All photos by Kyle Mace
The Hershey Bears held their morning skate for the 2012 Outdoor Classic this morning. I was there to see it and to bring you photos of the action. It includes Braden Holtby, Patrick Wellar, and Keith Aucoin playing catch on the field ice.
Photo from theahl.com
Here we go! First Chocolate Fix of the new year! This is a big week for the Bears. Friday they will play in the AHL Outdoor Classic at Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia. I know I’m getting excited for this one and I’m pretty sure you are too. The Bears had mixed results in the last week of the year. They had a tough loss to the Penguins, but then had a nice win to finish the calendar year against the Admirals. Special jerseys were worn for New Year’s Eve and the Bears will wear special ones for the game Friday night, too. You can see them both here. Lastly, we put together a list of our top 11 moments from 2011.
Outdoor happenings…
Last year we brought you the Top 11 Moments of 2010. This year we are doing the same list, but we got your input on our Facebook and Twitter pages this year. (Which if you do not like/follow, you should.) So without further adieu, here are the Top 11 moments of the 2011 calendar year (in no particular order)…
Bears fans celebrate Chris Bourque’s shorthanded goal (All photos by Kyle Mace)
Due to the holiday, tonight is the first ever “photo recap.” 11 photos from tonight’s game, recapping all of the events in the 3-2 SO win for Hershey. And like they say “A picture is worth 1,000 words” (so that means tonight’s post is 11,000 words.) From all of us here at Sweetest Hockey on Earth (and our big sister blog Russian Machine Never Breaks) we wish you a happy, healthy, and hockey filled 2012!
The front of the New Years Eve jerseys for this Saturday’s game (Photo by Kyle Mace)
The Hershey Bears have another special jersey night coming up and they are very…interesting. The New Years Eve jerseys this year include the words “Happy New Year” along with “2012” on the front showing the upcoming year. The Bear on the front also has a party hat on it’s head to give it that “I’m ready to party” look. The back has a clock with the time showing midnight. Both sides have balloons, streamers, and fireworks (what every New Years Eve party should have.)
Geoff Walker wins it for the Penguins in the shootout. All photos by Kyle Mace.
After quite the trumping of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins last night, the Bears had a lot to live up to, especially in front of a filled-to-the-brim Giant Center.
The first period didn’t live up to the energy that everyone thought it would have. Both teams were keeping calm, perhaps saving their energy for the later periods. The Penguins had two power play opportunities but, thanks to Dany Sabourin, it was scoreless after one.
Danny Richmond (Photo by Kyle Mace)
After the meltdown formerly known as the Sunday game against Norfolk, my girlfriend (in a semi-kidding sort of way) said “We would have won if they’d have played Danny Richmond.” She kind of has a thing for him and has declared him to be her favorite. Don’t get me wrong. She’s no puck bunny. She has been studying the game in depth and is a big help when I am tweeting a game. She’s a true hockey lover. As we were on our way home, I started thinking about it more. Could there be something to this? Richmond has seen limited action this year. Including this past weekend, he has seen action in just 12 games. The limited playing time is at least in part due to the AHL’s “veteran rule”.
The rule as described by the AHL:
Locker room is set up for this morning’s game day skate. Photo from the Hershey Bears facebook page.
Another full week here at SHoE. The Bears finished out their third week of three games in three nights. As Meatloaf would say “Two out of three ain’t bad.” But then again it isn’t great either when you look at the defensive implosion in Sunday’s game against the Norfolk Admirals. They had just beaten the same team on Friday night. Saturday they added another convincing win against Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
In other happenings this week around SHoE:
Later today look for a new post on what I am calling “The Richmond Factor”.
Now on to the rest…
Photo by Kyle Mace The AHL announced today that Boyd Kane will be the playing captain for the 2012 AHL All-Star Classic. He will be representing the Eastern Conference and this will be his first All-Star appearance. Captains for the…
The entire first line of Bourque, Aucoin and Micflikier (not pictured) were the AHL's First Star of the Night after Sunday's win over Norfolk. Another week in the books. This one wasn't quite as busy at SHoE HQ as the…