Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
Windfall. Springfield. Windfall once more.
That’s what the Hershey Bears are going through this weekend on their first prolonged street journey of the 2024-25 season. The swing via New England is one in all simply two three-in-three units for the Bears, however can be an early check for a membership that has performed deep into June every of the final two years.
Hershey’s bid for a Calder Cup three-peat opened with 5 video games in 9 nights, together with a two-game rematch in opposition to their Japanese Convention Finals foe from Cleveland and a two-game go to from Chicago. The Bears roster options 21 holdovers from final spring’s postseason run, a outstanding diploma of stability. Head coach Todd Nelson, who possesses 5 Calder Cup rings, is aware of fairly nicely that the method of re-engineering a championship-caliber group takes time.
“We’re attempting to protect in opposition to [any hangover] this 12 months,” Nelson mentioned. “However we’ve performed a variety of hockey the final couple of years. Not making excuses. We’ve got to make it possible for we’re prepared. As a training workers now we have to search out methods to inspire, to make it possible for they play 60 minutes.”
Even with a number of early hurdles, this 12 months’s group has earned Nelson’s religion. The busy house schedule out of the gates supplied an opportunity to check his group. The Monsters look formidable once more. The Wolves’ elite pace gave Hershey one other metric by which to measure itself.
Probably the most noticeable change to the Bears has been with their captaincy. Dylan McIlrath, who served as captain the final two seasons, seems to have secured a full-time function with the Washington Capitals. So this week Hershey appointed Aaron Ness as their new captain. The veteran of almost 750 video games is in his thirteenth AHL season and his seventh in Hershey, and garners ample respect in a dressing room already brimming with management.
Ness, who signed a contract extension to remain in Hershey via at the very least 2025-26, is aware of the group’s normal fairly nicely, and he was additionally beforehand a captain with Bridgeport in 2014-15. A part of the early work the Bears’ management group can be attempting to navigate the group via the primary third or so of this season. Any concept of a Calder Cup hangover by no means materialized final 12 months, because the Bears gained 18 of their first 22 video games after their 2023 championship and rolled to the second-best common season in AHL historical past.
“We simply have to search out methods,” mentioned Nelson. “The gamers must discover a approach to put together themselves and inspire themselves, and as coaches now we have to do the identical. But it surely does have a little bit of a special really feel. I’ve been on groups which have been via this and didn’t begin clicking till late November. However we’re going to must discover a approach to get going fast right here.”
The extreme back-and-forth emotional pull of a Calder Cup run could be a stark distinction to the quieter, extra refined, day-to-day challenges that include the common season. The Bears additionally know that, as soon as once more, they’re circled on each opponent’s schedule.
Stated Nelson, “We’re going to see everybody’s greatest sport, so now we have to be ready each night time to play.”
On the American Hockey League beat for 20 years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally presently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a daily contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
