My Time in Chocolate Town, USA

The following is a first in Chocolate Hockey history. Bears captain Garrett Mitchell was kind enough to produce an article for us prior to the beginning of this season. The words you are about to read are his own. Please enjoy this player blog.

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My first day in Hershey was a hectic one. I got picked up by one of our locker room guys from the airport and he brought me over to Giant Center. We’re there just in time for the game that night. I haven’t met anybody yet. The only guys I knew were from playing against them in juniors or at rookie camps.

After the game, I came down stairs and met everyone, but I’ll never forget what happened next. Beaker looks at me and says I had to go sell a jersey on the ice. I’m like “What do you mean I have to go sell a jersey on the ice?” I was so embarrassed. I’m sitting on the bench going “I have to go on the ice and sell a jersey?” Nobody knows who I am. Nobody knew I was even coming.

So here I am in front of hundreds of Bears fans that stayed for the jersey auction. I go on the ice and meet Jim Jones for the first time. He has to pitch this jersey to a group of fans who have no clue who I am. “Yeah, we’ve got Garrett Mitchell here,” he leans over “where are you from?” I tell him Regina, Saskatchewan. “He’s from Regina, Saskatchewan. Just flew in here. We’ll start the bidding at $500!”

I’m thinking “Are you kidding me?” I was a captain on my junior team and my jersey normally went for $300. There’s no way this jersey is going for $500. Now I’m really embarrassed. But sure enough, someone bid. And then another hand. The jersey ended up going for $750 that night. I ended up calling my dad and said: “You guys will not believe what just happened to me.” That was when I realized how much hockey means to this community.

The only thing I knew about Hershey when I got here was the chocolate. I couldn’t even tell you where Hershey was on a map. Before I came, someone said something to me about Hershey and how rich it was in hockey history, but never got a feel for it until I got here. But when I got here, Hershey was in the process of making history.

I was thrown into a team that was the best AHL team of all time. It was a learning experience. I was a wide-eyed young kid trying to take everything in. I don’t know if I fully understood what that team’s accomplishments meant until a few years into the league.

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In my first full year, I didn’t know where I was going to be and where I stood with the organization – was I going to be in South Carolina, was I going to be in Hershey? I was hoping to come into Bears camp and earn a spot on the fourth line. I didn’t make the Bears roster and started the year in South Carolina. They said: “We’re going to send you down, see how it goes, and call you up in a few weeks.” You never know how long those couple of weeks are going to be.

After playing the first two games with the Stingrays, Kyle Greentree broke his arm opening night. For me, that was my chance to come back and make an impact.I ended up playing 65 games that season and never got sent back down. I was happy with that.

I’m so fortunate to be in the same place for six years. I’ve always lived at home. The years I played in Regina, from 16 to 19, I played at home, so I had mom cooking, mom cleaning, mom doing my laundry. I didn’t have to worry about anything.

I had to do laundry for the first time when I was here. I went down to the front desk at the Hilton Garden and I bought one of those laundry soaps in a box. It said one load on it. I didn’t know what to do. I called my mom and I was like “How much do I put into this?” So I sent a picture and she said “Just read it. It says it’s for one load so just pour the whole thing in.” I had no idea. That something I never had to do.

That was six years ago. I’ve been in one spot and a quarter of my life and I’ve had to grow. There are a lot of things that changed. Now I have to do my own laundry, I got married, and had my daughter. I’ve been so fortunate, too, when I look back on the guys that I had around me kind of as mentors; Boyd Kane, Keith Aucoin, and obviously Chris Bourque when he was here my first year. And even with Bryan Helmer being around a little bit, you just see the culture of guys and the people that have been here, are good guys.

I’ve been so fortunate just to be around such good people here and I think for me that definitely made me mature faster. The best thing of the day is going home to see your daughter. You know she’s always happy when I come home. It’s an 180 from not knowing how to do my laundry to having a little one run around the rink.

It’s not easy to make the playoffs, let alone win a championship back to back. Those were pretty special guys that are on that first team I joined. For me just coming in, was it was an unbelievable experience and getting my feet wet understanding how things worked around here, the culture of the game, and how much hockey means to this area.

I knew we had a special team last year, but it probably wasn’t until January that I knew that we were a special team. I had Chris over to my house and we were just talking about our team and we both looked at each other and said: “We can really win this.” We’ve got a serious opportunity here to do something special. And I think from that point on, it was like, wow, we’ve got a good hockey team.

It’s a different thing when you look at our young guys who now have that experience — WE have that experience of not being able to accomplish that goal of winning a championship. Just being able to kind of know now what that sour taste is like. Having another team throw their gloves in the air is not the best feeling in the world.

I think it helps big time knowing what it takes to get there now. I learned a lot during that run. I’ve won a few things in my day, but I’ve never won a championship on that level. It’s something that I definitely strive to do in my career, and hopefully, we do it this year.