Only twelve people in 78 seasons have accomplished such a feat. Saturday night Chris Bourque joined the ranks of Willie Marshall, Mitch Lamoureux, and Ralph Keller as he scored his 400th point as a Hershey Bear with an assist on Paul Carey’s goal in the third period.
HERSHEY, PA – Andrew Gordon returned to Hershey for the first time since 2011 Wednesday night (Kyle Mace / Sweetest Hockey on Earth)
Wednesday night, he may have worn a different jersey, but Andrew Gordon will always be a Bear to local hockey fans. Everywhere you looked, you saw “Gordon 10,” “Gordon 63,” or maybe even “Gordon 41” jerseys representing his years with the Bears, Washington Capitals, and Anaheim Ducks.
Chris Bourque photo by Andrew Harnik, The Washington Times
It may not be October yet, but hockey has started. The Caps opened their preseason last night with several Bears in the line up. Unfortunately, it was a 2-0 loss to the Preds which means there isn’t much in the way of highlights from Bears. Here is what I was able to dig up.
Head Coach Bruce Boudreau has some praise for Stanislav Galiev and Jay Beagle. [Caps video]
Beagle was a stand out. [Wash Times]
Sean Collins and others talk about the poor ice conditions. [Wash Times]
Former Bear and current Predator Tyler Sloan talks about the ice. [WaPo]
Collins talks about making the Caps roster. [Wash Examiner]
Patrick Wellar gets his first NHL game. [PennLive]
Dany Sabourin photo by Kyle Mace
The NHL is gearing up for the annual awards ceremony (tonight on Versus) and draft day (Friday on Versus). Hopefully next week, I’ll have some draft day results and a look at who we might see in the coming years in Bears sweaters. Right now news is slow. Do you have anything that you want to see us cover in the off season? Leave us a comment and let us know!
Caps sign Olie Kolzig on as an associate goaltender coach. His primary responsibility? Working with the developing goaltenders. [WaPo]
Dany Sabourin will be back with the Caps/Bears organization [Caps, Bears, Pennlive, HBHB, DFZ]
Peerless grades Jay Beagle’s time with the Caps. [Peerless]
Andrew Kozek photo courtesy of chicagowolves.com
Now that the Clear Day rosters have been released, tell us what you think. You can see the full list of teams and their rosters on the AHL’s website.
Braden Holtby (G)
Nolan Schaefer (G)
Keith Aucoin
Francois Bouchard
Sean Collins
David de Kastrozza
Brian Fahey
Andrew Gordon
Kyle Greentree
Andrew Joudrey
Boyd Kane
Andrew Kozek
Dmitri Kugryshev
Maxime Lacroix
Patrick McNeill
Zach Miskovic
Mathieu Perreault
Steve Pinizzotto
Ashton Rome
Sheldon Souray
Patrick Wellar
Brian Willsie
From the AHL:
Only those players listed on a team’s Clear Day roster are eligible to compete in the remainder of the AHL regular season and in the 2011 Calder Cup Playoffs, unless emergency conditions arise as a result of recall, injury or suspension. Teams may also add signed junior players or players on amateur tryout contracts, but only once their respective junior or college seasons are complete.
In the case of the Bears, Braden Holtby is currently on recall to the Washington Capitals. He is still eligible to be on the clear day roster due to time spent in the league thus far and he was on the Bears roaster as of the NHL trade deadline. Jay Beagle is not on the roster, nor can he play for the Bears for the remainder of the year. He was on the Capitals roster at the time of the NHL trade deadline and is no longer in an entry level contract. Some have also wondered why Dmitry Orlov is not on the roster. He can play under the provision of the Amateur Tryout Contract (ATC). Leaving him off the roster kept a spot available for another player. We would also expect to see Cody Eakin added to the roster once his junior season has concluded.
Doug Yingst is a master when it comes to the AHL Clear Day. This year before the deadline he added Nolan Schaefer (G) and Andrew Kozek (LW) to the team. Schaefer is on loan from Boston. Kathryn has the low down on Schaefer. As far as Kozek goes, he is on loan to the Bears from the Chicago Wolves. This isn’t the first time Yingst has made a deal with the Wolves before Clear Day. Last year he added Grant Lewis on loan from the Atlanta Thrashers (Chicago Wolves). In 2008 Yingst pulled off a deal to send Joe Motzko to Chicago in exchange for Alexandre Giroux just before Clear Day. Kozek comes to the Bears this year from the Wolves as a second round selection in the 2005 entry draft by the Atlanta Thrashers. He has played in 57 games for the Wolves this season tallying 7 goals and 5 assists. In exchange, Josh Godfrey was loaned to Chicago.
You will also note that there are a number of injured players on the roster. Because they are injured, substitutions can be made for them until they are declared healthy again. One injured player that did not make the list was Lawrance Nycholat. If Nycholat heals up before one of the other inured players he could still get in the lineup (I think). Tim Leone of the Patriot News talked to Yingst about the omission. Yingst stated that injury as well as veteran status were factors in Nycholat’s not being on the roster. For those unfamiliar with the veteran rule:
Of the 18 skaters (not counting two goaltenders) that teams may dress for a regular-season game, at least 13 must be qualified as “development players.” Of those 13, 12 must have played in 260 or fewer professional games (including AHL, NHL, IHL and European elite leagues), and one must have played in 320 or fewer professional games. All calculations for development status are based on regular-season totals as of the start of the season.
So there you have the roster that will take this team to the playoffs. What do you think? What changes would you make? Would you have made different deals before Clear Day to get other players in Hershey? We want to know! This is your chance to play General Manager.
Photo of Dmitri Orlov courtesy of JustSports Photography and The Hershey Bears.
The Bears are in action tonight against Norfolk with just over a month to go in the regular season.
Dmitri Orlov practiced with the big boys and received some positive feedback [WaPo]
Russian Machine Never Breaks also caught up with Orlov after his first Bears home game. [RMNB]
Sheldon Souray got a mention in the Wall Street Journal. Of course the article is titled “Where the NHL Stashes Its Mistakes”. Don’t worry, Sheldon. We still love you. [WSJ]
Former Bear Greg Amadio gets his hair cut for “Locks of Love”. He was inspired to do so because of a young fan that he met while playing for the Bears. “He was a big fan of ours, and I just thought it was the least I could do to show a little support for him and he showed to me.” [Mlive]
“Ask the Caps: Mathieu Perreault” The “Little Dog” answers fan questions. [WaPo]
Jay Beagle was recalled to Washington where he is slated to stay for the remainder of the season. He is ineligible to be placed on Hershey’s clear day roster. [PennLive]
“Bear Tracks” is out on the Lebanon Daily News. [LDN] Also out of the Lebanon Daily News, Don Scott takes a look at Andrew Gordon’s continued success. [LDN]
The GM over at Hershey Bears Hockey Blog takes a look at the Caps deadline day trades and how they will affect the Bears. [HBHB]
After sitting out last weekend, Perreault is back on the ice with the Bears. (And yes, Kyle, Perry will be wearing his 24. Carroll has switched to 34) [PennLive]
Lawrence Nycholat close; Todd Ford recalled; Braden Holtby upgraded to day-to-day; Andrew Gordon downgraded to week-to-week; Zach Miskovic ruled out for the weekend; Johann Kroll week-to-week and Phil Oreskovic skated for the first time since surgery, but is out for about another month. [PennLive]
The Old Barn Hockey Show is out with their latest. [OBHS]
AHL Clear Day deadline is Monday 3/7 at 3:00 pm ET. Anyone have any roster predictions? If so, leave them in the comments.
Joel Rechlicz has another impressive fight against LeBlond. Photo by Kyle Mace
We said earlier that the organization was one goalie injury away from having a serious problem on our hands. In front of a sold out crowd tonight against the Albany Devils, Jared DeMichiel showed that don’t need to completely panic. He was a little shaky at first and gave up a goal when he couldn’t get control of the puck. But after that, he settled down and stood up for some great saves, including a jaw-dropping one on Darcy Zajac in the third period. By the end, he stopped 27 of 30 shots.
After allowing the Devils the early lead, Boyd Kane countered with a goal of his own, bouncing the puck past Mike McKenna. Later on the 5-on-3 power play, the Bears took their first lead of the night on a goal from Francois Bouchard.
Steve Pinizzotto scored to start the second period, also on the power play. The Devils didn’t respond until the waning moments of the second period but they still stood a goal behind.
Kane scored again in the third period. His second goal would prove to be the game-winner as the Devils scored with 18.4 seconds left. Can we talk about Boyd Kane for a second? We all know that Kane is a clutch player, but as of late he has really stepped his game up even more. He’s been racking up the points and some confidence.
The story of the night for many people was the AHL debut of Dmitri Orlov. I think all around, people were impressed. Troy Mann did a great job coaching Orlov. He was doing a great job of keeping up with his teammates and definitely didn’t look like he was new to the team. He even recorded his first AHL point tonight with a secondary assist on Pinizzotto’s power play goal. He was on ice for both of Hershey’s power play goals and none of Albany’s goals. He also finished the game with three shots on goal. I think it’s safe to say that Hershey fans are happy to add this Russian to the team.
The other story of the night is Joel Rechlicz. I said it on Twitter during the game but I need to repeat it: it’s absolutely mind-blowing how long Rechlicz can fight before he tires out. I’ve never seen a player consistently have fights that last over a minute all while throwing some great punches. Tonight, he was speared in the ribs by Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (yes, him again) and they fought, of cour se. All while using only his left arm, Rechlicz took down Leblond and was even yelling at him for more. What a champ.
And that wraps up yet another exciting game against the Devils. Bears win 4-3. Goalie carousel be damned.
You can’t win ’em all. Although, when you’re playing the struggling Rochester Americans, you tend to think you can win it.
It looked like it was going to be really bad at first. By the end of the first period, the Bears were already down 2-0. Rochester scored once on the power play and once even strength to make it look like a rough night for Hershey. It didn’t help when the Amerks scored in the beginning of the next period on a rebound shot past Todd Ford.
At the end of this recap, you’ll find the lines and pairings, as usual. However, those lines didn’t last very long. By the end of the second period, the coaches were already doing some shuffling in order to combat the Amerks early lead.
With the Amerks up 3 goals to none and Boyd Kane going to the penalty box for two minutes, things started looking grim. Thankfully, the Bears refused to give us and started putting some pressure on Rochester, even while down a man. Zach Miskovic unleashed a big shot that Johann Kroll tipped along the way and the Bears ended Tyler Plante’s shutout with a short-handed goal. That is Kroll’s first goal and point of the season.
Things really got exciting when Jay Beagle brought the Bears within one goal of tying it. He approached the goal at an angle that was rapidly getting tighter and tighter. He had such a quick backhand shot that it was hard to tell he even shot at all until you saw the slow motion replay. Plante was just as fooled and suddenly it was 3-2 Rochester.
It was like the Bears got a second wind. They start skating faster and harder and Rochester responded by matching their pace. The two teams battled it out for the rest of the period but Hershey couldn’t complete the comeback. They came very close but had their shots blocked. They even hit iron a couple of times. Amerks win 3-2.
The Bears will be at home for the remainder of the weekend. Make sure you come out and cheer the team back to its winning ways.
Photo by Bridget Samuels / wikimedia.org
Here is your weekly round up of Bears news and events.
John Walton was on the bus to Norfolk for the Old Barn Hockey Show. Filing in was Greg Mace. [OBHS]
Of the “50 Most Loved Former Pittsburgh Penguins”, Mitch Lamoureux grabs the number 48 spot. [BleacherReport]
Patrick Harbolick takes a look at the Capitals’ 2006 draft class. [Hockey’s Future]
“Bear Tracks” by Dan Sernoffsky is out. Lots of injury and player updates this week. [LDN]
Welcome back, Jay Beagle. We know you would like to have stayed where you were, but we like you, too. [Caps]
And congratulations to Patrick McNeill. PMac was recalled by the Caps and looks to play his first NHL game tonight. [Caps]
Also a big congratulations to Jared DeMichiel for his first win as a Bear! [SHoE]
David de Kastrozza is getting some attention in the Bears organization and across the AHL. [PennLive]
Josh Godfrey is back up with the Bears. [ECHL]
Last Saturday the Giant Center hosted the PIAA State Wrestling Championships. There was precious little time to transform the GC back to a hockey rink. Brad Wilson of The Express-Times gives his take on it describing how poorly it was handled by GC staff. In his article he states “It was a bit rich of the meet announcer, though, to ask fans to beat it because of an ‘important’ Hershey Bears game coming up. There has never been an ‘important’ minor-league hockey game.” I beg to differ. [LehighValleyLive]
Michael Sedor of the Patriot News is also covering the change from wrestling to hockey. [PennLive]
First thing’s first: huge congratulations to Jared DeMichiel for earning his first AHL start and win tonight as the Bears battled the Providence Bruins! DeMichiel was fantastic, having to face a lot of shots early and then continuously seeing more shots than his opponent on the other side, Nolan Schaefer, did. By the end, DeMichiel stopped 28 of 31 shots!
But the Bears gave DeMichiel an early lead to work with. Boyd Kane, continuing his recent point streak, led the offensive attack and scored the first goal of the night. A couple of minutes later, Kyle Greentree reached the twenty goal mark and beat Schaefer.
A very scary moment came midway through the first period. At first it seemed harmless enough when Trevor Bruess and Antoine Roussel dropped the gloves. They both threw some punches and fell to the ice. And then Bruess did not get back up. Very quickly, trainer Dan Stuck ran to his side and the medical staff of the Providence arena came to help.
It was hard to tell what was hurt but Bruess did not move a lot. Eventually, they stabilized him on a stretcher and took him off the ice. The only good news was that Bruess did manage to give the crowd a little wave as they rolled him off. John Walton announced that the news is that Bruess has a “fairly significant lower body injury.” We wish all the best to Trevor and hope that he can be back on the ice soon.
Once the game started up again, the Bruins finally managed to get a puck past DeMichiel. Maxime Sauve was left all by himself right in front of the goal and he went low and cut Hershey’s lead in half.
During the second period, Kane regained the two-goal lead on his second goal of the night. The goal came from an absolutely perfect passing sequence from Keith Aucoin to Francois Bouchard to Kane. Just beautiful. The Bruins fought back to get the game within one goal again. I’m willing to bet no one had Brian McGrattan down as their guess for the goal scorer.
At the very end of the period, the Bears were on the penalty kill and Providence worked their way up ice for one last attempt for time ran out. In the neutral zone, the Bears fought for the puck and Aucoin got away with it with no Bruin to fight him. He sped down the ice and sniped it right past Schaefer to give the Bears a 4-2 lead.
There was only one scoring change in the third period when the Bruins scored on the power play. Things got interesting in the last two minutes when Providence pulled their goaltender and Greentree was whistled for a delay of game. Thankfully, the Bears and DeMichiel stopped any last shots and the Bears won 4-3!