December 19

Sunday afternoon: talked to Mazi via the Internet, she was in Maryland at a friend's house. She had planned to be back in time to join us for the AHL game in Hershey but she said she was feeling awful and wasn't up to traveling. Jamie Burkholder was going with us anyway so he used Mazi's seat instead of buying one at the arena. The visiting club in Hershey on this occasion was the Charlotte Checkers, a first-year AHL franchise but a familiar name to ECHL fans. The Checkers played in the "E" from 1993 through last season, over the summer the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes moved its AHL affiliate to Charlotte and retained the traditional nickname. Charlotte has a long history in hockey dating back to the 1950s in different leagues, just about all of the teams have been known as the Checkers. Hershey won the game 6-3, we'll be there again on Sunday the 26th. The Royals finished a road swing on Sunday night with a win in Wheeling, they played four games and went 3-1. The boys play again in Trenton on the 26th, we're back home on the 28th against the Florida Everblades. Take care, thanks for reading.