Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Captain named...and Final Cuts

I interrupt my preview posts to give you some important news...

Boyd Kane was named the captain for the 2011-12 Hershey Bears.  Kaner was the captain of the 05-06 team that won the Calder Cup as well as the 04-05 Philadelphia Phantoms team that won the Cup.

Seems like the logical choice.  A few other names that could have been looked at would have been Keith Aucoin, Chris Bourque, or Graham Mink.  They all have spent plenty of time in Hershey and the AHL. 

And as luck would have it those are your Alternate captains as well.  Aucoin will wear an A for every game while Bourque and Mink will split home/road games (Mink at home, Bourque on road). 


In other news...the Bears have made their final cuts and the opening night roster is completed.  You can check it out here if you want to.

Garrett Mitchell, Dustin Stevenson, and Paul Baier were sent to South Carolina today.  This move is kind of surprising to me.

This leaves the Bears with 24 players to practice with, which is good, but the ECHL season doesn't start until the 14th.  I would have thought you could keep Mitchell around for a week and let him get into a game to see what he can do early on.

Other than Mitchell I am not terribly surprised.  With Dmitry Orlov being sent to Hershey to start the season there was one extra defensive body than they needed. 

All of the players cut today will surely make an appearance in Hershey this season.  Injuries and recalls have a way of disrupting the roster consistency.


And now back to your previously scheduled previews.

In case you missed any of them....

Goaltending Preview
Defense Preview
Forwards Preview

East Division Preview (coming tomorrow morning)
Binghamton Game Preview (check for it Friday)

No comments: