Broken Glass Sits On The Ice At Klick Lewis Arena After A Bears Player's Shot Shattered The Pane During Practice Tuesday
Broken Glass Sits On The Ice At Klick Lewis Arena After A Bears Player's Shot Shattered The Pane During Practice Tuesday
Broken glass sits on the ice at Klick Lewis Arena after a Bears player's shot shattered the pane during practice Tuesday
Riley Barber Helps Clean Up The Broken Glass On The Ice
Riley Barber helps clean up the broken glass on the ice
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Hershey Bears Practice Midwest Trip 10
Broken Glass Sits On The Ice At Klick Lewis Arena After A Bears Player's Shot Shattered The Pane During Practice Tuesday Riley Barber Helps Clean Up The Broken Glass On The Ice Hershey Bears Practice Midwest Trip 1 Hershey Bears Practice Midwest Trip 2 Hershey Bears Practice Midwest Trip 4 Hershey Bears Practice Midwest Trip 3 Hershey Bears Practice Midwest Trip 11 Hershey Bears Practice Midwest Trip 5 Hershey Bears Practice Midwest Trip 6 Hershey Bears Practice Midwest Trip 9 Hershey Bears Practice Midwest Trip 12 Hershey Bears Practice Midwest Trip 10

Midwest trip comes at perfect time for Hershey

Before the Chocolate and White headed to Milwaukee for the first time since winning the 2006 Calder Cup, they had a very eventful practice at Klick Lewis Arena in Palmyra.

After a hard skate on the original rink at KLA, they moved to a new sheet of ice to work on some special teams play. The coaching staff broke down a drill, then had players skate to their respective areas.

Before they could even get to those areas, a player shot a puck which ended up missing the net and shattering the glass. Silence overcame the rink before a few laughs broke out.

The Bears needed some of those laughs after a rough first three games of the year, only getting one of a possible six points to start the 2017-18 campaign. That’s why a long road trip will allow the Bears to get some much-needed bonding time.

“It’s going to be a tough trip,” said head coach Troy Mann on Tuesday, “but it should be exciting in terms of going there a little bit earlier, do a little team bonding; not something we’ve been able to do very much here since the start of the year.”

This first visit out in roughly a decade will be a nice treat for Bears fans as well once the teams visit Chocolate Town on their own later in the season. But only being able to use video footage to prep for the team is a challenge in itself.

“In terms for the franchise, it’s exciting to go over and play some different teams. When you play the Wilkes-Barres and the Lehighs 12 different times, it’s always nice to play some new teams. We’ll prepare the best we can based on some information that Kinger [Bears video coach Mike King] will put together for us over the course of the week.

“Milwaukee has always been competitive and it’s their home opener so it’s going to be a tough challenge for us. Then you go into Grand Rapids the next night where obviously have good crowds and big crowds, and are the Calder Cup Champions from last year with a lot of returning players.”

Hershey flew out of Harrisburg International Airport on Wednesday to Chicago before busing to Wisconson for Friday night’s game. They will have to cross back and forth between time zones as they head from Milwaukee on Friday, to Grand Rapids on Saturday, and back to Illinois on Sunday to face Rockford.

“You’re going from Central Time Zone, [to] Eastern Time Zone, back to Central. I know it’s only an hour, but when you’re going to spend five and a half hours on a bus from Milwaukee to Grand Rapids, and lose an hour, those are the challenges.”

“It’s going to be a little bit of a change,” said Garret Mitchell. “It’s something for quite a few guys, myself included, I’ve played never out in the west. It’s exciting. With the travel, it’s going to be a little bit more. You look at most of our three-in-threes, let’s say Lehigh, Wilkes, maybe the odd Bridgeport, but even that’s four-and-a-half, five hours.”

This three-in-three will allow for Mann to get some new faces into the line-up as well. “We’re taking everybody,” said Mann. “That will allow for some line-up maneuvering over the course of the weekend. Situations like [Mathias] Bau’s, who’s coming from the Danish league, there’s no need for him to play three-in-three.

“I’d like to get Mason Mitchell in there, get [Hampus Gustafsson] back in there, and obviously [Anthony] Peluso as well. We’ll certainly try and get everybody in over the three games, and that will allow us to manage that in terms of certain guys that might not need that three-in-three.”

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