With a New Year Comes a Big January for the Hershey Bears

You know a hockey team is feeling good about themselves when they’re having fun. That’s exactly what happened Wednesday morning at Giant Center when the Bears held a team shootout at the end of practice. A very good sign for Hershey as they prepare for one of the most important months of the season.

Of the twelve games Hershey will play this month, ten are against divisional opponents, and eight are against the three teams ahead of them in the standings currently, with seven of those eight against Lehigh Valley and Wilkes-Barre alone. “It looks like the only way we’re going to be able to climb the standings is to actually beat those teams because it doesn’t seem anybody else can beat them,” head coach Troy Mann said. “We have to take care of our business, take it one week at a time as we normally do, and at the end of the day, we’re going to have to try and come out on the plus side of those seven games.”

A quick glance at the standings will show Hershey sitting behind Wilkes-Barre, Lehigh Valley, and Providence for the fourth spot in the Atlantic Division. But a closer look will show you that the Bears sit only four points behind the Penguins, meaning this weekend might be the most important one this entire season for Hershey. “In my seven years in the American league, I’ve never seen it that tight with four teams,” said Mann. “Every night you look up and they’re beating someone. For us, you lose one game and next thing you know, you’re in fourth. We’ve had a pretty good stretch of hockey. We’re ahead of last year’s pace, but unfortunately we have three other teams that are having great seasons as well.”

After injuries to Madison Bowey and Christian Djoos, the Bears had to sign the man with best beard in hockey, Colton Saucerman to a PTO. Bears radio voice Zack Fisch said on Twitter that defenseman Joey Leach hopefully will be back this Friday, but the Bears are still lacking depth on their blue line.

Despite that depth on the back end, Hershey is currently thriving up front. “You look at Friday night’s potential line-up, and you’re going to be scratching two pretty good forwards,” said Mann. “We sent [Domenic] Monardo down to ease it a little bit and get it down to 14. The Caps are carrying bare bones right now, but I anticipate with Washington traveling to Ottawa and Montreal, they’ll have to take a forward. That would get us down to 13, but still quality forwards.”

Mann also said forwards Riley Barber (upper body) and Dustin Gazley (lower body) are still out until sometime in February, but Herhsey regained one body with the return of Jakub Vrana this week from Washington. After making his NHL debut on December 1, Vrana played 12 games with the Caps before being scratched in a back-to-back against New Jersey. “I didn’t see a lot of difference,” Vrana said about the NHL experience on Wednesday. “Players are very smart, it’s a little faster, but it’s a great experience. It’s a learning process seeing how other players play.”

The 20-year-old will be thrown right back into the thick of things with that huge matchup against the Penguins on Friday night. “It’s good to play against them. It’s always a rivalry and a good type of hockey.”