Connor McMichael was part of the first Hershey Bears team ever to do the now-famous ROAR celebration, created by two-time Calder Cup champion Mike Vecchione.
McMichael utilized the celebration throughout the 2022-23 season with the Bears, his last chance to do so coming in a Game 7 victory over the Coachella Valley Firebirds, which secured the 2023 title.
With the Capitals playing a very rare preseason game at Hershey’s Giant Center on Thursday night, McMichael was prepared to break the celebration out one last time. All he needed to do was dent the twine behind a Philadelphia Flyers goaltender.
“Today on the plane, I told the guys, ‘If I score, I’m going to bring out the roar one more time for old time’s sake,'” McMichael told RMNB’s Ian Oland.
The 24-year-old forward kept his word, going full grizzly mode after sniping home a shorthanded goal at the 1:07 mark of the third period. “I’m glad I got a chance to do it,” McMichael added.
McMichael was slotted on the Capitals’ second line in the game, skating between top prospect Andrew Cristall and Aliaksei Protas. He looked Protas off on the 2-on-1 chance to score the goal, shrugging apologetically towards the big Belarusian after going top shelf on goaltender Alexei Kolosov.
“I feel bad,” McMichael said postgame. “I just saw the goalie cheat a little bit, so I just shot it. I definitely apologized a couple times.”
The Capitals prevailed 5-1 over the Flyers at the end of regulation, with former Bears players factoring in on all five goals. The special opportunity to play in a place that holds a lot of good memories for McMichael was not lost on him.
McMichael, whose face was on Bears t-shirts being sold at Thursday’s game, played 90 career games for the Bears over the course of two seasons, recording 66 points (30g, 36a). He tallied another 10 playoff points (6g, 4a) in Hershey’s 2023 championship run.
“Yeah, [tonight] was special,” McMichael said. “I mean, right when I found out that this game was happening, I wanted to play in it. It’s something I had marked on the calendar all summer.”
McMichael is one of many major success stories to emerge from the historic Bears-Capitals partnership, which has yielded five Calder Cups and one Stanley Cup. The Ontario native broke out in the NHL last season, notching a career-best 57 points (26g, 31a) in 82 games with the Capitals.
Head coach Spencer Carbery plans to deploy McMichael at center this season, a role he first regularly played at the pro level when both men were part of the 2020-21 Bears.
The then-teenage McMichael led the Bears in scoring with 27 points (14g, 13a) in 33 games. Hershey would go on to win the AHL’s only trophy handed out that season, the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the league’s top regular-season team.
