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Hershey Bears goalie Vitek Vanecek will rehab lower-body injury with ECHL Stingrays

After both he and netminder Pheonix Copley were both injured in training camp, goalie Vitek Vanecek will finally be back on the ice, but not for the Bears quite yet. Vanecek has been reassigned to Hershey’s ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays, for the time being so that he can continue to rehab his lower-body injury.

Vitek finished third amongst the AHL’s rookie goaltenders last season, going 18-10-7 for the Bears. Vanecek returned to the ice in Hershey alongside Copley for the first time Tuesday since he was injured, and was thrilled to be back practicing with his teammates.

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South Carolina Stingrays advance to ECHL Final for fifth time in franchise history

The Washington Capitals and their AHL affiliated Hershey Bears were both eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. But the organization still has one beacon of hope for a championship at the ECHL level this year.

Wednesday night, the South Carolina Stingrays defeated the Manchester Monarchs 4-3 to become the ECHL’s Eastern Conference Champions. They will play in the Kelly Cup Finals for the fifth time in team history.

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By Ian Oland On May 24, 2017 0 Comment

Caps ECHL affiliate South Carolina Stingrays will now look exactly like the Caps during Friday home games

If you’re in North Charleston for a South Carolina Stingrays game, you may do a double take when the home team skates out for warmups.

The Caps ECHL affiliate unveiled their new home alternates Monday and they are nearly exact replicas of of the Caps home sweaters. The only differences being the logo and those fugly jersey advertisements. According to the Stingrays, the Caps alternates will be worn at every home game that falls on a Friday for the rest of the season.

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By Chris Cerullo On December 19, 2016 0 Comment

Caps ECHL affiliate performs Mean Girls skit for holiday video

You guys, the South Carolina Stingrays released their holiday video and it’s so fetch.

Based off that one Mean Girls talent show skit, four Stingrays players — announced as Santa’s helpers — do a choreographed number (poorly). After accidentally crashing into their boombox and causing the song to skip, the foursome is forced to sing Jingle Bell Rock kinda in unison.

This definitely qualifies as being so bad it’s god.

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By Ian Oland On December 12, 2016 0 Comment

Ric Flair Watches Caps Affiliate Set ECHL Wins Record

The Nature Boy gives the Stingrays a “Wooo” before going out onto the ice. (Photo: @KevinLive5)

On Saturday night, the Caps-affiliated South Carolina Stingrays did something awesome. They won their 18th straight game, setting a new ECHL wins record. It’s the longest winning streak in the ECHL’s 27-year history. They defeated the Gwinnett Gladiators 6-0.

Even cooler: the rolex-wearing, diamond-ring wearing, kiss-stealing, limousine-riding, jet-flying son-of-a-gun, Ric Flair, was in the house to see it all.

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By Ian Oland On March 15, 2015 0 Comment

Caps Prospect Caleb Herbert Scores Hat Trick; Third Goal Goes Through Net Entirely (GIF)

Photo: SC Stingrays

Washington Capitals prospect Caleb Herbert scored his first professional hat trick on Saturday. A few days after getting reassigned to ECHL South Carolina from Hershey, Herbert netted three goals as the Stingrays beat the Greenville Road Warriors 4-2.

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On November 2, 2014 0 Comment

ECHL South Carolina Stingrays Sign Son of Longtime Capital Mike Ridley

Matt Ridley and Mike Ridley (Photos: Les Stockton and Washington Capitals)

We don’t usually report on ECHL transactions, but this is a special case. The Washington Capitals’ affiliate in the ECHL, the South Carolina Stingrays, have announced the signing of defenseman Matt Ridley. Matt is the son of longtime former Capital Mike Ridley, a Canadian center who spent ten years in Landover during two separate stints with the team.

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On September 30, 2014 0 Comment

Olie Kolzig on Braden Holtby, Dev Camp, and His New Job

Kolzig smiles during his first press conference in D.C. as a coach (Photo credit: Chris Gordon)

Last Thursday, the Capitals’ new associate goaltending coach Olie Kolzig joined Elliot Segal on DC101’s Elliot In The Morning. The former fan-favorite goalie spoke favorably about his new gig and dished out plenty of interesting information in the interview, including Phillipp Grubauer’s potential landing spot next season, Braden Holtby’s tough situation, his thoughts on free-agent signee Tomas Vokoun, and much, much more. Check it out below the jump!

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By Ian Oland On July 18, 2011 0 Comment

3 Russians In Rookie Camp: Kugryshev, Galiev & Nikita Kashirsky

Here's Nikita as a sophomore when he played for the Norwich Cadets.

Photo by David Albers of naplenews.com

Here at RMNB, we love to write a lot about Alex Ovechkin, Semyon Varlamov, Alex Semin, Dmitri Orlov, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Stanislav Galiev, and Dmitri Kugryshev (did I forget anyone?), but we’ve overlooked the 8th (and the least-known) Russian in the Caps system, Nikita Kashirsky. Now that he has been officially invited to rookie camp to form another awesome trio of Russians, we’ll fix that immediately.

Kashirsky, 24, is a Muscovite (just like me Ovi). As a kid, he started playing hockey at Dynamo and was a left winger. In the past, when Ovechkin was asked about who his favorite line-mates were at the Dynamo school, Kashirsky’s was one of the first names he always mentioned.

“We grew up together,” Kashirsky said of his relationship with The Great 8 in an interview with Corey Masisak last year. “We played in Dynamo since we were 8 years old. We’ve been friends since then, I guess. We became really good friends around the age of 14 or 15. Since then we’ve always been really close. We come to each other’s house, spend the weekends and stuff. We’ve been like brothers since that time.”

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On September 10, 2010 0 Comment

Braden Holtby, Superstitions & the Introduction of “Holtbyisms”

It's hard not to love Braden Holtby and his black-rimmed glasses. (Photo Katie Stansbery)

Two Sundays ago, I went to the Hershey Bears/Adirondack Phantoms game where the Bears’ AHL Record Home winning streak ended at 24. There’ll be more on RMNB’s collective bad luck later. But one thing I learned that night is that Braden Holtby is a wildly popular man. Beyond Bruce Boudreau, there is no more popular guy in Hershey. Need examples? Well, while the Bears PA guy announced the starting line-up before the game, there was a smattering of applause for the starting 5. When the PA guy announced Holtby in goal, everyone in the arena rose to their feet and gave him a roaring standing ovation. I turned to my friends in complete shock and asked “Did that really just happen??”

Oh, it most certainly did. And really, there’s a lot to love about the guy (beyond his superb fashion sense and his excellent communication skills with the bewildering Alexander Semin). Holtby has put up incredible numbers in his first professional season in the Capitals’ minor league system. Braden started the year with the South Carolina Stingrays going 7-2-3 with a .911 Save Percentage. He then rode the pine as an injury replacement player in Washington for two games before getting his first shot to stick in Hershey. And stick he did. Since receiving that promotion, Holtby has gone 23-6-2 with 2 Shutouts for the AHL’s most winningest team. His sparkling 2.36 GAA and above average .917 Save Percentage are among AHL Leaders. And really, what has the Chocolate and White fans talking is the fact that Holtby has single-handedly won games this year by himself – even with the incredible roster around him. That has many in Hershey thinking he could eventually push his way into the discussion of who deserves to be the goalie of the future in Washington between Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth.

But if you’re looking for a statistical dissertation of who’s better among those three (SEMYON VARLAMOV), you’ve come to the wrong place my friends. Instead, RMNB has found another reason to fall in love with the twenty year old from Saskatoon: His eccentric “Holtbyisms.”

Don’t know what we’re talking about? We’ll let Bears regular Kathryn Hedrick explain:

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By Ian Oland On March 30, 2010 0 Comment