Tuesday morning brought news of the AHL’s supplementary discipline ruling regarding Colby Williams’ hit on Lehigh Valley Phantoms forward Danick Martel Saturday night in Allentown: a three-game suspension. As a result, Williams will miss the 2018 Outdoor Classic.
Williams found himself out of Saturday’s competition with the Phantoms after receiving a match penalty for the hit on Martel.
For the first time since the 2009 Calder Cup Playoffs, the Hershey Bears will face the Philidelphia Flyers affiliate in a postseason series. To get you ready for the game, I’ve given you a preview of this series, along with my prediction for this best of five in this first round match-up in the battle of Pennsylvania.
Since December 31, the Hershey Bears are on a 1-7-2-0 skid, possibly the worst ten game skid in the current affiliation with the Washington Capitals. It’s time to address some of the issues.
After a tough week getting three out of a possible six points going into the Christmas break, the Bears faced a jam packed week to end 2016. A week off sparked a quality win in Lehigh Valley for the Chocolate and White, but since then things have not been great.
Any Hershey Bears fan would be able to recognize their favorite player if they encountered them off the ice, right? There is no other way to picture the athletes than as hockey players. As for people who have never attended a Bears game? They wouldn’t have any idea that the guy standing in line behind them is a professional ice hockey player.
I asked high school students who don’t know anything about the Bears what they believe their occupations are. The students were given head shots of eleven players with the jerseys cropped out. They did not know anything about the project being conducted. These are their answers:
Saturday night in Cleveland, the 2015-16 Hershey Bears season came to a heartbreaking end. But despite the end being disappointing, that does not mean the season was a failure. This was a team that was not picked by many people to make it past the second round. This was a team that once they made it past the second round, was expected to lose in five games to one of the best teams to ever play in the league. They did the exactly the opposite, making it to the Calder Cup Finals with eight players who are in their first or second year professionally, three rookie defensemen and three rookie forwards. If anything, the 2015-16 Hershey Bears season was a success.
Would have it been nice to have been able to raise the Calder Cup at the end of the season? You’re damn right it would have been nice. But everybody associated with the Bears, from the players on the ice to the fan sitting in the last row of 226, should hold their head high.
For the first time since 2010, the Hershey Bears are back in the Eastern Conference Finals where they will face one of the best teams to come through the AHL since the 2010 Hershey Bears team, the Toronto Marlies. This season’s Marlies team finished with 114 points and a 54-16-5-1 record. The teams only faced each other twice this season, each winning in the other team’s building.
With both teams coming off of a series that went the distance, we could be in for another long match-up between these two division winners.
I did a Question and Answer on Twitter tonight over on the blog’s account @ChocHockey. There were a lot of questions and wanted to save some of the best ones to give a bit longer than 140 characters to answer. Here are all of those questions.
Wilkes-Barre, PA – Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins forward Tom Sestito (right) reacts to having a penalty called on him after hitting Garrett Mitchell from behind in game four of the Atlantic Division finals Monday night (Kyle Mace / Chocolate Hockey)
Mondays are normally the worst day of the week, but the night of Monday, May 10 was definitely a fun one.
Prior to Game 4 of the Hershey Bears and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Atlantic Division Finals, the two teams had what we are calling The Tea Party at The Red Line during warm-ups. It all started after Tom Sestito was looking to start trouble skating up and down the red line in warm-ups, going from Chris Bourque to Zach Sill, then Liam O’Brien, who he has some past history with.
As the Hershey Bears prepare for their 66th appearance in the Calder Cup Playoffs, the Chocolate and White will face the Portland Pirates for the first time since the 2006 Calder Cup Eastern Conference Finals.
The Bears won their second consecutive division while Portland finished fourth in the Atlantic. Both teams went 2-2 in this season’s match-up, each winning their two respective home games against the other team in October and November.
Here at Chocolate Hockey, our entire staff of hundreds one person will break down how the two teams match-up, along with a prediction. Let’s jump aboard the preview train.
Scott Gomez has been playing out of his mind recently in Hershey. Though the first 16 games of his professional tryout contract with the Hershey Bears, Gomez has four goals and 19 assists for 23 points.
He also has been a key part of Hershey’s recently revived power play, with ten of his 23 points coming on the man advantage. But in nine games, Gomez’s tryout contract expires and he will have a big decision to make.
But there’s one option that makes the most sense for all parties involved: Have the Washington Capitals sign Scott Gomez.
