Good Luck FREDDIE!!!

Freddie Cassivi signed a contract to play for the Sinupret Ice Tigers in Germany next season.

This is not a surprise as there is just no space on the roster for Freddie any longer.

Michal Neuvirth and Simeon Varlamov are 2 good young goalies that are ready to play professionally in North America. And they will get their chance this season.

On top of that Daren Machesney is still under contract, so the odd man out was Freddie.

Freddie has been great to the Bears and Hershey throughout his career and I wish him all the luck in Germany and I hope you have an incredible season next year.

This video was created as a tribute to Freddie by someone. Check it out. I couldn't have done it any better myself.

2 More Years!

The Bears and Capitals announced that they have agreed to a two year extension of their affiliation together. There is also an option for a third year.

That should put to rest thoughts of the Bears and Flyers reuniting as the Flyers will be looking for a team after next season if the Phantoms do not move and are disbanded.

That is not saying the Bears/Flyers will never be affiliated again but for the next 2-3 years, at least, they won't be.


Also, as part of the announcement, Coach Bob Woods and Assistant Coach Mark French will be back behind the Bears bench for at least the 08-09 season.

These are the only details that have so far been released. I will have more later on.

Sami gets game winner

Here is an update on some Bears and some former Bears in the world championships.

http://dumpnchase.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/sami-does-in-uncle-sam/


I will post whenever there is something to post about, which may be few and far between until July. I will try to find something every week though.

Good Luck Jason!

One player that I said on my previous post could be a member of the team and an important one at that is headed to play overseas.

Jason Morgan has signed a contract to play for Sodertalje SK of the Swedish Elite League. The contract is for the 2008-2009 season.

That news pretty much eliminates Morgan from the Bears plans for next season. Rumors on the forum say that he is going over there for "family reasons". Which probably means that he is looking to make more money. And he can surely do that over there.

I believe I speak for all Bears fans when I say,

Jason, good luck and you will be missed. Your leadership, timely goals, and physical play were important parts to the Bears season this year.

Other topics from the Forum that I wanted to address.

• Bob Woods' coaching ability. I know that we were spoiled these past 2 years with Bruce as the coach of the Bears but that does not mean that Woods can't coach or shouldn't be the coach. Much was said on the forum about his lack of emotion and how people think that they could do better. I completely disagree with most of that. Just because a guy is not emotional all the time does not mean he can't or shouldn't coach. Some people just handle things differently. You have to remember that there were many injuries, call ups, and roster moves this season that really messed with the roster. There was also a RIDICULOUS 9 game road stretch that really drained the team. But remember that he went 34-23-3-4 as head coach. NOT TOO BAD!!


• Affiliation debate. I can only say that the first 3 years under Washington have been phenomenal. 1 Calder Cup, 2 Calder Cup Finals appearances, and 3 Playoff appearances. A pretty solid 3 years if I do say so myself. I would like to see them continue the affiliation past next season but that is not up to me. Rumor has it the Bears want a 1 year deal while the Caps want a 4 year deal. Is that too go back to the Flyers after one season? I don't know but I know that so far the Caps have been good to us. And the future looks BRIGHT!


• Frederic Cassivi. I was hard on Freddie this year just like a lot of other people. But I never once forgot what he did for this team in his career. My argument with most people on Freddie was that I thought he shouldn't get special treatment because of what he HAD DONE IN PREVIOUS SEASONS. Daren Machesney earned his spot by winning while Freddie was up in Washington and in my opinion, Cheese was the better goalie throughout the season. But Freddie if you do end up playing elsewhere next year, possibly in Europe, good luck. You will definitely be missed and remembered. The team would not have gotten to where it got without you in net!

That's it for now. If anybody catches wind of anything that might be going down, let me know. I will continue to post whenever there is news on the Bears front through the offseason.