Hershey. Globally known for the production of the world’s most famous chocolate products. Locally, it is known for hosting one of the most prominent minor league sports franchises in the United States.

The 2015-16 hockey season marks the 80th anniversary for the American Hockey League. The AHL hosts the Hershey Bears and is the top development league for the National Hockey League. The AHL has developed the talents of players, coaches, officials and executives since 1936. Today in the NHL, more than 80 percent of its total players are alumni of the AHL.

This current hockey season marks the 78th season of Hershey Bears Hockey. At the conclusion of the first half of this season, it has been once again been proven in attendance numbers that the Bears are the most cherished in the AHL. In 2006-07, the Bears finished the season first in AHL attendance with an average of 8,671 fans per game.

The franchise has never looked back and each year since has led the AHL attendance ranks with dedicated fans. The franchise currently enters the 2016 All-Star Break at the top in league attendance, with 9,436 fans per game in the 10,500 seat GIANT Center.

The tradition of winning and excellence for a development franchise continues to make the Bears unique. In sports, teams tend to fill banners in their respective arenas representing achievements. Many franchises hoist banners to celebrate division titles, conference championships, or, in the case of a fellow AHL member, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, a banner for an AHL record in single season sellouts.

For the Hershey Bears, 11 banners hang. Each represents a Calder Cup Championship, with the first dating back to 1947. No team in the 80-year-old league has won more Calder Cups than the Bears, who are the top affiliate of the NHL’s Washington Capitals.

The tradition of winning in Hershey has most recently resurfaced in 2005-06. A new affiliation between the Bears and the Washington Capitals added prospective youth and energy mixed in with a handful of league veterans. A Hershey championship in 2006 and finals appearance in 2007 led to the start of NHL careers for Tomáš Fleichman, Eric Fehr, Mike Green and Brooks Laich.

On Thanksgiving of 2007, Hershey Bears’ Head Coach Bruce Boudreau was named head coach of the Washington Capitals, bringing them from the bottom of the Eastern Conference in late November to a Stanley Cup Playoff appearance that spring.

Boudreau made the playoffs each year with Washington until his departure in 2011-12. Five days later, after being let go by the Capitals, he was hired by the Anaheim Ducks.

After a first round elimination for Hershey in the 2008 Calder Cup Playoffs, the Bears reloaded with more talented Capitals prospects mixed with experienced veterans. Hershey won back-to-back Calder Cups in 2009 and 2010, sending a handful of more talented players to the NHL: Michal Neuvirth, Semyon Varlamov, Mathieu Perreault, John Carlson, Karl Alzner and Jay Beagle.

In the present day, the Bears-Capitals affiliation is more than a decade old and perhaps the current product of Hershey Bears Hockey is the youngest the franchise has ever seen.

The Bears currently have three rookie defensemen on roster in Tyler Lewington, Madison Bowey and Christian Djoos, as well as rookie forwards in Travis Boyd, Riley Barber and Jakub Vrána. The average age of the six rookies is under 21 years old and they have contributed a combined total of 33 goals and 59 assists at the 2016 All-Star Break.

Bowey was selected 53rd overall in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft and won a gold medal for Team Canada in the 2015 World Juniors Championship. During the tournament, he led Canada’s top power play unit, which included future first overall pick at the 2015 Draft, Connor McDavid.

Barber, a native of Pittsburgh, won a gold medal in the 2013 addition of the same tournament during his college hockey career at Miami University of Ohio. Vrána was selected in the first round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, 13th overall by the Capitals.

In their sophomore years in Hershey are 21-year-old forward Chandler Stephenson, who made his NHL debut earlier this season and 21-year-old blue liner Connor Carrick. Carrick already has 37 games of NHL experience under his belt, including his first NHL goal.

The veterans mixed into the lineup are former Vancouver Canuck defenseman Ryan Stanton, former Pittsburgh Penguin Zach Sill, former Colorado Avalanche Paul Carey and 2010 Calder Cup Most Valuable Player with the Bears, Chris Bourque.

The most astonishing chapter of the 2015-16 Bears story occurred on Jan. 14, when two-time Stanley Cup Champion Scott Gomez signed a professional tryout with Hershey.

The 36-year-old Gomez was a first round pick of the New Jersey Devils in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, where he spent the majority of his 1,066 games in the NHL. Gomez was the recipient of the Calder Memorial Trophy for rookie of the year during the 1999-2000 campaign.

Jan. 16, 2016 marked the first career American Hockey League game for Scott Gomez in his 16th season of professional hockey.

Since joining the Bears, Gomez has produced a goal and eight assists in seven games, providing a plethora of veteran leadership to a youth-filled team.

At the 2016 All-Star Break, the Hershey Bears stand at second place in the eight-team Atlantic Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference.

Their record stands at 24-13-3-6 with a point percentage of .620.

The Bears are riding a current nine-game point streak, winning six, losing two in overtime and one in a shootout.

As the All-Star Break provides time to reflect on the season’s completed first half, it also provides the opportunity to reflect on previous seasons’ outcomes. Interestingly enough, in Hershey’s Calder-Cup-winning 2005-06 season, they finished the campaign second in the division, trailing only the Penguins.

The Bears’ shootout record at the end of the 2005-06 season was 4-10. At the end of January this season, the Bears’ shootout record is 2-6. Only time will tell of history will ultimately repeat itself, as it could potentially lead to a 12th Calder Cup Championship in the coming months.

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