HERSHEY, Pa. – Twenty years ago, the Washington Capitals went back to the Hershey Bears as their top affiliate. It was the first time the Caps affiliated with the Bears since the 1980s. Meanwhile, Hershey had stints as the AHL farm club for the Philadelphia Flyer (1984-1995) and then the Colorado Avalanche.
It has been the most successful pairing in recent memory.
The Bears have won five Calder Cup titles since they restored their Hershey affiliation in 2005. Additionally, they appeared in two other Calder Cup finals.
Up top, the Capitals won their first and only Stanley Cup in 2018. Meanwhile, the team also won three President’s Trophies for the league’s top regular-season club.
On Thursday, the Capitals paid a visit to Chocolate Town to play a preseason game at the Giant Center. It was their first visit since 2006. The Capitals area’s other regional NHL franchise, Philadelphia.
Capital One Arena underwent renovated this summer. Consequently, the Capitals seized the chance to host a game in Hershey.
.Thursday’exhibition games marked the first Caps’ game in 19 years at the home of their top affiliate. Giant Center boasts a 10,500-seating capacity. The building is probably as close to the NHL you can get without actually being in the league.
Hershey Alumni Glad to Return
Instead of a typical low-volume preseason game in an NHL arena, the Bears alumni embraced the Hershey trip. The game roster heavily featured AHL players. Nevertheless, the players who have patrolled the Giant Center ice were excited to come back in a Capitals sweater. They weren’t shy about mentioning their eagerness to play in Washington’s second preseason contest.
The Giant Center fans also did not disappoint. They filled the barn for a 5-1 Washington win. In a game that players and coaches looked forward to all summer, the energy ran high. The crowd atmosphere felt more like a Bears playoff game. Otherwise, it was a normal veteran-thin exhibition game in late September.
“It was special,” Vincent Iorio said afterwards.
“Right when I found out this game was happening, I wanted to play in it. It’s something I marked on the calendar all summer. It was a lot of fun.”
Iorio has spent three seasons in Hershey . He won a pair of Calder Cup rings
Caps head coach Spencer Carbery spent three seasons in Hershey. While there, he won the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the league’s top coach in 2021. He couldn’t contain his grin about returning behind Hershey’s bench for the game.
“It was amazing to come back here,” he said afterwards.
“To walk out to a full building … Even driving in on the bus today, I had some goosebumps pulling up and walking into this building. … I know it’s an exhibition game. But this game meant a little bit more for a lot of the guys in the locker room.”
Enthusiastic crowd at Giant Center
The players also fed off the crowd. The Bears fans regularly fill the building during the AHL season. They were clearly excited to see the NHL return after a 19-year-absence. Moreover, they saw some familiar faces in a different colored uniform.
“It was unbelievable,” Andrew Cristall said afterwards.
“I was saying it’s only preseason. After scoring the first goal, I wasn’t planning on [celebrating]. But after the big roar, I figured I would give them something. I was pretty excited. I heard it was going to be a packed barn, so I was pretty fired up to play. We brought it for over 60 minutes. The crowd definitely helped us.”
What has been the secret for the successful pairing for two decades?
Well, for one thing, the Capitals allow the Bears to add plenty of veterans to their roster to make the team competitive year after year, using the philosophy that winning at the American League level will carry over for those who end up playing in Washington.
Hershey makes winning a top priority
The Bears put a premium on winning – something not necessarily shared by all NHL clubs for their AHL affiliates – and even though the Capitals don’t own the Bears like a majority of AHL teams being owned by the parent club, Washington is willing to bring in players to keep the team in Calder Cup contention for their younger players to experience playoff runs and used to the grind of postseason hockey.
None of the championship banners hanging above the ice at Giant Center denote division or conference titles, just Calder Cup wins – an AHL record 13. The Bears are also the longest-running AHL team playing in the same city, having called the town just east of Harrisburg home since 1938, a run longer in the United States than all but four of the Original Six NHL franchises in Boston, Chicago, Detroit and New York.
That winning rubs off on the players, as even though it’s not the NHL, having success at the AHL level translates to the big club.
“I’ve had three incredible years here,” Iorio said. “I have a lot of really good memories, and a lot of the guys I’ve played with in Hershey, we had a lot of fun walking into the room. They’re all very passionate and that’s why this place is such an amazing area and place to play.”
It’s notable that of the Capitals that were on the ice for the team’s Stanley Cup clincher in Las Vegas in 2018, three – including mainstays John Carlson and Braden Holtby, along with Jay Beagle – were part of the 2009 and 2010 Hershey Calder Cup championship rosters. Three more, Chandler Stephenson, Jakub Vrana and Christian Djoos were part of the 2016 Bears team that lost to Lake Erie in the Calder Finals.
Hershey Alumni: On the ice, the booth, and behind the bench
Nearly half of Washington’s roster that skated for Washington in the preseason game won a Calder Cup ring with the Bears, with nine skaters having been part of one of the 2023 or 2024 teams.
Carbery, who won the Jack Adams Award winner last season for guiding Washington to the top of the Eastern standings, also plied his trade in Chocolatetown, winning the Kilpatrick Trophy in 2021 when he led Hershey to the top points percentage in his final season with the Bears – and a club that could have won the Calder Cup had the playoffs been held in the season after COVID.
Even Washington’s radio play-by-play man, John Walton, got to call not only three Calder Cups in Hershey in 2006, 2009 and 2011, but also the Capitals’ Stanley Cup win in 2018.
The Bears and Capitals have been affiliated for more than half of Washington’s history, with the first affiliation starting in 1977 and lasting til 1984, with the Bears winning the 1980 title in the first year with having Washington as the sole parent club.
After stops in Binghamton, Baltimore and Portland, the Capitals returned to the Pennsylvania town in 2005, and instantly hit it off, winning the Calder Cup in the first season back in 2006, then another trip to the final the year after in 2007, fueled by some of Washington’s top picks used in their post-lockout rebuild.
Two more Calder Cups came in 2009 and 2010 and another finals appearance in 2016, and after a replenishing of the team’s draft stock after Washington’s Stanley Cup, the Bears won two more Calder Cups in 2023 and 2024, with Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas, Hendrix Lapierre and Ivan Miroshnichenko part of those two title teams.
Fond memories – and a new one to add
“It was fun,” McMichael said afterwards. “There’s that smell you just know you’re in Hershey at the Giant Center, so I felt it right away, it always brings back a lot of good memories. … I’m glad we were able to play a good game for them.”
“Wow, what can you say?” goaltender Clay Stevenson said afterwards. ‘We’ve made so many memories here and so many friends. it’s honestly pretty special to put the Capitals uniform and play here … It feels like home to me.”
So while the Capitals and Bears celebrate 20 years as current partners, they also remain one of the success stories of how an NHL-AHL partnership driven by success at both levels can be beneficial, and produce hardware for both clubs as well.
Asked about the strength of the affiliation, Carbery answered the strong connection between the two clubs and quality personnel in both organizations.
“I think it’s just the people. The people that run these organizations are just quality people. … They’re really good at what they do, but also have an appreciation for quality people. They care about the Hershey Bears, and in return the Hershey Bears care a lot about the Washington Capitals.
“In my opinion, and I think there a lot of strong facts to back this up, it’s the best affiliation in the NHL and the AHL.”
