“If you go down in the [arena] today, you’re sure of a big surpriseIf you [come in from Hershey] today, you’d better go in disguiseFor every bear that ever there wasWill gather there for certain becauseToday’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic”
–“Teddy Bear Picnic” Music 1907 JW Bratton, Lyrics 1932 Jimmy Kennedy
It’s Teddy Toss Night 2024 and for some reason Hershey is invited. The Phantoms look to rebound from a horrible loss on Wednesday night and finish off this home stand strong. Here’s what you need to know:
How Did We Get Here?
The Phantoms snapped a 4-game point streak with a resounding loss against the Rockford IceHogs Wednesday night in front of a mostly-empty arena. It was not a strong effort from the Hamilton Street Heroes, who didn’t realize they were in a hockey game until they were down 6-1 in the third. Could it be difficult to get up to play a team that you don’t normally see in a season? The Phantoms have been a good mid-week team, so that’s not really it. The Griffins were here earlier in the season and it was the same poor effort. I’m not sure what to make of it and I’m curious about how the team might play when they go out on their long road trip in January. At least Rockford wore nice jerseys and I was able to complain about the beer size for happy hour.
Records
Overall: 9-7-3-1 (4th Place By Win Pct.)
Home: 6-4-0-1
Away: 3-3-3
White Jerseys: 6-3
Orange Jerseys: 3-3-1
Black Jerseys: 0-1-2-1
Sunday 3/3: 0-0-0-1
Post-Game Event Day: 1-0
Fridays: 2-3-1
Saturdays: 4-3-1
Sundays: 0-0-0-1
Wednesdays: 3-1-1
Tuesday/Thursday: 0-0
October: 2-3-1-1
November: 7-3-2
December: 0-1
Players
Since Wednesday, F Sawyer Boulton and D Sam Sedley have returned to Reading. They must be getting pretty good at those roundabouts on 222.
Lines Wednesday night versus Rockford:
43 Eklind 22 Gardner 90 Richard
15 Lycksell 73 Rizzo 74 Wisdom
91 Desnoyers 56 Gaucher 27 Tuomaala
16 Avon 13 Furry 72 Gendron
19 McDonald 7 Belpedio
8 Gleason 5 Samson
37 Ginning 3 Grans
40 Petersen (31 Gahagen)
Scratches: 9 Sam Sedley 17 Garrett Wilson 18 Rodrigo Abols 20 Cooper Marody 32 Eetu Makiniemi 36 Sawyer Boulton 55 Xavier Bernard
Discussion: Rizzo still out there as a top-two centerman; we’re going to need to see some contribution on the score sheet. Don’t love some of the other combos there, but I suppose there are limits with Garrett Wilson still out, Marody absent, Bernard injured, and Abols out. With Sedley and Boulton headed back to Baseballtown, I would anticipate some of those guys are doing better now.
GAME DAY!
Yeah it’s the Teddy Day for this season. Sure to be big crowds and folks charged up to get that goal. Will it help the team beat the mighty Hershey squad? We’ll see; Hershey took losses to the Phantoms and to Wilkes last weekend so they might not come in all fat and happy. It will be interesting to see how many of their obnoxious fans are at this game. Last weekend, one of them couldn’t believe we do a Teddy Toss. They think they’re the only ones who do it. Will they show up with some bears to throw?
Teddy Goal History:
2014: Brett Hextall
2015: Andrew MacDonald
2016: Nic Aube-Kubel
2017: Matt Read
2018: Connor Bunnaman
2019: Chris Bigras
2021: Gerry Mayhew
2022: Cooper Marody
2023: Zayde Wisdom
The Phantoms currently lead the season series, 2-1-0; 1-1 on home ice. Hershey pounded Wilkes mid-week after their losing weekend last week, so perhaps a more docile browns team?
Main gates at 6:00PM, with season ticket premier members special entrances at 5:45PM. “Event time” is 7:05–and while the hockey will be a little later, it will be crowded and my best advice is to be in your seat early. We’ve also seen some early “bear goals” through the years, so don’t miss it.
Parking: Leave a little extra time tonight and consider pre-paying parking because this should be a crowded game. The parking overlords have been more controllable lately. The only recent issue was a gentleman recently trying to talk his way out of paying for parking–which I would absolutely do myself if I thought it would work.
Tickets: Good seats are still available on both the primary and secondary markets. They are going fast, though, so secure your tickets early, before heading downtown.
MEDIA KIT
OFFICIALS
Referee Alex Lepkowski (#44)
Referee Andrew Bell (#6)
Linesperson Chandler Yakimowicz (#60)
Linesperson J.P. Waleski (#14)
Scouting the Refs: Bell again tonight; we’ve had him several times. Those games pretty well officiated. Seems to let them play.
What To Watch
- Bad day at the office for Peterson Wednesday night, so look for him to get back on the horse tonight and have Gahagen take tomorrow in Hershey. Ersson is injured, so the two Russians, Kolosov and Fedotov, remain with the Flyers.
- Watch to see if Wilson can get back in there tonight. He’s not a huge goal scorer, but he is a presence and is the captain, so it would be good for him to be there. I’m a fan of Abols as well, so hopefully he’s back tonight, too.
- Watch them fly! I think most folks are on board with the toss, so I continue to think we’ll break our own records each year–as long as the attendance is OK and the Hershey fans don’t mess it up.
- Watch for better effort tonight. Our players know what they have to do to beat Hershey because they’ve done it before. Watch to see if we can play our game.
Up Next
Phantoms head out on the road for the next four. It’s the first of two Canada trips, as well. Tomorrow at 5PM in Hershey, then the odd Tuesday game up in Toronto, then drop down for Thursday and Saturday in Cleveland.
Three days off, then back here on Wednesday 12/18 for Providence. We’ll see then if they get “cup-gate” cleared up.
See you at the arena,
@Kram207