Hershey Bears: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly 1/8/20

HERSHEY, Pennsylvania - The Hershey Bears (21-10-5) continue to roll through their schedule, making it 13 out of their last 14 with a win after another three-win weekend in the Atlantic Division. Entering a Wednesday night matchup against Hartford, the Bears have climbed all the way up to second in the division - and second in the Eastern Conference - behind the WolfPack, setting the stage for a clash between two top teams.

The Good

Anytime you can get three wins in three days, it’s a great week in the AHL. But a great week gets even better when all three of those wins come against Atlantic Division opponents.

Phil Maillet led the way with a six-point weekend that saw him record a goal and an assist in Hershey’s 6-2 victory Friday in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, an assist in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Bridgeport, and a goal in two assists in Sunday’s 4-2 victory over the Sound Tigers. Matt Moulson and Brian Pinho also had strong weeks for Hershey with Moulson recording a goal and four assists while Pinho scored three times and had an assist. In all, 14 of 22 skaters recorded at least one point, which is a recipe for success for Hershey.

“He found a combination, Sgarbossa said of Carbery. “Even the other lines seem to be thriving as well. Matty (Moulson) and Philly (Maillet) have played together before and you can see with Obi (O’Brien) they kind of have all facets of the game together and then the third line which is kind of the penalty killing line for us - they’ve been excellent throughout the year. And then our fourth line with Kess (Kessy) coming in and kind of policing it out there and making sure nothing happens to us, and then contributing too, he brings a lot of energy. That fourth line has been great as well. When you have four lines that are contributing in the way that they’re supposed to be you get results.”

The Bad

Saturday night’s performance was very un-Hershey-like. With both Hershey and Bridgeport coming off of road games Friday night and traveling back to Hershey for Saturday’s game, fans were treated to a rather ho-hum hockey game that saw both teams make uncharacteristic mistakes, but it was Hershey that would do just enough to earn the victory. With 50 seconds left in regulation, Joe Snively found Shane Gersich for the game-winner.

“Result wise we’ll take it,” said Spencer Carbery Saturday night. “We’ll take the two points but not much else from that game. It was sloppy. Uncharacteristic from us…We couldn’t string 2-3 passes together, we had odd-man rushes we could barely get the puck below the tops of the circles on odd-man rush situations where you’re trying to create a scoring chance, so the guys will be better tomorrow.”

The Ugly

Anytime a team loses a player to injury in the middle of a game, it can be bad, but it gets exponentially worse when you lose not just one, but three players, especially when two of them are on the top line. Such was the case for Hershey Sunday, their third game in three days time.

In the second period, Lucas Johansen left with an undisclosed injury, forcing the Bears to rotate five defensemen through the remainder of the game. To make things worse, Mike Sgarbossa was hip-checked into the sideboards and had to be helped off the ice and down the tunnel. He did not return. Moments later, Kyle Burroughs hit Joe Snively between the numbers, driving the rookie’s head and neck into the boards. The play could have been catastrophic. The fact that it only drew a two-minute minor could have stemmed from the ability of Snively to get off the ice on his own. Burroughs later received a two-game suspension from the league as a result of his actions.

“The tough ones are when guys are going in with quite a bit of speed to pick up a puck and they get that little push from behind,” said Carbery after the game. “Those are ones that obviously they’re trying to get out of the game and avoid guys going in head first like you saw with Snives and hopefully he’s alright.”

Carbs' Corner

On Pheonix Copley’s performance Saturday

There was a sequence there early in the 3rd. So there was one early right out of the gate first shift and then that sequence where it felt like there was 10, but I’m sure when we go back and watch the film there was (sic) three or four real big saves off bad puck management in our own end and they had us in a really bad spot there so he steps up to keep that game 1-1 and gives us a chance to win it late.

On the strong play of Copley and Sometimes these games, you don’t have business winning the game

So that’s what a goaltender can do, he can cover up for some mistakes and next thing you know instead of you losing a game 3-2, or 4-2, you win a game 2-1. Now the other thing it does is it gives players confidence, so when you’ve got someone who’s rock solid back there...our guys know that they can make a mistake, not that they want to, but they’re going to get a big save more times than not. And so now they’re going to go ok now we can recover from this instead of the opposite is oh gosh if we give one up  it’s going in the back of the net.

More on Saturday’s win

Eventually when you generate that possession in the offensive zone you’re going to have to turn it into something, that’s a puck getting there, that’s bodies getting there that’s a last play or somebody beating a guy off the wall or someone getting to inside ice and finding a puck or getting to the net where I thought we were just ok tonight.

On this month’s hectic schedule

This month is our most challenging month in terms of schedule and lack of practice time. We only have three basically regular practices throughout the month and some midweeks. We go to Charlotte which is a longer trip because there’s some travel days involved there and then the longer one right before the All-Star break going to Springfield and Providence and then the midweek game this week on Wednesday, so this is an important month for us as a team volume wise games wise, but also for our guys. I said it’s just a good chance to continue to build on your year if you got off to a great start, and you got 12 games in 20 days in three weeks, you can take it another step further. Or if you’ve been off to a slower start or just getting your feet wet, here’s a great opportunity in a three week span to play a bunch of hockey games and get caught up.