A Night at the Old Barn

While the team was playing in Syracuse, I had the pleasure of attending the dinner called “A Night at the Old Barn” which was hosted by the Hershey – Derry Township Historical Society. The night was the historical society’s major fund raiser for the year and in this case the third time was the charm. After a delay for flooding in September and then an October snowstorm, December 2nd proved to be the lucky night.

As you entered the arena at box office 4 you were greeted with a mix of familiarity and strangeness. Going through those doors so many times for games there was lots of nostalgia. But today instead of getting tickets at the box office, we got seat assignments. The stairway to the upper level had been converted into a coat check area. As you entered the arena you immediately saw that the ice surface was covered and prepared like a banquet hall with 56 tables awaiting their guests. Descending the steep steps to the arena floor you had a chance to take it all in. The score boards were lit up and displayed events and standings from many years ago.

Read More

Chocolate Fix 11/23/2011

Photo of the NHL’s float for the 2011 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from Yahoo’s Puck Daddy.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the USA. I hope you all have safe travels if you are venturing out. Hopefully we can start giving thanks tonight with a win in the Giant Center.

Earlier this week Dmitry Orlov was called up to the Caps. Kathryn talks about his first NHL game. [SHoE]

Giant Center is the best place to play in the AHL according to Graham Mink. [LDN]

Joel Rechlicz talks about fighting his friend and mentor. [PennLive]

The Old Barn Hockey Show highlights. [OBHS]

  • Part 1 – Bears analysis focusing on things that have been going wrong. Gregg Mace joins the team.
  • Part 2 – NHL and the Capitals. Trade Ovechkin?
  • Part 3 – Referee Paul Devorski calls in and talks about the life of an NHL ref.

Cody Eakin returns to Winnipeg and is enjoying every second of his time in Washington. [CSN Wash]

The NHL Players Association has a “Meet the Rookies” video on Eakin. [NHLPA]

Read More

Chocolate Fix 11/16/2011

Tomas Kundratek joins the Bears. Photo from hersheybears.com

The Old Barn Hockey Show is back with a new edition. [OBHS]

  • Part 1 – As usual this is the Bears segment. Ryan Potulny close to being back. Former Bear Mitch Lamoureux also joins by phone with his take.
  • Part 2 – NHL talk along with goalies getting hit playing the puck outside the crease.
  • Part 3 – Greg Wyshynski aka Puck Daddy joins the team for the last segment.

The Maryland Sports Blog came up to Hershey and takes a look at the Caps prospects. [TMSB]

Tomas Kundratek is excited to be here. [PennLive, DSP]

Read More

Chocolate Fix 11/9/2011

Francois Bouchard. Photo by Kyle Mace.

Okay… so let’s get the big news out of the way. Francois Bouchard was traded for Tomas Kundratek. [SHoE, PennLive, Bears, DFZ, PA Puck, C&W, hockeyfights.com]

The Old Barn Hockey Show [OBHS]

  • Part 1 – Bears, AHL schedule and the league in general with Frank, Scott, Parks, and Brock (who gets muted and abused).
  • Part 2 – Caps, Flyers, NHL, Bears fans being muted by security and more Brock abuse.
  • Part 3 – Dan ‘Beaker’ Stuck joins via phone with Joel Rechlicz.  Gregg Mace then joins to talk about PSU… and Brock takes more abuse.

Read More

A New Date for “A Night at the Old Barn”


Hopefully the third time will be the charm. After being rescheduled due to historic floods and snow storms, “A Night at the Old Barn” has been rescheduled for Friday December 2nd at 5:30. This is a time change from the original 5:00 start time.

From the Hershey Derry Township Historical Society facebook page:

We know you’ve heard this one before but we have rescheduled the 15th Annual Hershey-Derry Township Historical Society Preservation Dinner for Friday, December 2, 2011. Please check your calendars and plan to join us … come freak snow storms or high water! Additional tickets are now available if you don’t have them already. If you can’t make this new date, please contact the Historical Society by 11/18. Please note: We’ll start at 5:30 p.m. instead of 5. See you at Hersheypark Arena on the 2nd! We mean it this time!

Read More

Chocolate Fix 10/26/2011


Dmitry Orlov celebrates with Keith Aucoin. Photo by Kyle Mace

If you missed my story on Hockey Fights Cancer, now is your chance to go read it.

Tim Leone on Dmitry Orlov’s first full season with the Bears. [PennLive]

The Old Barn Hockey Show is back with a new show for the week. [OBHS]

  • Part 1 – They go right to John Walton to talk about the undefeated Caps.
  • Part 2 – This one’s all about the Bears.
  • Part 3 – Graham Mink joins to the show and more Bears/AHL talk.

The Bears make news in Fort Wayne, IN. [Journal Gazette]

AHL Hall of Famer and former Bears Willie Marshal is spending his days reading and writing poetry. [LDN]

Patrick McNeill (aka PMac) talks about what he has accomplished so far and some of his favorite things. [LDN]

Read More

Bears rebound and down Crunch 7-0

Photo by Kyle Mace.

A night after taking a beating from the Pens, the Bears looked to turn things around. And the looked to do it with Dany Sabourin in the net. Sabourin hasn’t played a game in over a week since he’s been riding the pine in Washington with Michal Neuvirth hurt. Sabourin’s first couple touches looked like he had a little rust. After that there was no doubt that he was fully in the game.

In the first half of the opening period, the Bears had some trouble making it cleanly through the neutral zone. This was causing poor entries into the offensive zone and little time spent there. It looked a little like it was going to be another night like last night. As the period wore on, things started to get better. The crunch still had the shot advantage, however Dmitry Orlov was the one that opened up the scoring. From that point forward the momentum started to turn in the Bears favor. They increased the pressure in the Crunch zone and with 3.1 seconds left to go in the first period Jacob Micflikier upped the lead to 2-0.

Read More

“Hockey Fights Cancer” – It’s personal for me.

Image from NHL.com.

On October 8, 2010 cancer took my father’s life.  He had Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL).

A little over two years before his death he was out riding his ATV on there trails where we hunt.  On a relatively steep hill, he was negotiating his way over a branch when his ATV rolled over.  It landed on him and caused some pain in his ribs.  He didn’t think much of it.  He wasn’t having any trouble breathing or any indications of a fracture.  But it did hurt.  It hurt him a lot, but he was a tough guy.  Three days later when the pain wasn’t any better he finally decided to go see a doctor.  They didn’t find any fractures, but they did run some blood work.  That blood work showed an elevated white cell count.  In fact it was extremely high.  The initial diagnosis was lymphoma.  The prognosis was good.  They had caught it early thanks to his ATV accident.  Some mild chemotherapy should take care of it.

Read More

Chocolate Fix 10/19/2011

Chris Bourque’s season has started off big. Photo by Kyle Mace.

Last week we pondered warm up music.  For those of you unable to make the home opener, here is what was played:

  • “Interlude” by Jay-Z
  • “We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris)” by Rihanna
  • “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” by Coldplay
  • “Levels” by Avicii
  • “Rebellion” by Arcade Fire

The Old Barn is back with another edition [OBHS]

  • Part 1 – Coverage of the home opener and Chris Bourque’s season thus far.
  • Part 2 – NHL news around the league and of course a bunch of Caps talk.
  • Part 3 – This was supposed to be a segment with Graham Mink, but he never called. Lots of fill instead.

The AHL recognizes Keith Aucoin’s 500th assist. [AHL]

Out of curiosity I did some math. For his career Aucoin has averaged .70 assists per game. In the last 5 seasons that average is .83 per game including playoffs.  If you look at just his time in Hershey, he is an even 1.0 assist per game including playoffs.

Read More
Back To Top
Search