There's nothing quite like the first day of training camp. Especially for the defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears.
Anywhere you looked throughout the locker room, you could find players - both returning and new players alike - and find smiles, a sign of a group of athletes eager to compete for a roster spot, and a chance to help write the next chapter in the story of the most decorated franchise in the American Hockey League.
The Bears opened the 2024 edition of training camp on Monday morning with a group of 42 skaters - the largest that anyone can recall in recent memory.
It's certainly the largest roster that defenseman Aaron Ness - now heading into his seventh season with the club across two stints - can recall for an AHL camp.
"I don't think I've ever seen this many numbers, it's great. I think there's a lot of competition. There's a lot of good hockey players out there now, right?
"I think the biggest thing you see, the longer you play here, is how many guys can play and there's a lot of timing that goes into it, and playing well at the right time, and getting that opportunity. And when you do, you show [the coaches] what you can do. So I think a lot of guys have that mindset and competition's always a good thing. So it's pushing guys to their limits, and it's only going to help the guy next to you."
Monday's opening practice session entailed the present roster being split into two groups, with an intrasquad scrimmage taking place between each group's individual practice times.
No easy task for Bears head coach Todd Nelson and his staff.
"It's a bigger camp than normal. For us, there's going to be a lot of scrimmaging, seeing guys play in game situations," Nelson said.
Having this many bodies in camp isn't necessarily a bad thing, however. After all, the Bears couldn't have done what they did last year in the playoffs without their depth.
"We have a lot of the same guys back, so we should have a good hockey club, and we added some nice additions. Nelson said. "We're having a very competitive camp, so we're all excited to get things rolling, but I think the guys are in the right place in their heads right now."
For the returning players, the flood of memories of what took place here at GIANT Center in late June and the prospect of what's ahead is a great motivator.
"There's really nothing like it. A lot of memories running back right away when you get in. But yeah, Day One of training camp, now it's back to work," Ness said. "It's about getting ready to get it ramped up again and getting ready to go for that first game of the season."
Veteran forward Mike Vecchione, back for his fourth season in the Chocolate and White, couldn't help but flash a thousand-watt smile when he stepped to the podium to address the media following the scrimmage.
"Obviously a new season, but it's the same type of energy and atmosphere. I think everyone was anxious to get back at it and play and see each other - it's just been a lot of fun so far," Vecchione said. "I'm happy to be back; a lot of guys are just ready to get going.
"We have a lot of guys in that locker room - depth's going to be a huge factor again like it was last year. It's [about] getting after it now, getting the systems down, getting everyone kind of meshing with lines, chemistry, finding that continuity together, and then hopefully we can be rolling for Game One."
Vecchione has been here before. It was around this time last year that the defending champions were preparing for the rest of the AHL to take aim and attempt to knock the Bears off their throne following the 2023 Calder Cup victory, secured by his Cup-clinching goal in overtime of Game 7 of the finals. The opening night shutout loss to Belleville after raising Banner No. 12 still comes to mind, as well as how the team eventually came together and went on to dominate a regular season that culminated in a franchise-record points percentage (.771) and a successful title defense in the playoffs.
"We kind of had a slow start last year, not winning the first one with banner night, but after that we started to get our feet under us, started rolling, started finding some line combinations that worked, and we were able to go on some nine game winning streaks or point streaks," Vecchione said. "Our goal is to start off hot like we did last year and settle in fast, but [there's] a lot of new guys, a lot of new faces so it's gonna be tough. But that's our goal right now, just take it one day at a time."
There of course will be new faces, among them a handful of rookie prospects within the parent Washington Capitals organization, as well as several veterans that Washington and the Bears went out and pursued in free agency. Experienced forwards Spencer Smallman and Luke Philp are expected to replace some of the offense lost with the departures of Joe Snively and Jimmy Huntington, while the hope is Brad Hunt - a veteran defenseman with over 13 seasons in pro hockey under his belt, including 288 NHL games - will provide an offensive boost to the blue line.
At 36, Hunt will be one of the elder statesmen on the team. The allure of reuniting with Nelson, after previously playing for him for parts of two seasons a decade ago with the Oklahoma City Barons, was especially tantalizing.
"You find out really quick about how things work around here, and it's winning," Hunt said. "I've known Nelly for a long time and he's a big reason why I really wanted to come back. I mean, I love him. He's such a great guy and I loved playing for him when I was in Oklahoma City, and he's someone that I've always stayed in contact with throughout the years.
"As soon as you walk in the door here, you see the history that has been here. And like I said, the expectations are so far and above that it makes you a better person and a better player. And I think that's what we all strive to be, is to be better every single day. And if you don't want to get better, then I think you should move on to something else. But when you walk in this rink, you know that it's time to work, and it's time to make yourself better and make your teammates better."
It's hard to argue with that kind of endorsement. But just for the record, Nelson enters the season with 406 career AHL head coaching wins (good for eighth in league history), three Calder Cup championships as a head coach (including the last two with Hershey), and a franchise-leading .722 win percentage as head coach of the Bears.
While the Bears may have some new players in the lineup, Hershey's head coach is finely attuned to his good fortune, in that the entirety of his coaching staff - assistant coaches Nick Bootland and Patrick Wellar, associate goaltending coach Juha Lehtola, video coach Adam Purner, and strength and conditioning coach Kurtis Freter are all back - as well as the training and equipment staff, are all back for another tour of duty together in the Sweetest Place on Earth.
"It doesn't happen very often, especially when you have success. I thought for sure after last year that I might lose one of my assistant coaches; that didn't happen," Nelson said. "It's a better situation than normal because our staff's intact and we have a lot of returning players. So for us to implement systems, that should be quick."
Nelson, however, did acknowledge that his staff is going to have to remain vigilant at all times, conceding that at one point in today's practice a returning player had failed to properly execute a drill they had completed correctly numerous times throughout last season.
"We've got to make sure we get the guys focused and work on the details and execution of our practices, and I think that'll come quicker because the guys have been through it," Nelson said. "We were still playing just three months ago, which is kind of wild. So it should happen quicker for our hockey team this year.
"Once we get down the numbers, we'll get our system work locked down, and from there we've just got to start teaching as coaches and make sure we focus on the details. Don't let things slide; we don't want our guys to be complacent. You know, we won two Cups, back to back here - well, our goal is to win a Cup again this year. That's the expectation here. I said it in the [team] meeting last night. Make no bones about it: we're going after another one and that's our goal.
The staff continuity is not lost on the players.
"Obviously Nelly's a winner - if you look at anywhere he's been, he's won. So just to have that pedigree in our room and leading us, it's so huge," said forward Matt Strome, entering his third season with the Bears. "And now that the assistant coaches have won in back-to-back years [too] and most of the [support staff] have won back-to-back years. We know what the recipe is here and we've just got to execute that. And it started today."
Written by Jesse Liebman, Hershey Bears media specialist.
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