Thursday morning the Bears were back on the ice at GIANT Center after Wednesday's practice was spent with Washington Capitals skating coach Wendy Marco at Hersheypark Arena to accommodate the team's in-house Media Day. Much of the digital content shot by the team's marketing and creative staff will be utilized in branding throughout the 2023-24 season, and will also be incorporated into the GIANT Center video boards and LED ribbons during home games throughout the campaign.
With Todd Nelson getting in his team's final two practices before a brief morning skate that awaits on Saturday prior to that evening's season-opener, Hershey's head coach has begun to fine-tune his forward lines and defensive pairings as the roster for Opening Night begins to crystalize.
For the forwards, the Bears equipment staff of Josh Carter and Dillon Filepas have had their work cut out for them, with Hershey deploying several units of white, blue, orange, gray, merlot, and green practice jerseys to denote the various combinations.
"We put these lines together just to see if there's any chemistry that we'd see in practice, and you know what? It looks good so far," Nelson said, though he cautioned that nothing is set in stone, owing to Hershey presently carrying six skaters on its roster who are classified as veteran players by the American Hockey League.
For those in need of a reminder, the AHL development rules stipulate that 13 of a team's 18 skaters dressed for a game must not be veterans, with an exemption made for one player with 320 or fewer pro games played at the start of the season. Presently, none of Hershey's veteran players qualify for that exemption, meaning one veteran will have to sit in the press box on a nightly basis.
"Obviously, we have a bit of a vet problem here, but it's a good problem to have," Nelson said. "We have a lot of numbers here, so we're gonna find a bunch of different combinations, we're gonna try to work guys in the lineup. But as of right now, from what I saw today, the combinations that we had, I'm pleased with."
One of those veterans is Nicolas Aube-Kubel, assigned to the Bears by Washington after passing through waivers on Monday, who was skating in a green Bears practice sweater as the right wing on a line with Jimmy Huntington at center and Joe Snively on the opposite flank.
It's a line that appears to have Nelson's attention and approval.
"Snives has that speed on the left-hand side, Jimmy's a responsible two-way center, and then Aube-Kubel, he's got that NHL presence to him," Nelson said. "He can skate really well. He finishes his checks hard, and I think all three kind of compliment each other. That'd be a tough line to play against."
"I'm really happy to be here," Huntington, one of Hershey's free agent signings this summer, said. "It's a winning mentality here. It's a work day, like we work and we know that when you work hard in practice, it's gonna pay off in game. That's what Nelly's trying to [emphasize] here."
There's also some degree of consistency at play with the Bears forwards as well, as last season's high-flying trio of Mike Vecchione, Mike Sgarbossa, and Ethen Frank has remained intact, which should come as no surprise.
Leaning on Big Mac
Bears captain Dylan McIlrath and Nelson are forever linked by virtue of winning the Calder Cup together with Grand Rapids in 2017 and again with Hershey this past season. It's that experience together, along with the steady presence exuded by his captain, that lets Nelson know he can depend on McIlrath to help set the expectations within the locker room among the players amidst all of the hoopla surrounding the start of the season.
"I'm gonna depend on him a lot - he's been through this before and make no bones about it: we're going after the Cup again," Nelson said. "We've just got to make sure that throughout the season we keep it, even keel, make sure our highs don't get too high or lows don't get too low. When we come to the ring today or every day, we mean business; we're gonna have a lot of fun working with each other. But let's face it, there's going to be a target on our back. Everybody wants to knock us off, and it's a good position to be in - it's just gonna make us better as a hockey team."
Stevenson ready if needed
Goaltender Hunter Shepard enters the season as the unquestioned No. 1 in between the pipes for Hershey, but the reigning Jack A. Butterfield Trophy winner as playoff MVP was absent from practice today with an illness that has his status as day-to-day.
Should Shepard be unable to go by Saturday, Nelson has faith in his presumptive backup option in netminder Clay Stevenson, who appeared in three games for the Bears last season while spending the majority of the campaign with the ECHL's South Carolina Stingrays.
"[Stevenson's] getting better every day. [Associate goaltending coach Juha Lehtola] has been working with the goalies and Clay's here for a reason; he deserves to be here and he just has to refine his game. We have confidence in all our goalies. If Hunter's not healthy by Saturday, Clay gets the nod. We feel perfectly comfortable with that."
Written by Jesse Liebman, Bears media specialist.
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