So What Happens at Intermission, Anyway?

In the first period last night, the Hershey Bears played 20 minutes of aggressive, hard-hitting, first-class hockey. Several players who normally don't hit hard were banging Wilkes-Barre/Scranton against the boards with aplomb.

Then came the first intermission. The team that came out for the second period bore little similarity to the team that had started the game - a problem that has plagued the Bears all season. So, this begs the question: precisely what is happening during intermission? What is preventing the Bears from playing 60 minutes of good hockey in the same game so frequently?

I actually think this would be less difficult if the Bears were consistently mediocre... but the fact that we can see periods of excellence makes the mediocrity much more difficult to swallow. If they would play every period the way they played the first one last night, we would be in a much stronger position vis-a-vis the playoffs. The fact that they can't maintain a high level of intensity, however, is worrisome for our chances in the postseason.