Last week I had the pleasure to kick off the 2017-18 season of Chocolate Hockey Plays with Bears rookie defenseman Lucas Johansen as we played a game of NHL 18 together.
Funny enough, Johansen isn’t even in the game, so I took the time to make his player but not fill out his ratings. We let him pick his “overalls” in multiple categories with what stats he thinks he truly has.
NHL 18 is over two months old this week. The game, which was released on September 15, adds a number of new features but retains an incredible amount of accuracy to the season as it goes along. Every so often, the in-game rosters are updated to reflect injuries, call-ups, and any players affected by injury.
There have been eight such updates so far this season, and reflect moves such as the recalls of Chandler Stephenson and Madison Bowey to Washington.
At the end of the Hershey Bears practice on Friday, two of the last three Washington Capitals first-round picks were on the ice working on one-timers together. Lucas Johansen was feeding Jakub Vrana pucks for Vrana to slapshot into an open net, a sight Washington Capitals fans hope to see for years to come.
After a well deserved second day off on Tuesday, the Hershey Bears were back on the ice Wednesday morning at historic Hersheypark Arena. Two notable faces joined the Chocolate and White as they prepared for their second round series against Providence starting on Saturday.
