Michael Latta brings 10,076 fans to their feet with his first-period goal in Game Three of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. Photo courtesy JustSports Photography.

Tough one last night, to say the least.

Everything that the Bears did in Games One and Two – drawing penalties, executing on special teams, blocking shots and getting timely goaltending – the Bruins did even better on Sunday.

Backed by a three-point performance by former Bears star Chris Bourque, a 30-save performance from Niklas Svedberg and a very good power play and penalty kill combination, the Providence Bruins cruised to a 5-1 win on Sunday in Game Three of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

What happened here?

10,076 fans packing the building.  The Bears fed off of it from the drop of the puck.  They got the puck deep.  They forechecked.  They made Svedberg kick out rebounds instead of hold onto shots.  The line of Nicolas Deschamps-Michael Latta-Garrett Mitchell then pounced.

After Deschamps pushed the puck around the Bruins defenseman and led a three-on-two break, the Bruins collapsed in front of Svedberg, allowing some space on the right and left sides.  Deschamps got off a good backhand shot that Svedberg directed to his left with his pad.  Latta was right there to jam the puck home and send the crowd into a frenzy.

Then Chris Bourque did his magic.

The speedy winger – showing no signs of ill-effects after taking a check to the head in a late-season game at Springfield – chipped a Garnet Exelby shot over Philipp Grubauer’s glove and tied the game eight minutes in.  The goal seemed to deflate the crowd, but not the Bears.  They earned a late-period power play chance, and did create good chances on it.  But the Bruins killed it off, keeping the game tied after one.

In a simiar style to Bourque’s goal, Bobby Robins deflected a shot from Kevan Miller past Grubauer.  That’s two goals, with two point-men given a lot of room, and two “deflectors” uncovered as well.

Jamie Tardif then cashes in on the Bruins’ first power play of the game to make it 3-1.  The Bears had a glorious chance to not only draw closer, but tie the game, when Tommy Cross was handed four minutes for a vicious high stick on Latta, and Matt Bartkowski was handed a crosschecking minor just 45 seconds later.  Two full minutes of 5-on-3 time for the Bears would have been deadly last weekend in Providence.

But instead of driving the net and taking shots, the Bears looked a bit too much for that perfect pass, perfect shot.  All of a sudden, what was nearly six minutes of power play time was over, with no goals.  Svedberg was okay, not stellar.  But it was enough.

Boruque then scores his second of the game in the third period, driving the net and chipping a Ryan Spooner pass into the upper part of the net after a Bears turnover.  This after he helped set up Tardif’s power play strike.

Carter Camper then steals a pass on the Bruins’ fourth power play and rips it past a screened Grubauer.

That’s your game.  A dominant special teams effort by the Bruins was really the story.

In Game Four tonight, the Bears MUST come out with the same effort and be more careful where pucks end up.  Bourque-Spooner-Tardif was the line of the night for the P-Bruins as well, which needs to be watched carefully.

Win, and move on.

GO BEARS!!!

-Stucc

First… to all readers, SINCERE apologies for the recent lack of posts.  Part of it was indeed due to my schedule, but part of it was also due to my fighting horrendous bus internet service.  We are very lucky to have the ability to access the internet on our rides back and forth while we are on the road, but because only a certain number of people can access it before all the access points are gobbled up, I usually get the bump!

(Hey… I’d rather the players be able to chat with their significant others, families, or friends… they are the ones playing these games.)

And they are the ones who played so well last Friday and Sunday that have gotten us to this day in the first place.

The day would have come regardless, but how nice is it to have a lead of two games to none over the AHL’s best team in the regular season?

That’s right fans: your Bears are one game away from advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

One cannot expect at all that this is going to be a walk in the park for the Chocolate and White.  But I will give you four really good reasons why this team is in the position they are today:

Philipp Grubauer makes a save in Game Two of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center on April 28. Photo courtesy CirclingTheWagon.

1) Philipp Grubauer is outperforming Niklas Svedberg.  In the regular season, the Bruins backstop deservingly won the Baz Bastien Award as the league’s outstanding goaltender.  He was amazing.  Via two of the former Bears who now wear gold, black and white, Svedberg was responsible for at least 30 of the Bruins’ 50 wins that the team accumulated.  Grubauer was a victim of the NHL lockout, piling up wins for the Reading Royals while Braden Holtby sharpened himself for eventual Capitals starting duties and while Dany Sabourin earned some games.  He wasn’t able to get into an AHL rhythm until the final 1/3 of the season.  But when that time of year came, he did get into the rhythm.  He got into it at just the right time, helping the Bears to some key victories down the stretch that got that “x” next to the team name in the newspaper standings.

And now that the postseason is two games deep (three and four, for some other series), Grubauer is shining brightly.  Svedberg has been solved nine times in two games.  Grubauer’s goals-against average isn’t near the top of the rankings, but the team in front of him is giving him tremendous help.  They score the goals, and Grubauer makes the saves – all 85 of them so far.

2) The power play is back.  Going 50% in the first game was the difference, especially since the Bears drew six power plays on the Bruins.  The Bears attacked in that Game One.  They skated hard.  Providence used their sticks too much to slow the visitors down.  And the Bears, when given the chance, executed.

Keeping the 50% success rate after Game Two was another key – especially since to do so, the team needed to score in overtime.  It took 3:05 of total play – and 1:48 of that two-minute minor assessed to Garnet Exelby for high-sticking Ryan Potulny to get there – but the Bears did it.  Actually, Jon DiSalvatore did it.

3) #14.  Look back at the period from March 24 through April 13, and look next to Jon DiSalvatore’s game-by-game stats.  You’ll see “DNP” on seven of the eight games in that span.  “DNP” = “Did Not Play”; DiSalvatore sat as the veteran scratch in each of those games.  For any player, it is a disappointment – I don’t care how much personality the player shows or how easy it appears that the player can brush off being benched.  DiSalvatore certainly was disappointed.  This is a player who missed all of one game – ONE game – in three seasons of a captain tenure in AHL Houston.  And in the first two of those three seasons, the AHL regular campaign was still 80 games in length.  #14 isn’t used to that.  So how did he respond?  Not by moping around the room – but by working very hard at every single practice, and having fun with the skates on and stick in his hand.  Put back into the lineup on April 14 at Portland, DiSalvatore helped out on two of the six Hershey goals; assisted on one goal each on April 19 at Adirondack and on April 20 at Binghamtonl and then, with a postseason appearance hanging in the balance for his team, he scored two huge goals in the April 21 regular-season finale against Manchester.  One of those goals was the game-winner.

Then the playoffs came.

DiSalvatore scored the third of the Bears’ three power play goals in Game One against Providence on April 26.  Guess what goal that turned out to be?  The game-winner.  In Game Two, 3:05 into the overtime, DiSalvatore collected a pass from Peter LeBlanc and beat Svedberg to the blocker side.  What goal was that?  The game-winner.

Three straight games, three straight finishing contributions from the native of Maine.  A true veteran leader.

4) Contributions all over the score sheet.  Of all the players on the Bears’ roster who are healthy, there are only four who have not yet registered a point in the two-game-deep postseason: Boyd Kane, Ryan Potulny, Cameron Schilling and Patrick Wellar.

For Wellar, he doesn’t have to hit the score sheet – he already contributed by answering the bell in an early-Game-Two scrap with Bobby Robins.  Providence looked to set the physical tone after losing badly in front of a great crowd two nights earlier.  Wellar answered with respect.  And it was the Bears who responded to that.

For Kane and Potulny, they are DUE.  They didn’t have to score or assist to help out in the two wins, but playing back home at GIANT Center is only going to benefit the captain and alternate captain – and you can EXPECT them to get on the score sheet, possibly as early as tonight.

Regarding Schilling, assistant coach Troy Mann considers him and Julien Brouillette the top “shut-down” defense pair.  Does he need to get on the score sheet?  Nope.  He needs to keep the onslaught of offense that Providence brings far to the outside and not directly in front of Grubauer.

The puck drops on Game Three at 7:00 PM.  Pre-game will hit the air at 6:20.  Tickets remain, although a really great crowd for a first-round matchup is expected.

It’s been six days.  It’s been too long.

GO BEARS!!!!

-Stucc

I just can’t believe that tonight is the second to last time I’ll be calling a regular-season game in this building in 2012-13.  36 home game dates have come and gone, and each one has added up to a rollercoaster ride of good times and bad.

The good thing is… the good times are now.

This place once again is sold out.  Against the last three opponents in this building, the Bears chalked up a win.  And just one time since the All-Star break have the Bears lost in regulation.  Coming off of a great start to the month of April last night in Syracuse, the Bears have to feel the love coming from their faithful fans tonight.

Syracuse will feel no love – nor will they feel like just sitting back and letting the Bears run their show like they did last night at the Oncenter in a 4-1 Hershey victory.  Still minus several key offensive components, the Crunch will be a formidable test and continue to be, in my mind, the most dangerous opponent that the Bears have to face in order to clinch a playoff spot.  The visitors did clinch a postseason berth last night due to losses by Manchester and Albany.  But they also have lost four straight games.  They lost two straight in Norfolk last weekend.  And they want to give their new coach Rob Zettler a victory – which would be his first since Jon Cooper was summoned to coach the Tampa Bay Lightning following the firing of Guy Boucher.

The Bears’ new faces have certainly been a welcome addition.  Last night in the pre-game broadcast, I ran down a list of moves that were made either by Washington and another NHL club or by the Bears and another AHL club.  The results have been fascinating and really, really good:

January 31: Casey Wellman acquired for Zach Hamill.  Since coming, Wellman has popped in 24 points (8-16-24) in 25 games; one better than the total he posted in 37 games in San Antonio.

January 31: Peter LeBlanc acquired for Mathieu Beaudoin.  Since coming, LeBlanc has chipped in 15 points (6-9-15) in 25 games; three better than the total he posted in 34 games in Rockford.  And if you haven’t seen LeBlanc’s puck carrying skills (i.e., last night), you’re in for a treat.

March 14: Chay Genoway acquired for a conditional 2014 seventh-round selection.  Not a bad add at all to the Bears defense corps – and he suddenly becomes the team leader in plus-minus.

March 14: Nicolas Deschamps acquired for defenseman Kevin Marshall.  The highest-priced deal, in my opinion, happened when one of the Bears’ top two blueliners was shipped to Toronto.  In return, the Bears added scoring depth to their left side.  Deschamps came through with a two-goal effort against the conference-leading Providence Bruins last Saturday, the biggest helper in the Bears earning two points that night.

April 3: Dane Byers acquired for defenseman Garrett Stafford.  As much of a great guy that Stafford was, without sugar-coating anything, he simply did not endear himself to our fans.  Even his four-assist game in our home opener was overshadowed by frequent defensive mistakes.  He most definitely was not the same guy that helped the Texas Stars give the Bears early fits during the 2010 Calder Cup Finals.  Byers, meanwhile, made his Bears debut last night in Syracuse – injecting a physicality that was already present in the line featuring Garrett Mitchell and fellow newcomer Michael Latta.  You’re going to love having him on your Bears, fans… and opponents will hate to play against him.

April 3: A move which gave help from top to bottom in the organization was made, but at a cost of a part of the future.  Filip Forsberg – whom many people were excited about seeing here in Hershey – was dealt to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Martin Erat (added depth to the Caps) and popular physical center Michael Latta (right-handed centerman added to the Bears and a new team leader in PIMs).  How did this help the Royals?  T.J. Syner was able to be added for the Royals’ start to their quest for the Kelly Cup.  I am psyched to see what Latta can do in the Chocolate and White.  Both he and Byers were plus-one last night in Syracuse.  And, the two combine for an injection of 328 penalty minutes into the Bears roster.

April 3: Joel Rechlicz acquired for Matt Clackson.  Let’s face it – this was a business decision, not a hockey one.  Was Clackson misused?  I don’t think so.  Was he used enough?  Definitely not.  He will find a niche in Portland, while Rechlicz will be the carbonated water added to the baking soda that will blow the GC roof off when he gets into the lineup.  If anything, he knows he won’t play much at all, and can be the Bears’ best cheerleader down this crucial stretch.

April 3: Tomas Kundratek, Dmitry Orlov return from DC.  Orlov slaps a perfect pass to Boyd Kane for last night’s opening goal, and Kundratek scores twice to help the Bears earn their win.  Not to mention, Kundratek extends his point streak to six games, dating back to a goal in the January 20 Capital BlueCross AHL Outdoor Classic.  These are adds that were vital to the Bears reducing their magic number.

April 3: Nate Schmidt signed to a tryout.  One of the most popular and sought-after WCHA free agents, Schmidt gets into tonight’s lineup and can only be a nice break for one or two Bears defensemen who will be needed 150% in the two weekends remaining.

If the Bears get the goaltending from Philipp Grubauer to continue, and if Dany Sabourin can steal one here and there, I will put this team up against any other for postseason play.

But first, the team needs to do its job of reducing its magic number by itself.  A win tonight, combined with losses by any other team below the Bears that has played more games, will reduce the magic number nicely.

Game notes are here for tonight’s Hershey-Syracuse rematch.

GO BEARS!!!

-Stucc

Tonight begins one of the most crucial stretches of three games in three nights for the Hershey Bears, as the team seeks six points with matchups against the Connecticut Whale, Manchester Monarchs, and Worcester Sharks.

Before we discuss tonight’s contest, all you need to do is have a look at the Eastern Conference standings with the next three of Hershey’s opponents highlighted:

7. Hershey – 68 points, 14 games remaining
8. Connecticut – 68 points, 13 games remaining
9. Albany – 65 points, 16 games remaining
10. Manchester – 65 points, 13 games remaining
11. Norfolk – 65 points, 13 games remaining
12. Worcester – 63 points, 17 games remaining

Three upcoming opponents, all separated by five points from each other and the Bears.  You tell me if this weekend is huge.  Not to mention the Bears head to Albany next Friday.

“We are just going to take things one game at a time.”  The most overused cliche in playoff-preparation hockey needs just one more mention as faceoff is one hour from now.

Connecticut has some familiar faces on their roster, as forward Andrew Carroll has landed himself a spot on Ken Gernander’s roster.  Always gritty and fun to have on your team, Carroll has recorded four points and 33 penalty minutes in 19 games so far.

Defenseman Sean Collins, along with forward Kyle Jean, has continued to be the marathon man as he was in Chocolatetown.  The two players have appeared in all 63 of Connecticut’s games to date.  Collins has ten points from the Whale blue line, all assists.

On the Hershey side, forwards Jon DiSalvatore, Boyd Kane, Jeff Taffe and Casey Wellman all have spent time here in Hartford.

The Bears have won two in a row; the Whale have won three straight.  Something will give tonight.  The Bears need a win to snap a modest road skid of two losses.

Game notes are all set here.  Enjoy a pic of one of my favorite former-NHL barns… the old “Mall”.  And GO BEARS!!!

-Stucc

What a goaltending battle last night.  Fans on the outside might think a 0-0 deadlock makes for boring hockey, but in this game, I have to disagree – especially as the game went on.

The spotlight shone back and forth, starting on Sound Tigers netminder Kenny Reiter and moving to Bears goaltender Philipp Grubauer – and back again – and back again – and back once more. 

The Bears forced two early turnovers, and Reiter made great saves on Nicolas Deschamps and Ryan Stoa.  Reiter denied a second Stoa chance on an off-wing snap shot from the right circle, and a Casey Wellman shot from a Ryan Potulny faceoff win.  All that came in the opening 20 minutes.

Grubauer had to turn aside a breakaway from AHL All-Star Nino Niederreiter in the first period, and made it look good by squeezing his glove against his body on the chance.

In the second period, Reiter helped the Bridgeport penalty kill on three Bears chances.  Highlights included a diving stick save on Jeff Taffe.

After Grubauer thwarted another breakaway that featured a shot and a rebound by Brock Nelson, Reiter made more big stops midway through the third.  Boyd Kane had the best chance to give the Bears the lead in the third, but hit teammate Mike Carman in the pants  on a rebound while Carman and a Sound Tigers forward plowed into the net following Reiter’s pad save.

Finally, in overtime, Garrett Mitchell made a smart decision after stealing the puck in the left circle.  Instead of going up the boards to his defense, he spotted Taffe behind the net and whipped a pass to him.  Taffe then fired it right back across as Mitchell curled back into shooting position at the bottom of the circle.  Mitchell’s one-timer sailed past a diving Reiter, sending the Bears to victory 2:49 into overtime.

Highlights are available here, by the way.  Following “turnover city” by both teams early on, the game became an exciting one to watch for all 10,825 in attendance.

A few bullet points on the contest:

1) Philipp Grubauer earned his second official shutout of the season.  Unofficially, he has three, after relieving Dany Sabourin on January 13 in a 5-0 whitewash of the Connecticut Whale.

2) Chay Genoway was plus-1 in his Bears debut.  Nice game from the new guy – undersized on D by certainly not under-educated at the position.  He really fit in well and his speed was welcome.

3) Garrett Stafford was plus-1 working with Genoway.  Stafford has quietly improved his game to the tune of a plus-6 in his last eight games.  He was even or better in all but one of those games.

4) Nicolas Deschamps played an unselfish Bears game debut.  I would have liked to have seen him take two more shots last night – but he fit nicely on the top line.  His helmet cage, by the way, is to protect a broken orbital bone suffered when he took a puck to the face in  a recent game with the Toronto Marlies.  Deschamps chatted with me this morning and I’ll air portions of it tonight.  Great kid and thrilled to be in Hershey.

5) The Bears lead the AHL with 35 one-goal games.

6) The Bears won their first game of the season when scoring one goal.  The team has been held to one goal 16 times this year (1-12-3-0).

Adirondack is in town and is well-rested.  The Phantoms are coming off of a 3-2 win at Binghamton on Friday.  Tye McGinn is back from the Flyers to provide a scoring punch up front, and Erik Gustafsson is also back to bolster the offense from the Adirondack blue line.  Already with offensive threat Danny Syvret back there, the Phantoms will look to wipe out the memory of a tough 3-0 loss to the Bears on February 23.  (Remember the fluky shorthanded game-winner scored by Patrick McNeill on Scott Munroe?)

Munroe has great numbers against the Bears, but it was veteran Brian Boucher who got the win on Friday.  Time will tell as to who the Bears will face in net.  I would expect Grubauer to maintain his spot in net for Hershey.

Game notes are all set here.

Don’t forget to stay for the post-game jersey auction for charity… and wear your green.  The team jerseys are SWEET this year.

GO BEARS!!!

-Stucc

It is often said that when things aren’t going the proper way for a team, changes inevitably have to be made.

Usually, that pertains to the next night’s roster.  Unless, said things haven’t been going well for a while.  And that has been the case for the Hershey Bears, as – after a superb start to the month – the tide completely turned around in a negative way as the team came up pointless in all three games last weekend.

So, as the Bruce Hornsby song writes, “Gonna Be Some Changes Made.”

First, out goes one of the greatest, grittiest, hardest-working, super guys ever to patrol the Bears blue line in Kevin Marshall.  I had just spent an afternoon on a school visit to Mechanicsburg for some middle-school floor hockey with him and three other players, and I remember him asking me why we didn’t do those types of visits all season long.  The guy was thrilled to be a Bear.  Now, he is a part of a Toronto Marlies team that holds the North Division lead entering the weekend.  I wish Marshy nothing but the best, and I truly hope we cross paths again.

In exchange for Marshall, the Capitals acquired a second-round selection of the Anaheim Ducks who I remember being worried when he dressed as an opponent.  Nicolas Deschamps is now a member of the Bears forward crew.  The guy can shoot, the guy can score, and he can make plays.  And, he fills a weakness that the coaching staff felt was there on the left side.  Interestingly, the Capitals had a hard time finding the fit with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom today.  Deschamps will take the left side with Jeff Taffe and Jon DiSalvatore.  Different circumstances, I know, I know.  But it is a weird coincidence.

Defenseman Chay Genoway (hard “ch”, hard “g” pronunciation by the way) has also joined the Bears.  The Capitals dealt a 2014 conditional seventh-round selection for the Morden, MB native.  Two things will strike Bears Nation about Genoway: 1) he’s small.  5’9″ is generous.  And 2) he brings it offensively.  Something Bears Nation may not know: he was Jonathan Toews’ roommate prior to the two playing on the same University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux squad in 2006-07.

I feel the Bears lost some grit on the blue line with Marshall departing, but maybe that opens the door for Patrick Wellar or Brett Flemming to get into things more often.

Now, back to the situation at hand.  Having sat idle since Sunday, the Bears saw their position in the Eastern Conference standings shift from being inside the playoff picture to being on the outside looking in.  Several teams have been within arm’s length of that eighth and final playoff spot for weeks now, and a few of those have now passed the Chocolate and White.

All that means is that the Bears face, what I feel, are must-win home-ice tilts this weekend – starting with tonight’s contest against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.  GIANT Center is sold out for these games and fans need to be given a reason to belt out their cheers.  Bridgeport, however, is no slouch.  Despite a league-high goals-against average, their offense is deadly.  It is a sleeper-type offense which can certainly pounce when needed, because it comes with speed, grit, and willingness to get to the front of the net.

Game notes are here.  Bring your non-perishable food items tonight for the Booster Club’s collection for the Central PA Food Bank.

And GO BEARS!!!

-Stucc

Had to take two days to regroup after an absolutely gut-wrenching loss to the Binghamton Senators on Sunday.  Say what you want about penalties that were called apparently by the progression of the game, but the Bears needed to kill off those last two Senators power plays.  Plain and simple.  That puck that came out of the left corner had to either be covered or cleared somehow.

It wasn’t.  And what happened?  A loss – with 2.3 seconds left on the clock – to a Binghamton team that had roughly 7/9ths of its lineup duct-taped together with AHL and ECHL players.  Yes, folks… Luke Richardson is doing something right up I-81.  You can’t deny that.

In the wake of being 3:50 away from two points, and in reality coming up empty on the weekend, the playoff scenario has become completely cloudy.  I will say one thing: the Bears will need urgency every single minute of every single game remaining.  60 games are in the books.  Six teams behind the Bears in the Eastern Conference standings – and four teams ahead of Hershey – have games in hand.  Five points separate the 7th spot (held by Hershey) and the 12th spot (held by….. Norfolk…. yes, they’re back in the picture too).  And after this weekend’s contests against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (who have forward David Ullstrom back from the NY Islanders) and the Adirondack Phantoms (who have Tye McGinn back from Philadelphia – he scored against the Bears in the first meeting of the season), the Bears will have just three home games left out of 14.

It’s go time.

And at the beginning of yet another long week of practice with no games until the weekend, another Bears blueliner has been recalled to the Capitals.  CamERON (I’ve never heard him asked to be called otherwise) Schilling was this week’s recipient of that phone call that every player hopes for and works for.  The new #45 for the Caps joined the team for the Tuesday morning skate, and it is expected that he makes his NHL debut tonight at Verizon Center against the Carolina Hurricanes.  Schilling was also paired with his Bears teammate Steve Oleksy this morning.

If he goes, he will be the third Hershey Bears player to make his NHL debut in the last 14 days.  Philipp Grubauer got the cold-call in the second period on February 27 at Philadelphia, and Steve Oleksy was baptized into the Show on March 5 against Boston.

And if he goes, he will join Oleksy and Tomas Kundratek as (this season’s) Bears-turned-Capitals defensemen.

Couldn’t be any more proud of these guys. 

The Caps play a home-and-home with Carolina beginning tonight and continuing Thursday.  Bears are off until Saturday.

GO BEARS… and Caps!

-Stucc

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Bears defenseman Brett Flemming races up ice to chase down Admirals forward Luca Caputi in Friday night action at Norfolk Scope. Photo courtesy John Wright.

Good morning from Norfolk Scope!

Last night, the Hershey Bears were defeated by a score of 5-1 against a Norfolk Admirals team that may very well have played their best game of the season.

First, some lineup notes.  Just prior to pre-game skate, we learned of a minor injury to winger Garrett Mitchell – which, although only expected to have sidelined him last night, ended his run of playing in every game this season (57).  Mitchell has indeed been a marathon man for the Bears and has found his groove very well this season.  We certainly hope to have an update for you on Mitchell later this morning.  I was told that the injury is very minor and is upper-body.

The Bears did see one key injury absence come to an end this week.  Defenseman Dmitry Orlov, sidelined since December 6, is on this road trip – and took the Friday morning skate with his teammates.  The one thing that I really liked was the fact that he was the last player off of the ice, by his own choosing.  Usually, players who aren’t in that night’s lineup are “bag-skated” – they work with a coach doing skating drills and sprints to get in a last blast of cardiovascular activity.  Orlov was on the ice by himself, even after helping the rookies pile up the practice pucks, working on his skating.  Encouraging, indeed.

The last I had heard yesterday, the likelihood of Orlov getting into Saturday night’s rematch against Norfolk is very good.  It would be an ironic return, as Orlov’s last game was played at Verizon Center – in the house where he was expected to be playing permanently – against Norfolk.

The injury to Mitchell and the continued resting of Orlov brought Brett Flemming into the game as a seventh defenseman.  Flemming had a pretty good game at Scope the last time he was here.

Now, back to last night.  The Bears had trouble finding any kind of open ice, when the two teams were actually skating full strength.  A large portion of the game was interrupted by penalties – many of which were taken by the visitors – a span which kept the Bears penalty kill on the ice for a long time and allowed the Admirals to take control of the match.

The lone bright spot, offensively anyway, was Jeff Taffe.  His torrid goal scoring in March continued when he made a nice play at the Norfolk blue line to hold a steal onside.  He then took two strides, wound up and bombed a slapper past Frederik Andersen to get the Bears on the board.  At that point, the Bears trailed 2-1 but were being doubled in shots on goal.  That is a situation that is nothing new – the Bears were outshot in 38 of the 57 games prior to yesterday, and went 20-14-2-2 in them.

Taffe unfortunately was called for embellishment when the team was down 3-1, a time that the Bears needed another chance on the power play.  I don’t believe I have ever seen an embellishment call made in a Bears game that I’ve done, let alone one on a stand-up player like Taffe.  But I know I’ve never seen back-to-back embellishment penalties in a game, when Devante Smith-Pelly apparently theatrically drew a hooking call on Boyd Kane.  Honestly, I didn’t see that one either.

The one thing the Bears couldn’t do yesterday, like they did last weekend, was tie the game.  Twice last weekend when the Bears trailed after one period, the team won.  But the club is still void of a win when trailing after two (0-18-0-2).  Norfolk played an aggressive forechecking game once again; Frederik Andersen made the saves in the few times he was challenged; and the Admirals won on special teams.

The Bears will need a much more disciplined effort tonight, and will need to quickly shake off and forget yesterday.

The Bears will not have a morning skate today, only a quick team meeting before lunch.  Puck drops tonight at 7:15.  Air time on the Bears Radio Network is at 6:35.

And air time on ABC-27.2 is at 7:00.

See all those different times?  Have you ever wondered how a hockey simulcast goes, or think that it’s simply talking on television and radio at the same time?

You’re partially correct.

I thought I would take a few minutes to answer a bunch of questions together in one lump – questions regarding how my “typical” road game day goes, how I can jump on Twitter and Facebook while I broadcast, and how a simulcast works.

To begin, NONE of my days are “typical”.  Yesterday, for example, started with wakeup at 7:30am.  Equipment Manager Justin Kullman and I walked the 15-minute venture from our hotel to Scope (in a howling wind, I might add).  Usually I walk over with coaches Mark French and Troy Mann but yesterday I needed a coffee a lot earlier.  After we arrived, I fired up the computer and wrote the game notes – two full pages of statistics, standings, news and notes about both teams.

Then I lugged my radio gear up the longest set of steps in the AHL to our broadcast vantage point.  I set everything up the way I like it – every broadcaster in the league has his own setup style – and then proceeded back downstairs to watch a bit of Norfolk’s morning skate.  That gives us the idea of who will and won’t be in that night’s lineup.

At 10:30, coach French holds a video meeting with the team – showing them tendencies that Norfolk has on both sides of the puck, mistakes to correct, and things that were done properly the last time that the teams played.  Immediately after this is when he and I do our interview that airs during the radio pre-game show.  I immediately download it off of my iPhone voice recorder into my laptop, which later in the day connects right to my radio gear.

If I need, I get one of the players as well.  Yesterday it was Flemming.

Then, it’s back upstairs with all of that night’s printed notes in hand.  Keith Phillips, Norfolk’s public and media relations director, is one of the best there is at getting things printed and in our hands in plenty of time.  I tape a few select sheets down at my table, and it’s all set for my late afternoon pre-game prep time.

The coaches and I then had lunch at the beautiful MacArthur Center in downtown Norfolk. HIGHLY recommend a trip here for anyone planning a Virginia Beach summer vacation.  The downtown, with the new “Ride the Tide” trolley system, is just gorgeous now and has completely changed from several years ago.

After two hours of rest at the hotel, we all walked back to Scope and arrived around 4:30.  I walked upstairs to catch up with another great friend in this business, Admirals radio voice Pete Michaud – who not only called a Calder Cup championship last season, but earned the James H. Ellery Award for oustanding radio broadcast coverage of his AHL club.  I try to learn from the best there are – and he is one.  We share a talk about our teams, talk about lineup scratches, and then have a pre-game meal together.

But before the meal, I walked over to my broadcast spot on press row, and found this.

This is what the equipment looks like for a simulcast.  Not only is my giant radio broadcast apparatus sitting there, but so is a plethora of cabling, another monitor (the one on the right is provided by the Admirals to watch the in-house feed), and two headset-microphones and their control boxes.  So much for having a comfortable area to call the game on radio, and look over my notes.

I spent the next 45 minutes trying to work with the television audio crew on getting an area that I could set up my laptop and place my notes.  For radio, I use my computer to check out-of-town scores (which was a disaster last night, because the wireless internet bandwith was inhaled by the time the first intermission arrived), play interviews for our listeners, and make use of social media.  With NO room for my laptop (just so you know, I had it straddled on my lap while we were live on the air), in no way was I able to tweet nor use Facebook.

Back downstairs we go for a 4:45 meeting with sports director/my color analyst Gregg Mace, producer Jay Taylor and some other members of the production crew.  The biggest issue in a simulcast is trying to time everything perfectly.  This was the purpose of our meeting – as well as to find out what Gregg is going to cover during pre-game, intermissions, and post-game.

That meeting took a half hour – way more than usual – but worthwhile.

Back upstairs to test out the now-connected radio link.  Sounded fine.  Chatted with the board operator at the Ticket, made sure that he was connected to WQIC, and made sure the commercial breaks that we took during each period were correctly in sync.

It’s now 5:45.  Time to scarf down a pre-game dinner.  Scope’s press room meal is always stellar – great salad bar, good food.  But my Catholic background forced me to pass on the pulled pork and stick with a small salad and a scoop of macaroni and cheese.  After quickly enjoying my meal with our president/GM Doug Yingst, you guessed it – back upstairs.

Keeping in mind that our radio air time is 6:50, I now had 25 minutes to update my sponsor reads, set up the interviews I recorded earlier in the day, write up some speech-type notes, put our scratches and starting goaltenders on Twitter and Facebook, and test the feed for AHL Live – all while having audio technicians standing over me trying to assess an audio/video issue.

Radio pre-game went fine.  We joined television at 7:33, but – Gregg and I had no monitor (only saw color bars) and Gregg had lost communication to the production truck.  At that point, I delve into my live television weather background mode and just go with the flow.  That’s all you can do.  But, I had to go with the flow realizing that I had to press a cough button when I wanted to talk on radio, but not television.  That was done for the entire game.

Gregg then had to wrap up on TV, while I had to do a radio post-game show.  So here we are, two people standing three feet apart, talking on two different mediums.

Thus the nature of a simulcast – and fans, that’s only about half of it.  This is long enough.

Game notes for tonight’s rematch are forthcoming on HersheyBears.com.

Hope you can tune in.

Oh… and GO BEARS!!!!!

-Stucc

How could you not be proud of these two?

For Oleksy, his recall came immediately on the heels of signing a three-year, two-way contract with the Capitals.  It was the first NHL offer for the native of Chesterfield, Michigan.

And he posts an assist and a plus-2 rating in his NHL debut.

Kundratek, meanwhile, went from sitting roughly 13th on the New York Rangers’ defense depth chart early in the 2011-12 season to earning his first recall to the NHL on January 11.  He returned, then was recalled 12 days later.  And stuck.

And he nailed down his first NHL goal in Tuesday night’s comeback win over the Boston Bruins.

I found something interesting about the timing of the recalls of these players.  Kundratek, as we all know, is very offensively-gifted.  He left the Bears with 13 goals and 13 assists, and only recently did Jon DiSalvatore and Jeff Taffe take over the team goal-scoring lead from him.  Oleksy is the tough, gritty, battling defenseman that doesn’t put up a lot of points, but has a knack for being on the ice when good things happen offensively.  See his plus-16 rating from last season and his plus-five this season.

Both of these players, as different as their styles of play and roles are, entered the National Hockey League with averages of a point-per-game or better.

Kundratek left Hershey on a five-game point streak in which he recorded two goals and four assists, as well as one game-winner.  He also produced eight points in his last seven, a string spanning January 8-20.  His effort had him all set to go to Providence for the AHL All-Star Classic, but his recall prevented that.

And Oleksy actually has quietly been one of the top offensive defensemen in the Bears lineup as of late, which has surprised many.  He has six assists during his last six games.

The question now remains, how long are these players staying with the big club?  All indications are that Kundratek – having logged many minutes of ice time recently – could stay for the remainder of the season.  I would expect Oleksy to return, although probably not for the Bears’ trip to Hampton Roads this weekend.

The Bears have fared well with Kundratek up.  With Oleksy missing, his defense partner Patrick McNeill will have someone else to work with.

Could it be this guy, who we haven’t seen since December 6?

It would be a stretch to say that Dmitry Orlov makes the trip to Norfolk.  He was cleared last week for full contact practice, but not yet officially for game play.

Brett Flemming was also summoned from ECHL Reading, so the Bears are not short bodies on defense.

Despite all of this movement along the blue line, the Bears are still fourth in the AHL in goals against per game (2.47).  It is something that – along with the resurgence of offense the team is showing – should keep the Bears in a fairly good position for the postseason if all keeps up.

The games against Norfolk (Friday, March 8, 7:30 PM and Saturday, March 9, 7:15 PM) will be tests.  Peter Holland was recalled by the Anaheim Ducks yesterday, while Patrick Maroon was returned.  Norfolk goaltender Igor Bobkov hasn’t exactly performed well against the Bears recently, but Frederik Andersen did, back on Teddy Bear Toss day.  Plus, he’s riding a very good string lately.  Can’t imagine we wouldn’t see the other big guy manning the Norfolk net on Friday.

Binghamton comes to town on Sunday, with a game in hand on Hershey and an eight-point lead in the standings.  The game will be one of six home games remaining… and check out what the Bears can do if this game, and the other five, average over 10,000.  It’s in the “Quick Hits” section at the bottom.

Here’s to a fun month of March.  All the best to the guys in their new NHL niche, and as the month rolls on, GO BEARS!!!

-Stucc

Courtesy JustSports Photography

Good morning all!

What a happy Monday it was for BEARS Nation, too.  For those who didn’t make the games, readers woke up to being informed that for the second consecutive night, the team turned a deficit into a victory – this time in grand fashion against the best in the league – a 5-3 decision over the Syracuse Crunch.

Sometimes, certain game situations call for a certain specific player.  There are players who LOVE having the puck on their stick when games are on the line. 

Ryan Potulny and Jeff Taffe are certainly two of those individuals.

Potulny’s final-minute winner on Saturday against Norfolk was tough to beat.  Taffe’s contribution on Sunday wasn’t as visually dramatic, but it was four times as effective.  He cut into a 3-1 Syracuse lead with his 14th of the season, a classic one-knee one-timer that only players with Taffe’s talent can rip home.  Then, he scored the tying goal that I’m sure was scripted to be the same type of shot.  Except, Mike Carman’s pass barely made it beyond the outstretched stick of defenseman Evan Oberg, causing Taffe to reach for the puck and take a wrist shot instead.  But the result was the same.  The shot beat Cedrick Desjardins high, and the netminder’s frustration came out after the equalizer.  Just watch at 1:58. 

Taffe also set up the game’s first goal scored by Jon DiSalvatore, and the game-winner by Cameron Schilling.  He now sits alone in fourth place among active players in the AHL scoring race.

Oh… and let’s not forget the other storyline.  Dany Sabourin, who had a great effort on Friday night and made some good saves early in Sunday’s game, was pulled after Oberg scored to make it 3-1 early in the second period.  What would you have done in this situation?  Especially since this was in no way Sabourin’s fault.  This was the goal that was reviewed, by the way, and after watching this great angle myself, I’m not so sure if it was clean.  It’s just too tough to tell whether Steve Oleksy has Tyler Johnson tied up, causing Johnson’s skate blade to turn and deflect the slapper by Oberg. 

Which leads me to another point.  Since the goal was allowed, this might have to be changed to Johnson since it went off of his skate, and that would make him the first player this season to score 30 goals (he had Syracuse’ late first-period tally as well).

Anyway, Philipp Grubauer came on in a relief situation - for the second time in five days - and blanked the Crunch on all 20 shots he faced.  Saves like this, at the 2:36 mark, are just a part of another day at the office for him lately.

The roof of GIANT Center was lifted again when Casey Wellman rounded out the scoring on a breakaway, only made possible by rookie blueliner Dmitry Korobov having an unfortunate balance issue in the neutral zone (at 3:08).

21,088 fans in two nights got to watch the first two times this season that the BEARS came back to win a game in which they trailed after one period.  Additionally, a total of 31,994 fans attended the last three home games, and the BEARS won all of them – the first time this season that the team has won three in a row at home.

Things are looking up at the right time, fans.  And it feels even better when you can look at the East Division standings and see the BEARS ahead of their arch-rivals, with a chance to move even higher and really begin to solidify a playoff berth.

Hope you enjoyed the weekend!  If you did, tell your friends.  We have six home games remaining, and if we can see an average of 10,500 over these games, the BEARS season average would hit 10,000 for the first time ever.  It would be a league record.  Could we do it?  The BEARS are playing like they want it to happen… so let’s make it happen!

Catch Gregg Mace and I on the tube this Friday and Saturday for your weekend TV hockey fix as we’ll bring you the action of the BEARS and Norfolk Admirals from Norfolk Scope on ABC-27′s RTV channel.  Sunday, the Binghamton Senators come to town – and it would be awesome to see a nice welcome from packed stands.

GO BEARS!!!

-Stucc