Catching up with former Bear and Calder Cup Champion Dave Steckel
At Sunday’s Hershey Bears game, a familiar face returned to Giant Center. Former Bears forward and Calder Cup Champion Dave Steckel was in town visiting his college roommate from Connecticut and decided Chocolate Town was a perfect half-way point from Steckel’s current residence in Ohio.
We caught up with the NHL veteran and talked about his time in Hershey.
Chocolate Hockey: Coming back in Giant Center, does this bring back up any memories of that 2005-06 season, the Cup, and seeing the banner up there?
Dave Steckel: I stopped playing last April and I haven’t been in a hockey rink since then. So this is the first one I stepped in to. Then coming here, I mean just driving off was like “Oh, I used to come this way to come to the rink and everything.” Very nostalgic to say the least. My kids – they love it. So I was kind of happy. My boys never got to see me play here in the NHL and my daughter did. So it’s kind of a treat to bring them back.
CH: What do you remember about that 05-06 season because I thought that team brought so much energy back to this area, to this franchise. You look in here and it’s a great crowd and I give a lot of credit to that team to bring that back.
DS: Thanks, I’ll take that credit [Laughs]. It’s kind of ironic that you say that because when I’m over in Europe you know we’ve got a lot of guys who played a substantial amount of time in the NHL and in the A and specifically against the Milwaukee team I’ve played with guys that were on that team. I mean when I look back on it you look at our roster and three quarters went on to the NHL and had good careers and played a lot of games and guys still are playing games. I think that speaks to how well Washington at least started it and brought that atmosphere back to Hershey. Obviously winning a championship was icing on the top. I’m still bitter about 06-07 when we lost to Hamilton and Carey Price.
CH: What made that team so special that year?
DS: I think the type of guys that you had in that locker room, the character that we all had. We weren’t selfish, we were all there for the same reason, we were all buying into Bruce’s strategy and how we go about ourselves and just the Hershey atmosphere in general. It’s a small town – not everybody can play here, to be honest with you. And I think that when you’re growing up, or at least younger kids, you find that harder to come by – at least from what I’ve heard, I don’t know firsthand. I think that’s the type with Doug Yingst when he was here, that’s kind of the character in the model that he built going forward. The five years after that was very successful. I think that kind of stuff that was instilled in us, that’s what made that team jell. Not just the chemistry but the type of people that were in that room.
CH: Do you still keep in touch with guys from that 2006 team?
DS: Yeah I text back forth probably mostly with Eric Fehr. I’ve seen (Chris) Bourque occasionally, I don’t really talk with him, or Mike Green. There’s some guys on there. I’m more closer to the coaching staff that I am with the guys now.
Headline photo courtesy: Hershey Bears / JustSports Photography
