2 Minutes for Wandering?

Although technically he's not our coach anymore, he spends enough time in the ol' barn that everyone in Chocolatetown still thinks he's part of the family.  And because our Caps bloggers have fallen off the face of the planet, I'm gonna take it on myself to say: Hey Bruce. How's it going? 

For those of you who were under a rock last year for US Thanksgiving, Bruce Boudreau was pulled up from the Bears to coach for the Caps, and for those of you under a rock near the end of the season, he also won the Jack Adams award for coach of the year. 

Beyond just the shiny blingy coaching stuff, however, Bruce, or "Gabby" as he's known to the media, is a stellar person, and you can see it in quite a few of his players. In Hershey, Dean Arsene picked up his knack for giving the media killer one liners, and in D.C, the Caps have only gotten goofier since he arrived. (Segway trip, anybody?)

Not that it's all fun and games under Bruce, though. One of the advantages of bringing him up from the baby team is that a lot of the big names on the Caps (Brooks Laich, Mike Green, etc etc) played under him, and already know his system. In addition, because Boudreau trained the current Hershey coach, Bob Woods,  the system is also more or less consistant throughout- never is a player going to get to DC and be completely blindsided by how everything works. 

Of course, Boudreau does have two Achilles heels... he has an inexplicable soft spot for Chris Bourque, and, straight from the horses' mouth,  he takes coaching advice from unqualified sources... "My 9 years old son texts me from Hershey what should I tell Ovechkin to do..."

Back down on the farm, the assistant coach who stepped up when Brucey left, Bob Woods, has managed to assemble a juggernaut of AHL talent. Working with GM Doug Yingst, he picked up Graham Mink, Keith Aucoin, Brian Helmer and Darren Reid to be the veteran leadership lacking last year. They're looking at a two-goalie rotation once Varlamov gets his groin back in line and honestly, even without Wood's leadership, this team could probably kill things (that aren't the Hamilton Bulldogs, but let's not go there.) 

Not to discount Woodsy though. By all reports, he's put together a team that gells on every level they need to. With Mink, Giroux and Arsene all back and playing, a core from the Calder Cup year is around to show the n00bs the ropes and bring back stupid traditions from prior years. From John Walton, the Voice of the Bears...

 On opening night after the win at Wilkes-Barre, we started to pull out of the Wachovia Arena parking lot when Graham Mink yelled up as loud as he could “WAIT A MINUTE, WAIT A MINUTE!” Our bus driver that night stopped suddenly, as if we forgot something or somebody (it happens sometimes…) The staff and rookies in the front all looked back, and Minker yelled “DID WE PACK THE TWO POINTS?” Laughter and cheering followed, we started on our way home and an old tradition was brought back in an instant. It may not sound like much, but that was something that guys used to do back in 2005-06 after a big road win, and it was good to hear it again. I thought of that again tonight, because it was Bryan Helmer’s turn to yell up front and ask Beaker if we packed the two points tonight. I think that’s what you get when you have a team that has great veterans that lead by example, but have fun doing it at the same time. That’s this team. They watch movies on the bus together, they go to the mall on off days on the road together, they laugh together and they shrug off disappointment and turn the page (see Bulldogs, Hamilton on Wednesday night).

While Woodsy may not be to blame for such antics, the fact that everybody works together decently has to make his job easier.  Instead of having a singular top line, he's got three or four to choose from. Heck, his beginning of season fourth line fielded rookies Mattheiu Perrault, Francois Bouchard and Oskar Osala, and right now Osala is tied with Andrew Gordon for number of goals scored, (6) and Keith Aucoin on the top line is in the top 3 all-AHL and was AHL Player of the Week for the first week in the season. 

If you hate your coach, that kind of chemistry isn't gonna happen, so as far as I'm concerned, the Caps organazation has the best of the best coaching their top players.

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Hershey Bears Team Preview

Me again, here, guys, your lonely AHL correospondant with an overview of the Baby Caps in Hershey.  When the big team rips through your boys like a chipper-shredder left to its own devices, you'll thank me for knowing where they came from :-)

One of the biggest issues the Bears had last year was consistant veteran leadership, both on and off. Captain Dean Arsene fell to injury before the season even started and never quite got back, Freddy Cassivi was stuck in goal, Louie Robitialle was, well, Louie, and acting captain Quintin Laing went up to the big team and never came back, just like our head coach. This year, though, we're veritably stacked on veterans. As of the offseason, we also have returning Graham Mink, a member of the Calder Cup team, and new veterans Keith Aucoin and Bryan Helmer. Along with our just-waiver-cleared Quintin Laing, there's absolutley no comparing the leadership on this team to where it was last year. Even if we lose one vet to injury, there's another to step up and motivate the babies.

Being an AHL team, the roster's never really fixed, but the one we seem to be starting with is nothing short of killer. 

On defense, not only did we luck out with the return of Arsene and his ferocious ass-hits, we also retain Sami Lepsito for the time being, (our version of Mike Green), Josh Godfrey (who had a hat trick in the final pre-season game) and perhaps most excitingly, we also got Karl Alzner, who's been heralded as the Second Coming of Defence Christ for a good long while now. 

Our forward lines are just as ridiculous, fielding Chris Bourque and Jay Beagle, who barely missed making the big team out of camp this year, Andrew Gordon, who had as many points as he had games last year, and the continued play of Francoise Bouchard and Mathieu Perreault, two QMJHL stars. Oskar Osala never met a puck (or a fight) he didn't like, and between him and Kyle Wilson, I don't see the Bears having the same 'hesistance to shoot'issue they had last year. 

The Washington Capitals are really to thank for the goalie situation as well. Simeon Varlamov, the 23rd overall draftee in '06, and Michael Neuvirth, 34th draftee in '06 are currently in Hershey, but they've come up against some stiff competition for roster spots in the form of Daren Machesney, only a second year AHL player, but a star OHL player, and for a while last year when Cassivi was with the Caps, one of the top ten AHL goalies. 

Honestly, I think it's going to take until a few weeks into the season to see where the holes are on this team. on paper and in preseason they look virtually unstoppable. Against the WBS Pens, who knocked them out of the Calder Cup run in 5 games last season, the Bears pounded out an 8-2 victory to close preseason. 

Of course, in the AHL there's also the good chance you'll lose people to the big team, and when that happens, it's going to be the young guns gone first- Bourque, Beagle, Alzner and Lepisto will go missing, and it'll be interesting to see what the team does after that. If reviews of the Washington Capitals heralding them as a 'ridiculously deep' team are to be believed, the depth storage unit in Hershey will have no trouble at all. 

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The Mayor is Back

My first reaction to the weekly challenge was to snort and laugh.

"HA!" I said to myself. "Self, nobody would believe that the AHL has franchise players. We're just the bush leagues! We're where the n00bs ferment until someone on the big team breaks themselves! Half of the NHL watching world can't even name their AHL associate!"

Then I stopped laughing as a thought struck me. "But self, " I said to myself. "Self, wouldn't the franchise players really just be the first players that someone thinks of when they think of a certain team? The dude who's been there long enough that his name is synonymous with the team he plays for? We've got those here in Hershey PA! We're veritably up to our ears in those here!"

Everybody, meet the three I see as Hershey's current franchise players, The Mayor, BabyBourque, and Roboturtle.


Dean Arsene (know alternately as Deano and The Mayor) has been with the Bears for 5 years, and although he wasn't named captain until 2007, he had already racked up an impressive following in town. For three years he's been the Bears' finalist for the all AHL Yanick Dupre Man of the Year Award.

Although he didn't play the majority of last season due first to a botched hernia surgery and then later to some other undisclosed injury, the Bears have signed him to another year in 08-09, and there's been quite a bit of talk that when he does finally retire, the Bears may try to keep him around as a coach of some sort.





Chris Bourque (okay, I may be the only one who actually calls him BabyBourque) is really the only big face/big name on the Bears that will probably make it out of AHL purgatory eventually. However, I'm not sure whether it's fair to make Bourque a 'franchise player' for the Bears, because many people recognize him simply for being Ray Bourque's son, and although he's been in AHL purgatory for three years at this point, he's technically under contract to the Washington Capitals.

Of course, that brings me to another pithy observation on determining your teams' franchise players. Next time you're at a game, look around and see which three jerseys you see the most of. If you're in Hershey, it's almost always Arsene, Bourque and Robitaille.

Which obviously, brings us right back down to Louie Robitaille, also known as the Roboturtle for his maddening ability to instigate ANYONE and then immediately lose the fight. Of course, the fighters and agitators usually have a cult following, and Louie's no different. Regardless of the fact that he wins maybe one of every three fights he starts, and he's the one most likely to take a dumb penalty at a stupid time, Louie is a fan favorite, and I would say arguably a franchise player. Other teams KNOW that Louie's a Bear, and they have to dedicate one or two of their guys to dealing with his annoyances all night everytime they play us.
Interestingly enough, I've heard low-level rumblings through town recently that regardless of the fact Louie's veritably a face of the Bears, the team is thinking of not re-signing him, as he's had some... uh... outside indiscretions that don't really reflect favorably on the organization.

Just goes to show you... you can be known for good, you can be known for bad, you can follow in Daddy's footsteps, but as far as I'm seeing, there's always going to be someone on a team who's KNOWN.

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Creative Challenge, AHL style!

As the one who keeps trying to bring some AHL class to this organization, I chose to do my Creative Challenge soundtrack for the Hershey Bears. Somewhere in there I also started a tangential and mostly fun-jabbing soundtrack for the Penguins as well.

Without further ado, (but much MUCH more bad music).....

Bears Soundtrack Anthology 07/08 :

Bleed It Out- Linkin Park
This will forever be the song that makes me think of the 07/08 Bears, as it was ALWAYS first or second in the warmup tracks. It's also been my phone ringtone since... oh... December?

Rockstar- Nickelback
In a tourist town the size of Hershey, pretty much everyone knows the players, and they are a little like the local celebrities…. And the sources of all gossip.

Street Rat- Disney’s Aladdin
Here’s Jay Beagle, an unsigned, undrafted nobody who came in and burned it the heck up out there to the point that the Caps noticed and signed him.

Tubthumper-Chumbawamba
This team went through over 50 people on their roster due to injuries and illness this year. They lost a coach, three (or more?) defected to European teams, and at some point over half the playing roster had started the season in the ECHL. And they STILL MADE PLAYOFFS.

Going the Distance – Cake
Dear Eric Fehr, you made a back-injury comeback midseason to play not only for the big team, but also in TWO sets of playoffs… You’re a beast and I heart yoooooo.

Under Pressure – Queen and David Bowie
For Daren Machesney, who stepped it up like whoa when all of a sudden Freddy Cassivi was playing backup for the Caps. At one point, he was in the top 3 AHL goalies (and ended the season at 19th of 60+) Welcome to your rookie season, Cheezer.

Pat Benatar- Hit Me With Your Best Shot
This is for Quintin Laing's ongoing ability to get his body in front of pucks. Bruisey? Yes. Awesome? ABSOLUTLEY.

Rehab – Amy Winehouse
Oh, Louie Robitaille. You almost got Dennis Leary’s “I’m an Asshole,” but with that whole drunken cop-punching incident at the beginning of the season, I think you and Ms. Winehouse are a much better couple.

Movin’ Out – Billy Joel
Somehow, we wound up with Ben Clymer, who won a Stanley cup in Tampa and has been a fixture of the Caps for a while. We didn’t complain, but it was obvious the AHL wasn’t where he wanted to be.

Teenage Dirtbag - Wheatus
This is for dear little awkward Patrick McNeill, the youngest of the Bears, but improving leaps and bounds every game, even if he does make "IDUNNO" face a lot. Right at the end of the season, he and Pinizzotto suddenly discovered that they could hit people, and really seemed to get a kick out of it.

Particle Man- TMBG
Chris Bourque, the 5'8" hockey player. Is he a dot or is he a speck?

Everybody Wants Ya - S Club 7
For my favorite baby Cap, Andrew Gordon, who started shakey and got demoted, but suddenly got the call up a second time and lit a freakin’ fire. Two hat tricks later, he was a fan favorite.

The Way You Move – Outkast
Although I have a specific blueliner in mind, I’m going to give this generally to the Bears defensive corps… although a few of them DID move well, we also had a lot of traffic cones.

Move Along - All American Rejects
Here’s to the lossiest losssful two week road trip ever. Out of something like 11 games, I think they won two. But kept effing going like the machines they are.

Don’t You Forget About Me – Simple Minds
Losing Cap’n Lainger and Boudreau to the Caps. Sure, we were proud of them, but that doesn’t mean w didn’t miss them like whoa during the rest of the season.

Ya Gotta Get A Gimmick - Gypsy
As strange as this looks if you know what context the song's actually in, as soon as Steve Pinizzotto realized he could hit people, he stayed with the big team in Hershey.

She Hates Me – Puddle of Mudd
Oh, Joe Motzko. They traded you away, and I am now without someone to scream insults at. You needed so much to learn to pass and stop puck hogging. Hopefully someone will hate you just as much in Chicago, the second team you managed to play only a few games for and win a Cup with. I despise you so...

Boys Don’t Cry - The Cure
Such a quick exit from playoffs for a team that clawed back with as much heart as these guys did. (Andrew Gordon admitted that he did cry, so here’s to you, Gordo.)



Tangentially, for the Penguins:

Unloco's "Bruises": for Brooks Orpik’s 4 hit Shift Of Madness
Christina Aguilera's "Candyman": for Brooks Orpik himself.
Gladys Knight's "Midnight Train to Georgia": for Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen
Shania Twain's "UP!": For Ty Conklin…. Where’d that COME from, Conkblock?
REM's It's The End Of the World: The current Penguins worldview.
Johnny Paycheck's "Take This Job And Shove It.":Well, Marion Hossa, or should I say BENEDICT ARNOLD.
MC Hammer's "U Can’t Touch This": Playoff Marc-Andre Fleury, this is your song.
Disney's Ballad of Davy Crockett: This is ALL for Whitney’s playoff beard.
Groucho Marx's "Lydia the Tattoed Lady": C’mere, Ryan Malone. This is yours.
Wierd Al's "White and Nerdy": For that scruffy thing, Sidney Crosby.
Will Smith's "Gettin’ Jiggy With It":Max Talbot, please always keep dancing.
Jackson Five's "I Want You Back": The Great Disappearance of Jordan Staal
No Mercy's "Where Do You Go?": Malkin. (He almost got Manamana for his stunning interview skills.)

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Weekly Topic (I'm a sheep!)

This is rather a loaded question for me, because I’ve got ties to two separate NHL teams at this point, both in the playoffs, and my two NHL teams’ AHL teams are currently playing each other for their Calder Cup run. Basically, I spend a lot of time cringing no matter what happens.


But, if I could put all that ulcer-inducing Pens/Caps/Babypens/Bears orgying aside for a moment, I’d have to say that since the beginning of the series, I’ve been keeping about half an eye on the Boston Bruins (although I did choose Montreal to win the series).Currently, they’re fighting back 2-3 against the Habs, so who knows if I’ll get to watch them much longer, but I have to say, their group of little scrappy Czech rookies (Sobotka and Krejci) have sort of warmed the cockles of my heart during the beginning of playoffs.

Player-wise, the specific non-Cap-non-Pens people currently on my radar for playoffs?
Tootoo, who I waver back and forth between liking and wanting to punch.
Biron, the only Flyer I can stand, probably because he’s the only one I’ve never seen pull Flyerish crap (sorry, Nadine!).
Turco, mostly because he’s my car’s namesake and because he’s really a fantastic goalie.

And in the AHL? I’d say I’m watching the Syracuse Crunch, but I’d be lying. I do know they have Brassard and Brule playing for them right now, and I’ve been sort of passively interested in Emo!Brule since he was pegged as the guy in Sid’s shadow for that draft year, and I always feel for the players who do the called up, sent back, called up game. No, I’m really just focused on the Bears. And barring that, on the BabyPens. That's one of the few good things about having ties to two, even if they do play each other from the getgo.... SOMEONE's gotta move on, right?

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DOUBLE FIST PUMP OF GREATNESS

I know I don't post much over here because I know most of the world could give less than a rat's hindquarters about the AHL, but this merits some internet-wide yelling.

Andrew Gordon is made of awesome. (and also the AHL player of the week)

For those of you who haven't been keeping up with the Bears/my life, Gordon has scored two hat tricks with me in attendance wearing his jersey. In my book, the kid could sneeze puppydogs and rainbows and not be more awesome than he already is. Mark it, if he doesn't make the Caps outright next year, he's gonna be the first callup from Hershey when they break a winger. And you can quote me on that.

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A Bad Case of the Dingies

Dear Bears,

Step it the heck back up. Eric Fehr was not this whole team in the last 10 games. Andrew Gordon, thank you for trying to make up for the rest of the heartlessness out there last night by getting your second hat trick of the season. You can have a puppy treat. Deano, thank you for stepping up when Louie Robitaille chickened out. You can have half a puppy treat. When you remember you're wearing the C and it's your job to motivate the guys out of whatever the heck funk they think they're in, you can have the other half. Joe Motzko....augggghhhhh *throws hands up in despair.*

Love, Teka.

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They're coming.......

So you remember that family tree that we had that made Ben Clymer the bastard child of a series of Penguins?

Well, they're reproducing again. Here's generation 2




This takes me back to my hypothesis that there are really only 12 sets of hockey features and they all just get shuffled randomly through the Player O'Matic. Of course, then when a hockey player gets too famous, they have to retire parts of his set. Nobody for a good long while will have Crosby lips or Pronger's teeth.

Just watch. Someday they'll find a big gumball machine full of hockey bits, and you'll all owe me money. And yes, this is what I get reduced to when my NHL team makes me want to cry. I'm convinced that if I start breeding them correctly, we'll have a good defensive line for Sid in what... 18 years?

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I'm so boring!

As a lifelong athlete myself (if you want the list, we can do that somewhere else, but I'm completely unable to stay loyal to one sport) I'm a rarity. I really don't care what happens around me, what order I put my gear on, or what underwear I'm wearing (er, to an extent... it's hard to do anything in the pair that gives me perma-wedgie). I tried, I really tried, for a while as a soccer goalie (middle school) to believe that a picture of my favorite actor shoved in my soccer sock would bring me luck, but there was no conclusive win/loss record that compared with my sock stuffing escapades, and after a while I got tired of having to fish soggy paper bits out of my shinpads.

As a swimmer/water polo player, I had a ritual of eating Red Vines before a meet/game, but again, I attribute that to me being a Red Vines fiend and it being three hours after lunch more than me believing that the Red Vines actually gave me some sort of psychosomatic boost.

Most of my hockey watching "superstitions" are really just me being dopey, and I'm not firmly attached to any of them. I'm beginning think that the Bears are incapable of scoring a goal if I'm paying full attention, that I either have to be not listening to the radio (like doing the 20 second dash from the car radio to the inside radio) or looking through the viewfinder of the Stalkercam80000. Which would also explain why, the night I was liveblogging, they lost by 2 in a shutout. Will this make me stop watching/listening to the Bears? Ah, no. They're going to have to adapt.

And as for the Pens, well... the Army bobblehead has been stickytacked to the TV since before the season started and they're still playing the upsey-downsey game, so I'm not thinking it's him. They've won one and lost one since my jersey got here, so there's no conclusive evidence there, and no matter how many times I accidentally fall down the back stairs at work into the spare hockey goals and utter Sidney Crosby's favorite swear word, it doesn't seem to influence them to be sympathetic at all.

Of course, I think I did promise them sexual favors at one point if they won, so maybe they're just being belligerent because I haven't shown up in Pittsburgh to make good on the promise yet.

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I-95 Highlight Reel

Not for the weak of heart or short of time:-)



As IPB has already given us the heartfelt and intelligent version of the Hlog I-95 meetup, I'm going to go the "Best Of!" route, and I'm going to attempt to do it in chronological order. This may get ugly quickly.

All images used within can also be found at my Flikr site

Your blog for tonight will consist of:Pookie, Schnookie, CapsChick, Elly, Steph and Shmee. Your team will be the Washington Capitals. (or the Hershey Bears.)

Friday:
I arrived at Shmee's apartment. If parking was truly lighter than other days, DAMN, I am NEVER moving to D.C, as I went around a 6 block area for about 20 minutes looking for somewhere I could park Turco's ample posterior. (Turco is my 1997 green Subaru station wagon. Big. Slow. Green..... he sort of named himself.) After the pleasantries and introductions, we decided to go punish our livers in the rainbow district nearby.
Enter Gay Danny Briere. No joke. Little guy, button down shirt, dark hair cut into that awful shaggy-wedgy-wants to be a gymnast style, and I couldn't stop laughing. I believe there was a text message to the CapsChick/Steph party about him, but I was rather fermented at that point, and can't be sure. After soaking ourselves up in a little greasy fried stuff, we moseyed our way home, and crashed for the night.

Saturday:
We got going late, the Metro hung us up, and we stopped for Starbucks, so we didn't actually get to Kettler until around 10:40. Once there, it quickly devolved from "Get to know You" to "World's Loudest Hockey Fans Invade D.C. Mall, Details At 11." For whatever reason, one of the recurring weirdness of the weekend became Elly and my desire to make as many of the Caps as possible bastard love children of the Pens and to figure out their parentage. Our crowning glory was as follows:

This also allowed me to coin the phrase, "He's Maloney in the eyes."

Of course, later on we decided that all hockey players had a variation on one of about 12 heads, which is why so many of them look so similar... then every 20 years they bust up all the molds and make a new batch. But more on that later, when we get to Fluffy and BabyMalkin on Sunday.
It turns out that the Caps were also not the only team there. The Canucks had sent their forward scout, Comrie "Thorguld" Sedin. This poor guy got the dreadedly unsubtle 'turn and stare' from all of us, and was sufficiently creeped out enough to avoid making eye contact for the rest of the day. Of course, as far as weirdness levels go, Cape Dude was the hands down champion.

After the rookie scrimmage, (that's Scott Barney from Hershey) we wandered across the lobby en mass to the other ice rink, where we found the big boys doing drills. (and lost Elly to one of those dumb crane games.) It's ridiculously thrilling to me to be standing literally on the other side of the glass as two people attempt to shove one another through it, so I was having the time of my life. This was also the longest time we saw Ovechkin practice for the entire weekend. He and Semin seemed to have this idea that because they were the big names, they didn't really need ice time that badly.
Onwards, there was lunch (nachos and dip and chips and beer... some people had sandwiches), over which we discussed the role of the female fan, and how you couldn't really wear a Sidney Crosby jersey or and Ovechkin jersey and be taken seriously. Schnookie got the winning quote from that conversation when she brought it home with "We're sports fans...who objectify." I managed to challenge her quote supremacy later on the way back to Shmee's house, when we had to climb 2.5 stories on a dead escalator out of the Metro and nearing the top I whined "I'm getting Sidney Crosby butt from this!"
Shmee greeted us with a drink that went from being named "Rachael Ray's Spiked Pink Lemonade" to "Pink Drink of Firey Death" and the evening went downhill from there. Between Rocky-Horrorizing The Cutting Edge (we even had the SIDE PONYTAILS, come on) and Shmee recounting her adventures in supposedly skanky clothing, the evening could really only end with a field trip. And where else would one go on a field trip than to the Verizon Center?

Sunday:
Up and at it on time this time. Loaded into Turco, picked up the rest of the troops, and headed out the the rink again. This time, we settled in for the drills and actually watched what was going on, about three rows back from what we were guessing were Ovie's parents. Ovie and Olie were in rare form from the beginning, scrapping verbally during a shootout drill then each dancing when they managed to best the other. However, Olie's game disintegrated from there, and by the time they were done he had cracked his stick and wound up throwing it off the ice at one of the equipment people. CapsChick started edging away from us early this time, especially after Steph asked in true Steph loudvoice "Is Olie looking especially creaky today?" The rest of the first round players were in high spirits, however, and two of them wound up horsing around amusingly as well.
After a slight Zamboni break (and a chance for us to go raid the Caps store for the *right* team's stuff, we went back out to watch the prospies. Enter Fluffy, BabyMalkin, Backcountry Pyatt and NotMachesney. (in reality, Jay Beagle, Dan Kronick, Tyler Sloan(I think) and Kris Mayotte) interestingly enough, Alexander Semin was also lumped in with this second group, but spent more of it lounging on the boards and looking disinterested than he did actually playing. It was interesting to see the prospies go through the same drills that the big boys had just finished, because you could tell that these were the guys who were really WORKING to do well and make the team, not the guys that knew they were already there. Frederic Cassivi (Hershey's goalie) was down in the same net Olie had been in earlier, and wasn't doing much better. He seemed to be overcommitting to one side of the net and disregarding anyone not in his immediate line of sight. We debated getting him a flowerpot to improve the chi of that end of the rink, but decided that probably wasn't gonna be enough to help him. The other goalie, Kris Mayotte or NotMachesney, (as he was NOT Daren Machesney from Hershey the way we thought he was, but a potential Machesney backup, as Machesney broke himself at some point in the near past) was doing much better overall. After finding out that he was an import from the Arizona Sundogs, I really hope that they decide to keep him around and send him up here to Central PA to play with the Bears... not only was he showing some real promise, but he seemed to be meshing with all of the other prospies pretty darn well.
As all the prospies were packing it in for the day, we also got the treat of getting to watch Puck Handling 101, which was pretty downright amazing.

And of course, as we were leaving for lunch, we wandered into the other rink and watched the last period of a local hockey club's game, which was really much less GAME and much more FIGHT. I think I actually physically squee'd when the two dudes started pummeling each other directly in front of us, and I took way too many pictures, just proving my previously known goon slut tendencies.

All in all, I couldn't have come up with a better way to spend a weekend. Except maybe Pens camp, but even then, I wouldn't have wanted to spend it with a different group of people. I think the I-95 meetup may well become a half-yearly thing, and Elly and I are already plotting towards the Ice Bowl in Buffalo.


Oh, and when you thought it couldn't get much better? Hershey Bears open practices start Thursday.

I'll see you there!

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AHL Finals: Bulldogs 4, Bears 0

The Hamilton Bulldogs won game 1 of the Calder Cup Finals tonight against the Hershey Bears.

Carey Price got the shutout. A 46-save shut-out. In his rookie year.
Yowza.

Now if only a certain other team could have such a sparkling performance in their finals series. Wouldn't that be grand?

So who's joining me for the finals games when the series shifts back to Hamilton then?

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