The Brampton Beast will look to take a crucial three-game series against the Orlando Solar Bears (the Maple Leafs’ ECHL affiliate), beginning Thursday night at the Powerade Centre in Brampton.
Both teams are currently sitting at the bottom of the pack, with Brampton in fourth place in the ECHL’s North division with a 16-29-7-4 record to their credit. The Bears are sitting in the five spot after obtaining a record of 25-23-3-5 through 56 games.
A new look
To add to the build-up to tonight’s first of three games through the weekend, the Bears have adopted a new look in honour of their Maple Leafs and Marlies brethren.
.@ECHL‘s Orlando Solar Bears introduce @MapleLeafs-themed jerseys for upcoming series. MORE@ https://t.co/HAJ2roKZ0N pic.twitter.com/SkOExkDa74
— BarDown (@BarDown) March 9, 2016
The new jerseys look very nice, and pay tribute to Carleton The Bear (if he lost a few pounds and adopted a tough attitude.)
The Bears are vying to win against the GTA’s only pro team not owned by MLSE, and they’re coming in hot after winning two games against the Manchester Monarchs, the top-ranked team in the ECHL’s Eastern Conference.
Beast are doing fine as well
The Beast are coming into the series with momentum too, but for a different reason. News broke yesterday that the team had agreed to a new multi-year deal with the City of Brampton. General Manager Cary Kaplan said ina statement:
“Today marks a historic day for the Brampton Beast and the City of Brampton. Today the City has joined forces as a true and significant partner with the Brampton Beast and as a result, it solidifies the team’s standing in the ECHL.
We look forward to working directly with city staff to promote the many events and programs the City of Brampton produces that are so integral to the fabric of the community. We also are excited to proudly promote Brampton in our travels throughout North America and on the international hockey stage. The partnership also allows us to work with the City to offer many less fortunate families and children a chance at an unforgettable night out, most of whom would otherwise not have the opportunity.
We would like to formally acknowledge and thank Brampton City Council and City Staff for their tireless efforts in making this possible. This partnership also would not exist had it not been for the Beast’s fans and corporate partners, many of whom went out of their way to voice their support in recent days during this process.”
The bet
As a writer with both EOTP and PPP, I’m in a rough spot as our friends over at PPP suggested a friendly bet with us. Basically the way it works, is when the Beast win at least two of the three games against the Bears, they will put EOTP’s logo in their Twitter profile picture.
And should something go terribly wrong and the Bears win, we’ll do the same thing.
This is PPP we’re talking about here, and they haven’t had a winning team since the inception of the blog, but we’re still not too concerned.
Beast-Bears, it’ll be fun
The series gets underway tonight at the Powerade Centre in Brampton.
Full Schedule:
March 10, 2016 at 7:15 p.m.
March 11, 2015 at 7:15 p.m.
March 13 at 2:00 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased here.
Tickets Up For Grabs
We have a pair of tickets up for grabs for Sunday’s game in Brampton. If Sunday doesn’t work, we can arrange for tickets on Friday or Saturday. All you have to do is tell us why you prefer getting your daily dose of NHL news and analysis on here as opposed to PPP down in the comment section below.
The best answer as judged by EOTP staff will recive the tickets-
