Bears, Aces Pregame Thoughts

After falling in a shootout to the Danbury Mad Hatters on Sunday, the Brooklyn Aces will take on the struggling Hudson Valley Bears tonight at the Aviator Arena.

For Brooklyn, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Dealing with a multitude of injuries, the Brooklyn Aces fell apart over the last 2:58 of their last contest, giving up two goals and later losing in a shootout in a game that many feel the team should have won.

Headed in a completely different direction with nearly the polar opposite overall record, the Bears may have 25 games left to play this season entering tonight’s game, but make no mistake, they will be playing the role of the spoiler the rest of the way.

Sure, players the likes of Dan Malloy (5g-23a-28pts), John Geverd (7g-17a-24pts) and Scott Estey (10g-12a-22pts) are having good seasons and should be factors, but considering the fact that the Aces have six players on their roster [not including the departed James Brannigan] that have more points than the Bears’ top trio, it’s obvious that Hudson Valley will lose tonight’s game if it turns into a shootout.

With goaltender Len DiCostanzo called up to Bridgeport as well, Hudson Valley will be forced to use someone else in net. Using eight other goalies this season, all with GAA’s of over 4.00, the Bears have not been the recipient of quality goaltending to say the very least. That, combined with their lack of scoring depth make it extremely difficult for them to compete with the other teams in the league.

Things get even tougher for Hudson Valley when you think about the fact that Brooklyn have had three and a half days to think about their last loss and three and a half days for key players the likes of Kyle McCullough and Nick Grove to get healthy after dealing with nagging injuries. Tony Resendes may be even closer to his return after suffering an MCL injury on Dec. 18 and Mike Christensen, arguably the best two-way player in the league, is expected back after missing two games for personal reasons.

With those intangibles in play, the Hudson Valley Bears will have a very small margin for error tonight. However, if they get quality goaltending and the Aces can’t rebound after their worst three-minute effort of the season on Sunday, this game can become a hairy one.

Update- 6:10 P.M.

After being put on waivers by the Aces on Sunday [AOB was originally informed he was released] Josh Coyle has been picked up by the Bears, but won’t be in the lineup tonight.

Photos by Patrick Hickey Jr.

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