comfortable 4-1 victory.

Unfortunately for the Senators, however, their almost-perfect performance was both overshadowed and undermined by some terrible officiating from the Grinch.

Banfield would assess nine penalties against Hershey, while the Senators were called for five. Alas, for the Bears, it would be a string of missed blatant infractions that would prevent any opportunity to come back down the stretch. With this fine display of terrible officiating, it was clear that Banfield never received his copy of "Hockey for Dummies" in his Christmas stocking this year.

He most likely failed to get his eyes tested too, missing the tripping call from the stick that was literally thrown at the feet of Chris Bourque on a breakaway. I had never seen a crowd this hostile at the Giant Center, but it was completely justified. One man was ruining the game for everybody, and 10,000 plus were letting him know about it.

Behind the Bears bench, the normally mellow Bob Woods reached his boiling point after the aforementioned non-call. Tossing water bottles across the ice at Banfield in protest, Woods was ejected from the game, and faces a hefty fine and possible suspension for his actions.

While I do not condone the way in which Woods vented his frustration, I felt that his complaint was more than justified. The Senators had capitalized on the non-call against Bourque, and put the game out of reach for the Bears.

Woods, as the coach and leader of the team, stood tall and made sure that the officiating crew were informed of just how terrible they were. Worth every cent of his imminent fine and suspension, in my opinion.

So Binghamton left the Giant Center with the win, and thanks to the Wilkes-Barre Penguins taking a win over Bridgeport, no damage was done at the top of the division.

The Bears and the Sound Tigers remain tied for first place, albeit in a division that has become tightly contested right now as we head towards the New Year.

With a disappointing Texas road trip behind them, the Hershey Bears returned to the Giant Center last night to host the Lowell Devils.

Prior to puck drop, Oskar Osala was applauded for his AHL rookie of the month honors. Osala is developing quickly in his first professional season, and with one NHL game already on his resume this season, he could be on pace to make the transition to the Capitals roster a lot sooner than originally expected. Good luck to you, Oskar!

While a handful of Bears remain on the Capitals roster, those that dressed in the chocolate and white last night put in a solid effort against a team that played a lot harder than their record indicated.

Hershey fans would celebrate early after Graham Mink received a nifty pass from Keith Aucoin and slipped the puck into a wide open net just 11 seconds into the game. Kyle Wilson would extend the lead to 2-0 with just under four minutes left in the first period, with assists credited to Darren Reid and Bryan Helmer. Bears fans, in all their "ugly holiday sweater" glory, were in great spirits as the first period ended.

An early Hershey goal by Andrew Gordon just 1:34 into the second period was possibly the most exciting play of the period. Daren Machesney would be denied the shutout opportunity midway through the period as Lowell finally found the back of the net, and the score remained 3-1 as both teams went into the locker rooms.

The third period saw referee Nygel Pelletier become very trigger happy with his whistle.

Ten penalties would be issued over the course of the 20-minute period, six of which were assessed after an all-out brawl in the dying seconds of the game.

The Devils narrowed the deficit to one goal with four minutes remaining, but an outstanding pick pocket play behind the crease from Kyle Wilson led to his second goal of the night and the Bears' victory. With a great offensive effort from the Laing-Wilson-Gordon line, Kyle was the recipient of the first star.

Thursday Night Recap

We traveled to the Verizon Center last Thursday to watch the Capitals take on the St. Louis Blues in a battle of the injury-ridden rosters. It was great to see rookie netminder Simeon Varlamov in action for the Capitals, and he looked sharp as the Caps registered a 4-2 victory after goals from Viktor Kozlov (2), Tomas Fleischmann, and Alexander Ovechkin.

A price was paid for the victory, however, as both Mike Green and Alexander Semin sustained injuries and were once again listed as day-to-day in terms of when they would likely play again.

The missed cross-checking call on Semin was a terrible lack of judgment from the officials, with the feisty retaliation from the Great Eight being more than justified. The following bench minor assessed against Bruce Boudreau served only to make the officiating crew look dumber than they were—which was not really difficult on their parts.

Coming away with the two points kept the Capitals in a healthy position, but these injuries to key players serve only to challenge that pace and consistency.

The Bears livened the crowd five minutes into the second period when Mathieu Perreault broke away with the puck and passed it off at the last moment to leave a wide-open net for Francois Bouchard. The line of Perreault, Bouchard, and Oskar Osala are currently riding a plus-17 rating for the season. No wonder many refer to these guys as the "energy line"! The Bears took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.

The Bears controlled most of the first period. The Wolfpack pretty much took claim to owning the second. The third, however, was a solid 20 minutes of pure hockey from the Bears.

Defenseman Patrick McNeill scored his first goal of the season in a short-handed effort after a feed from Kyle Wilson. Hartford won one back just 80 seconds later, when Simeon Varlamov was caught out of position with little defensive help.

Yet, in true Bears fashion, Alexandre Giroux found a way to steal the puck as the Wolfpack exited their zone, and reveled in the delight of putting the puck in the back of the net against a team whose jersey he once wore. With this unassisted score, the Wolfpack were deflated and the Bears went on to secure their 10th straight victory.

Other notes from the game

1. It was great to have the wonderfully talented and competent Terry Koharski officiate the game last night. He is much loved and respected at the Giant Center—eh, who am I trying to fool here...Terry could not preside over a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.

Koharski has no consistency, exhibits terrible judgment, and clearly needs to brush up on the rules and regulations of the game.

2. Defenseman Sean Collins was missing in action, having been recalled to the Capitals due to an ankle injury to Tyler Sloan. Sean made his NHL debut last night against the Maple Leafs, and from all accounts, put in a solid effort. Well done Sean, you deserve the opportunity.

3. Steve Pinizzotto stepped up his game last night, and demonstrated that he has enough talent to remain at Hershey this season. Not only does he play the enforcer role well, but his sprawling effort to get a shot off on goal whilst being laid out horizontally on the ice shows a lot of determination and grit.

Kudos to you, Steve—here's hoping that you continue to shine.

4. Karl Alzner. Need I say more? Congratulations on your first NHL goal. Extra props for the assist on the goal from Milan Jurcina.

And furthermore, to achieve both milestones with your father in attendance at the Air Canada Centre just adds icing to the cake. I am most likely not alone in thinking that Alzner may not don the chocolate and white jersey again this season.

After taking four straight road victories to start their 2008-09 campaign, the Hershey Bears were given a huge standing ovation when they took the ice at the Giant Center last night.

With a mixture of familiar faces, former players returning to Chocolate-town, and a handful of Capitals prospects, the 8000 plus fans in attendance were ready to see this highly touted team strut their stuff.

Entering this contest, both Hershey and their opponents from Syracuse had not dropped a game this season. This was the first time I'd seen the Crunch in action, but had learned through many blogs and forums that they played a smash-mouth hockey game and liked to get physical.

"The Crunch" sounds like a fitting name.

Sure enough, within the opening five minutes of the game, the first on-ice altercation occurred. Many had predicted this would take place, as some trash talking had been going on prior to the puck drop.

Before the final roster was announced prior to the season, I had some concerns over who would step up as enforcers for the Bears, especially as Robitaille and Flinn have moved on to new pastures.

Keeping Grant McNeil in Hershey was a good move, but I'm happy to see that new guys Darren Reid and Greg Amadio are not afraid to back down when needed. Dean Arsene is another player who will always throw himself to the wolves in order to protect his teammates.

Three of these four guys rumbled with the Crunch last night, and all three came out pretty strong with their offerings. We were not intimidated and we did not crumble.

Syracuse Crunch is more like "The Brady Bunch".

The Bears looked awesome last night. I have not seen them play with this intensity for quite a while. Sure, they were plagued with injuries last season and had different line-ups every game going into the last month of the regular season. However, with the depth the organization has now, every line is strong.

The Mink-Aucoin-Giroux line in particular is positively sick. I'm sure that there are several NHL teams that would kill for this line-up, let alone others at the AHL level.

Goals came thick and fast in this one. The 7-1 victory for the Bears must have echoed throughout the AHL.

An undefeated start with 29 goals scored is a phenomenal way to start the season. I certainly cannot wait to head back to Giant Center this evening for the next match-up against the Baby Pens.

Once again, the Bears can roar...they can live up to their name.

As for the Crunch last night, they resembled more of a Nestle Bar than collective bone-breakers. Let's see if we get some Penguins with attitude tonight, or just some baby flightless fowl that may be wishing they stayed home instead.

The Lake Erie Monsters took to the ice on Valentine’s Day with one goal in mind:  to close their current home stand by beat the team from the land of Kisses. 

Lake Erie hosted the Hershey Bears at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland Ohio, in a contest that featured four ties, two lead changes, a goal in the last minute of regulation, and an eventual shootout win as the Monsters bested the Bears 5-4. 

The game was probably the most exciting contest to date in the Monsters brief history, especially for 12 people that were married during the second intermission.  That’s right, you go to a Monsters game and leave with in-laws.  Jane Fonda would have been proud of this particular promotion.  One of the couples even ended up winning a honeymoon package to Cancun!

The first period ended in a 1-1 deadlock after the Monsters squandered an early 1-0 lead.  Duprius tallied the Monster goal with assists to Smith and Boychuck.  Potulny netted one for the Bears with assists to Lepisto and Gordon.

The second period opened similar to the first.  The Monsters scored their second power play goal of the contest, opening up a 2-1 lead, the goal coming from Vernace with assists to Lundmark and Jones.  That lead, however, was short lived. 

Hershey started a rush and scored on a goal by Sani Lepisto and assist by Andrew Gordon.  This period had all the elements of a barnburner based on the two goals in two minutes theory.  Things settled down a bit though, and the period expired with no further damage on the scoreboard. For a 2-2 hockey contest, the shots on goal were 16-13, a pretty low shooting game.

With 14:37 left in the third, the Hershey Bears opened up their first lead of the evening:  a power play goal scored by Joe Motzko, assists by Gordon and Lepisto.  The Monsters did not help themselves out with McCutcheon taking a really poor holding penalty not long after going down a goal, but the Monsters killed off the penalty. 

On a play you could ‘t have drawn up on the board any better, the Monsters went left to right to left and scored, as goalie Cassivi had no choice but to be out of position.  This was an absolutely beautiful goal by Kelly.  Assists went to Eric Healey and Denisov.

Yet again, the Bears answered right back with four and a half to go.  It was a 4-3 game in Hershey’s favor.

The Monsters just missed stuffing one home 20 seconds later, and the puck was covered up.  Two minutes later and basically the same amount of time left in the game, Eric Healey broke of the pack, drove wide, and was slammed into the boards drawing an obstruction penalty.  The face-off was in Hershey’s end, but surprisingly Mike Wall was in goal for the Monsters.  You’d expect them to pull him for an extra skater.  The Monsters kept in the zone for thirty seconds; Wall was pulled with a minute five left. 

It was six on four, twenty-three seconds left, when the pressure packed house erupted for a Monster goal.  The pass came from behind the net from Healey, right to the front Dasilva poke it home, and the game was tied.  Instead of heading for the exits, the fans were headed to overtime.  Typically the opposition scores the late game goal.  It was nice watching the Monsters as the benefactor for once.

Boychuk unloaded the first shot in overtime, slamming a slapshot off the pads of Cassivi.  The Monsters had a power play opportunity with 2:30 left in the overtime, but Hershey killed off the power play, and the teams headed into a sudden death shootout contact taking place.

In the five-man shootout, Hershey opened up the early lead, the Monsters tied it up, and because of their last shooter,Eric Healey, they took the lead.  Mike Wall stopped the final shot, and just like that, the Monsters snatched victory from defeat, getting a much  needed two-point night.

(LGA) Long-time rivals and the two oldest teams in the American Hockey League, the Rochester Americans and Hershey Bears will play each other at 7:35 pm on Friday night.

The two teams have played a total of 431 games against each other; the Amerks record against the Bears is 179-199-53. With such a long history one would think this should be a special occasion, but it’s not considered one this season. They didn’t play each other in the '06-'07 season, and this is only the second of two games scheduled this year. The Amerks lost the first game this season 3-1 back on October 20th.

This season so far hasn’t been fun. The only thing really interesting about the season has been the way the Amerks stayed out of record books with a win and goal when needed. Ever since the end of November, when all the financial issues really seemed to come to light, everyone stopped caring including fans, players, coaches, front office, and even the Panthers and Sabres.

All of that leads to a great reason that Friday night's game should have been promoted differently. 

Maybe if more people knew about the Bears coming to town, it could lead to a large crowd, not just an announced large crowd. Even with all of the known front office issues with Rochester Sports Group, this should be a game that proves Amerks hockey is a special thing and that a lot of people do still care about hockey and history. 

Hopefully someone has mentioned the long-time rivalry to the players, or maybe they’ll read this, and they’ll come out showing the desire to win a third straight. Hopefully, a third straight win against a long-time rival will help boost morale to finish the season in a way where we may forget about the month of December.

All of this and more was mentioned by Ted (and others) on Kevin O’s blog as well as Rochester Sports Fan. There’ll probably be an article in Friday’s D&C about all of this, but for one game, all outlets probably should have tried to sell this game earlier in advance.

So, here are our Top Five Reasons to Actually Go to the Game:

5. There are only 14 home games left this season. If you enjoy going to games to see possible “future NHL stars,” your chances are winding down with the current roster.

4. Friday night is the Amerks’ Teddy Bear Toss to benefit Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong. The Amerks are encouraging fans to bring teddy bears to throw on the ice during the second-period intermission. The furry friends will then be donated to Golisano Children’s Hospital. Kids love teddy bears, and it’s always fun throwing things on the ice.

3. Dan Collins is back in the lineup after playing with the Florida Everblades in the ECHL since December 5th. He showed excellent promise as a possible rookie of the year at the start of the season, and more experience at the ECHL level should give our defense an additional boost.

2. The Rochester Americans and Hershey Bears are long-time rivals and the two oldest teams in the American Hockey League. The two teams have played a total of 431 games against each other. Due to horrible scheduling in the AHL they may not play again for another two years.

1. The Amerks are playing some of their best hockey of the season; they’ve recorded points in five of the last seven games, and are on a two-game winning streak. They seem to have found a way to have fun on the ice together again, and that has resulted in being competitive again.

The game will be broadcast live on TWSN Channel 26, live on B2 Networks, and can be listened to on Hot Talk 1280 WHTK.