File Photo.
Saturday night was Joel Rechlicz’s night to shine when he was forever immortalized by the Bears in bobblefist form. But things took a turn for the worse in the second period, leading to his benching.
In the middle of the second period, when the Bears were down 1-0, coach Mike Haviland sent Rechlicz out on the ice to try and stir things up. It sure looked like he wanted to go as he was already jostling with a winger on the Sharks before the puck even dropped, receiving a warning to stop it and calm down. Then once the puck was dropped he started pushing and shoving as if he had no concern for where the puck was at all. When the puck was cleared down to the other end, he skated viciously down to the other end like a man on a mission where he crashed the net, taking out a Worchester player on his way, and then proceeded to chirp, push, and shove each Sharks player on the ice before being escorted to the penalty box for a charging penalty. No more than a minute later, Matt Tennyson scored for the Sharks, putting them up 2-0. Haviland seemed to be displeased with what took place and benched Rechlicz for the entire third period. Every so often, Rechlicz would look at the scoreboard or lean over the boards as if he were itching to get onto the ice, however he never saw his time as he, unofficially, logged no ice time in the third. PennLive’s Tim Leone confirmed this.
@awallace39 Juggling too many balls to do TOI. But I don’t think so.
— Tim Leone (@timleone) December 22, 2013
Sadly, Rechlicz’s bobblefist night didn’t go as planned, and his woes didn’t stop there as he was a scratch for Sunday’s rematch when the Bears got revenge on the Sharks with a 4-0 win. Hopefully, Rechlicz will find his way back into the lineup but for now at least has has something to keep him occupied.
