Sports stats



AHL Hershey Bears

Panthers to Rochester, Training camp right around the corner

September 6, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The only team in the NHL not to have an AHL affiliate took care of business last week when the Florida Panthers inked an agreement to place players in Rochester this season. The deal will give the Amerks between eight and ten players from Florida in 2004-05, and an article by Kevin Oklobzija in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle detailed both the potential pros and cons of the new relationship. Both coaches, Randy Cunneyworth and Doug Houda, still fall under the flag of the Buffalo Sabres, but now have to manage eight to ten players from down south as well as their own. Oklobzija writes that the Sabres were more or less forced to find creative options to fill the roster when they found a lack of quality players on the free-agent market to make Rochester competitive. The paper also says that one of the players in the deal with Florida will be former Phantom goaltender Jean-Marc Pelletier.

Back here at home, a notice to all season ticket holders starts us off today. Today and for the rest of this week, you have the opportunity to purchase additional tickets for the upcoming season before the general on-sale to the public. For those of you new to the season ticket holder family, that means that if there are single games that you wish to purchase extra tickets for, you have to take care of business this week. The full single game ticket on-sale to the general public is next Monday, September 12.

The player movement has slowed considerably now that training camp at the NHL level is drawing closer. There were still several moves of interest last week, however. Defenseman Brad Tiley, who enjoyed an All-Star season last year with the Milwaukee Admirals, signed a deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Along with being a depth player for the defending Stanley Cup Champions, Tiley also figures to be a lead-pipe lock to be the captain of the Springfield Falcons this season. He was the captain of the Canadian AHL All-Star team last February, and scored eight goals and 17 assists in 2004-05. Tiley returns to Springfield after stints with both the Admirals and Philadelphia Phantoms.

The Bridgeport Sound Tigers have two of their top players from last season back this fall. Forwards Rob Collins and Kevin Colley are back in southern Connecticut to help lead the Sound Tigers. Collins was arguably Bridgeport's best player in 2004-05, scoring 23 goals and piling up 63 points in an otherwise forgettable Sound Tiger campaign. A former Hobey Baker finalist from his college days at Ferris State, Collins also has played in the AHL with the Grand Rapids Griffins. Colley, good two-way forward that plays with some grit, has 334 penalty minutes in 137 games in a Bridgeport uniform.

If you're looking to get a jump start on training camp, the Capitals will hold open to the public sessions beginning next Tuesday at Piney Orchard Ice Arena in Odenton, Maryland. The first on-ice session begins at 9:00 a.m. As you may have seen on Washington's website, the Caps will also have three days of on-ice camp here in HERSHEY on September 25, 26 and 27 here at GIANT Center. The BEARS officially open camp on Thursday, September 22. All training camp practices are free and open to the public. A reminder that the Caps play Pittsburgh here on Sunday, September 25 at GIANT Center, so if you haven't gotten your tickets for that yet, now would be a good time. A lot of you have e-mailed about when rosters for both teams will be known for the game here. The answer to that question is probably just a day or two beforehand. I would expect given the closeness to the start of the season that most of the regulars will be in for both teams, but probably not all of them. The one I'm hoping to see is Sidney Crosby for Pittsburgh, of course, but a retooled Penguins team plus a chance of seeing Alexander Ovechkin is more than enough to get me excited for the game. Tickets are available for the game by calling (717) 534-3911.

For the first time in a long time, the mailbag is pretty light this week. I'm going to hold off on e-mail until next week, which will be the LAST summer column of the year. After a break for the start of training camp, we'll begin our official team releases on Monday, October 3. Keep an eye out between now and then for all the latest press releases and information here at www.HersheyBears.com, and we'll have one more summer installment here next week.

Check out the Hershey Bears Statistics

• Discuss this story on the American Hockey League message board...

American Hockey League Stories from September 6, 2005


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central