Chocolate Fix 2/29/2012

Keith Aucoin celebrates goal with the Caps. Photo hijacked from our sister blog, RMNB.

Happy Leap Day! Hopefully the Bears can use this extra day of the year to get a much needed win over division leading Norfolk. As always, you can follow our tweets of the action on Twitter. As for what happened this week, well there isn’t much to brag about. The Bears lost to Rochester, Lake Erie, and Norfolk. They now sit in 3rd place in the East Division a full 8 points behind Norfolk. They do have one game in hand against Norfolk. Since the playoffs this year are determined by conference standings (with the 3 division leaders automatically in) we should look at the conference as well. Currently, the Bears are in 5th place. Norfolk leads the conference and the Bears are 9 points ahead of the 9th place team. There’s still a lot of hockey to be played and the Bears have room to move either way. Hopefully it’s up. Look for more about the standings and AHL Clear Day in the coming days.

Now on to this week’s highlights.

Keith Aucoin is back up in Washington after being reassigned to Hershey for the NHL trade deadline. [Caps]

And after last night he has played his 9th game of the season. One more game and he will have to clear waivers. [WaPo]

RMNB analyzes Aucoin’s first NHL goal of the season. [RMNB]

Also assigned to Hershey for the trade deadline was Dmitry Orlov, but his assignment was strictly a paper transaction. [PennLive]

Today the Bears recalled Maxime Lacroix from South Carolina. Maybe we will be without Aucoin for the rest of the season? [Stuccio]

The Bears along with Subway presented a $5000 check to Children’s Miracle Network. [CBS21]

John Walton talked to Randy “Rock” Johnson to check in on Hershey for his blog. [Capitals Voice]

Lebanon Daily News throws the spotlight on Kevin Marshall. [LDN]

Former Bear and a fan favorite Andrew Gordon was traded to the Canucks. [AHL]

Hey, kids. If you doubt how you are going to use those math skills later in life here is one use for them. Right now the odds are stacking up against the Bears. [PennLive]

The boys from the Old Barn are back again minus Scott Stuccio. [OBHS]

• Part 1 – Stuccio joins for a bit via the phone to talk about the Bears. Then Gregg Mace in for Stuccio in a mid-segment line change.
• Part 2 – NHL Referee Kerry Fraser calls in for the NHL segment.
• Part 3 – Former Bear Mitch Lamoureux sits in for the last part.

Ever wondered about who repairs all the damage to the Bears jerseys and socks? [PAPuck]

PA Puck has decided to end their regular coverage of hockey in PA. A Stick tap salute from those of us here at SHoE. [PAPuck]

Monday is the AHL Clear Day. Bears GM Doug Yingst has pulled off some moves prior to Clear Day before. Will he do anything this year? Look for more from us about AHL Clear Day leading up to Monday’s 3:00 PM deadline.