After running his first practice with Mark French as co-coach of the Hershey Bears, Adam Oates spoke with the Hershey media Sunday afternoon. Oates spoke about the logistics of his new coaching gig and also revealed whose idea it originally…
Steve Pinizzotto during his Hershey Bears days. Photo by Kathryn Hedrick.
Here at Sweetest Hockey on Earth, we believe “once a Bear, always a Bear.” This belief is especially true with a fan favorite player like Steve Pinizzotto.
After winning two Calder Cup Championships with the Bears, Pinizzotto became a free agent last summer and signed with the Vancouver Canucks. He played in a handful of pre-season games before suffering a shoulder injury that required surgery. He was kind enough to use his free time to answer a few questions and let us know about his injury rehabilitation, Twitter, and keeping up with former teammates.
Bryan Helmer during his Hershey Bear days. Photo by Kathryn Hedrick.
In the past four seasons, Bryan Helmer won two Calder Cups, became the AHL all-time leading scorer amongst defensemen, and played his 1,000th regular-season AHL game. To top it off, he won the 2010-2011 Fred T. Hunt Memorial Award and was named this season’s Captain of the Oklahoma City Barons.
The former Bears Captain was nice enough to catch up with Sweetest Hockey on Earth and talk about his experience as a key member of the Hershey team, his many career achievements, and life and hockey in Oklahoma.
Before the Hershey – Derry Township Historical Society’s dinner “A Night at the Old Barn” I had the chance to sit down with broadcasting legend Mike “Doc” Emrick in a one-on-one interview. Doc was asked to be the keynote speaker for the dinner and very humbly accepted. Earlier in his broadcasting career, Doc worked for the AHL’s Maine Mariners and had broadcast games at the Hersheypark Arena. Later he was hired as the play-by-play announcer for the Philadelphia Flyers. During his time with the Flyers (and later with the New Jersey Devils) Doc and his wife were residents of Hershey. It was during that time that he used to attend games in the Old Barn as his time would allow.
In this second part of the two part series on the Old Barn, I present to you a collection of memories from former players, staff and fans. To begin, I will share my fond memories. One of the biggest things that I missed when the Giant Center opened was the live organ music. To me, that was something very nostalgic about the Old Barn. It really enhanced the feel of the building. Many people talk about ‘old school hockey’. I don’t think you can get much more old school than an organ playing repeated bars of “Charge!” to get the crowed going. If you ever had the chance to sit there, you will also remember how steep it was. Your feet were just about on the shoulders of the person in front of you. On the other hand, it gave you a fantastic view of the game.
I was at the very last regular season Bears game played in the building, and I still have my tickets. When the Giant center opened, I was at the first game there. On that night, they handed out posters depicting the Old Barn and Giant Center. I now have that poster framed with my tickets from the last Old Barn game and the first Giant Center game: memories that will last a lifetime.
Photo by: Kyle Mace
Who knew that calling the AHL All-Star game in Hershey last year along with Binghamton’s Grady Whittenburg would be a preview of things to come for Scott Stuccio? As it turns out, that perch high above the Giant Center ice now belongs to him. On September 1st, Scott was named the new voice of the Bears after John Walton’s “call-up” to the NHL and Washington Capitals. We here at Sweetest Hockey on Earth are lucky enough to bring you an interview with Scott through the magic of the internet.
Bryan Helmer takes a face-off with the ZooAmerica mascot. Photo by Kathryn Hedrick. Recently, I spoke with Andrew Rodger, writer for The Voice of Sport and friend of the blog. Over the past few years, Andrew has spoken on several…
Earlier this evening David de Kastrozza and Maxime Lacroix attended a charity event to raise money for the Four Diamonds Foundation. Also in attendance was former Bear and AHL Hall of Famer Mitch Lamoureux. The boys were on a team of celebrities who played donkey basketball against the Palmyra School District staff.
The evening started out with 4 teams of students playing against each other in two different games. The rules weren’t too complicated. The game was seven minutes long. To shoot or block you had to be on your donkey. When passing at least one person had to be on their donkey. Seems simple enough, right? In theory, yes. Some of the donkeys proved to be a little more willing to play along than others.
Then it was time for the celebrity vs. faculty game. As they were being introduced, the announcer said that neither de Kastrozza nor Lacroix knew that they would be riding donkeys. They thought they were coming to play a charity basketball game. I’m thinking that they might have had a couple comments for Lamoureux when they arrived and found out. When it came time to play, de Kastrozza didn’t seem to have any issues getting on his mount. Conversely, I’m not sure that Lacroix ever was able to make it on his. Baskets were hard to come by all night as you can imagine. The Palmyra faculty had the shot of the night. They sunk a shot from well outside the three point line. Remember you had to be ON the donkey to be able to shoot!
In the end, the Palmyra faculty won the game. Of course the big winner of the night was the Four Diamonds Fund. The total raised wasn’t known at the time of this writing, but any money raised is going to a good cause.
After the game I was able to catch up to Lacroix and de Kastrozza and ask them about the experience.
Photo by Derek Meluzio.
When Braden Holtby and Dany Sabourin went down with knee injuries at the same time, Bears fans had to say hello to a new goalie duo. Among the call-ups was RIT alum and winner of the 2010 NCAA East Region Most Outstanding Player award, Jared DeMichiel. Last Friday, he earned his first AHL career win against the Providence Bruins, stopping 28 of 31 shots. In between Hershey’s current stretch of road games, I got to talk to DeMichiel about life in South Carolina, his season so far, and whether those tweets between him and Andrew Gordon are starting a competition. Unfortunately, it was announced today the DeMichiel was sent back down to South Carolina. We hope reading our hard-hitting interview with him will help ease the pain of missing him.
Photo by Brian Mills
Brian Fahey's third shot was the winner. (Photo credit: Kyle Mace)
Three weeks ago when the AHL All-Star Rosters were announced, Lawrence Nycholat was voted in as a starter. But due to an upper body injury that he re-aggravated Thursday night, he had to pull out of the game.
With All-Star weekend fast-approaching, the league turned to Brian Fahey to fill the void. Fahey, who has played 7 games for the Capitals and has notched 17 points in 34 games with the Bears this year, has consistently produced when called upon. So it was fitting for him to be a last-minute replacement and shine in today’s AHL Skills Competition.
Fahey competed in the “Sher-Wood Puck Control Relay,” but it was the “Reebok Hardest Shot” competition where he shined.