Hershey Bears

The Capitals announced Monday that the eight-year affiliation between the team and the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays was coming to an end.  The team’s new ECHL affiliate will be the Reading Royals, located in Reading, Pennsylvania. 

The decision appears to be made mainly for geographical reasons, with the Capitals' AHL affiliate Hershey also located in Pennsylvania.  Caps GM George McPhee said in a recent press release that “We feel the proximity to both Washington and our AHL affiliate in Hershey will be beneficial to all three clubs.”

The Royals are a team with a rather passionate fan base, and have a history of ...

While Kevin Poulin has been enjoying his deserved Pou-LIN-sanity awards and rewards his partner between the pipes Anders Nilsson has gone quietly about his job setting records of his own. On Saturday night he tied the Bridgeport Sound Tigers record for consecutive wins by a tender blocking 26 of the 28 shots he faced in a win over the Adirondack Phantoms. The next afternoon he broke the record previously held by Nate Lawson recording his eighth straight win. In this win over the perennial powerhouse Hershey Bears he allowed only one of the 21 shots he faced to cross the line. Not giving up a goal in overtime he went on to stop all 5 shots he faced in the shoot-out.

Yesterdays game was a rare one o’clock matinee and after playing Sat. at 7pm, Sun. at 3pm Anders picked up the first AHL shut out of his career stopping all twenty-six shots sent his way by the Albany Devils. Team record nine wins in a row for this Swedish behemoth, who looks like a transformer when fully dressed.

The Checking Line Flyers Edition's own Daniel Gold was live on-site at the AHL Outdoor Classic game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia last Friday. The Adirondack Phantoms defeated the Hershey Bears, 4-3 in overtime.

Enjoy this up-close look at the action, and please check out Daniel's website!