On Frozen Blog

Tonight the Hershey Bears will visit the Norfolk Admirals in a pivotal game in the American Hockey League’s stretch run. The schedule and the game program will identify Norfolk’s opponent as Hershey, but the actual players wearing maroon sweaters will be recognized by few who’ve followed the Bears in recent seasons.
A staggering amount of injuries, departures, graduations, and NHL recalls have decimated the Bears’ roster this season — no fewer than 44 players have dressed for Doug Yingst’s embattled outfit since October’s opening night. Currently the Bears are in a fourth-place tie in the AHL’s East division with Binghamton, battling for their playoff lives, but given the HMO hell they’ve endured, it’s remarkable they have a shot at the postseason at all.
I didn’t quite believe the tally of triage when I heard it, so I had a Bears’ staffer recount the grim roll call for me via instant message this week. I still didn’t believe the claim, so I went to the AHL’s web site, and the Bears’ stats page won’t fit on my 80 gig IPod. Check out this trainer’s nightmare:
*Ben Clymer: lower body injury sustained in late February, “out for the foreseeable future.”
*Josef Boumedienne: Grade 1 shoulder separation sustained on March 14, broken wrist back in the autumn
*Sami Lepisto: Shelved by a knee in the autumn, returned to health and recalled by the Caps
*Dean Arsene: Sports hernia sugery last summer, prolonged recovery, only 15 games played before a bum back beset him
*Chris McAllister: lower body injury at present, shelved for two weeks so far
*Jamie Hunt: missed three weeks with wrist surgery, just returned to the lineup
*Sean Collins: concussion, missed two months-plus
*Eric Fehr: missed entire first half of season with back, hip ailment, now healed and recalled by Washington
*Ryan Flinn: broken wrist, out three weeks so far
*Andrew Gordon: sprained foot . . . from pre-game soccer tomfoolery, out two weeks, just returned
*Jay Beagle: concussion, missed nearly a month
*Andrew Joudrey: broken finger, missed approximately two weeks
*Scott Barney: hurt ankle just this past Sunday, status uncertain
Things got so bad on the Bears’ blueline that General Manager Doug Yingst was forced to deal one of his top scorers, Grant Potulny, to Springfield for Dany Syvret. Stephen Werner was loaned to Springfield for the now injured Flinn. Consider, too, that Jacub Klepis bolted for Europe, and Jame Pollock departed for Russia before autumn leaves were fully fallen. And you had an enormous number of successful graduations and recalls to the parent Caps.
And there was as well a mid-season coaching change you may have heard about.
Hershey has seen two extraordinary coaching performances behind its bench the past three seasons, ever since Bruce Boudreau and Bob Woods arrived in town.