AHL Hershey Bears

Caps are in, Binghamton is out as Phantoms lead East Division Final

May 9, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


My humble apologies for starting the summer column a week (or two) late, but it's been an exciting and busy couple of weeks around here with the announcement of the new affiliation agreement with the Washington Capitals. As I'm sure most of you locally saw on television and in the newspapers, the two teams made it official on April 26 with a press conference at the HOTEL HERSHEY announcing the partnership agreement. The e-mail that I have received from fans has been extremely positive about the change. Washington was ranked fifth in the Hockey News' latest "Future Watch" based on the fact that the Capitals have stockpiled numerous draft picks and prospects the last couple of seasons. They also give the BEARS an advantage that hasn't been enjoyed in these parts in a decade: parent club proximity. A player could potentially play a Saturday afternoon game at the MCI Center and still be around for a Saturday night game at GIANT Center. Caps VP/GM George McPhee has stated that Washington looks forward to a successful relationship that will benefit everyone involved, which sounds very promising for the immediate future. If you didn't see it yet, the BEARS and Caps announced at the same time of the affiliation that the first 3,000 40-game season ticket holders for HERSHEY this season will receive a voucher good for two 100 level seats at a Capitals home game at the MCI Center in Washington. It's a nice step up to the plate for the Capitals to do that; the 100 level is the closest to the ice at MCI. Hopefully it's the beginning of a long and successful run for the Caps and BEARS.

Hey, one question for all of you? What happened to the Binghamton Senators? When we traveled to the southern tier for the last Saturday of the season, I thought we were looking at a potential Calder Cup champion. The Senators had the highest scoring forwards, a punishing defense and what I thought would have been enough goaltending with either Ray Emery or Billy Thompson. When they took a 2-0 lead on Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, I thought there was no way in the world that the Penguins would even take a game Well, they did. Four in a row to be exact to eliminate Binghamton and end the dreams of the faithful in Broome County after a season that produced an East Division championship. In a season where the NHL was locked out, Binghamton ultimately reproduced what their parent club in Ottawa has done for years: put together great teams that just couldn't win when it mattered most. Give credit to the Penguins, though. As much as they looked like they were fading through most of the second half of the season, they found a way to get in and play their best hockey when they had to. I do, however, think the end of the road is in sight for Michel Therrien and company. Philadelphia currently leads the Pens two games to one in the East Division final after dispatching the Norfolk Admirals four games to two.

As much as Binghamton falling in the first round was an upset, that's nothing compared to an upside-down Atlantic Division playoff. The Providence Bruins staged perhaps the biggest first round upset by knocking off the Manchester Monarchs four games to two after finishing fourth in the regular season. The Monarchs have yet to win a playoff series in their existence, and this was a Calder Cup Playoff that should have produced at least a couple for them. How did the P-Bruins do it? Defense and goaltending. Hannu Toivonen provided the effort that Providence needed in goal, while a defensive corp led by Kevin Dallman, Milan Jurcina and former BEARS d-man Brent Thompson held the high-flying Manchester offense to just 14 goals in six games. After spending last season in the Central Hockey League, Thompson has done a terrific job of captaining the Bruins into the second round. The other series in the Atlantic in my mind wasn't much of an upset, but third seeded Lowell finished off the second seeded Hartford Wolf Pack in the other Atlantic matchup. Lowell has a great mix of Calgary and Carolina guys that have a real chance to make a run for a title. With an offense that is led by Mike Zigomanis, Eric Staal and Chad Larose, I like Lowell's chances of moving on to the conference finals over Providence. The series is currently tied at one game apiece.

In the Western Conference, things are progressing along for the most part as expected, although Cincinnati's upset of Milwaukee in seven games did provide a little bit of spice. Chicago won handily over Houston in the West Division, while Rochester swept out Hamilton in four straight in the North. The saddest note of the first round was the defeat and subsequent extinction of the St. John's Maple Leafs. After a season that produced a club record in wins (46) and points (98), the Leafs were wiped from the AHL map last week when the Manitoba Moose won the series in five games. I was so glad that we had a chance to return to Newfoundland one more time late in the season (although the games didn't go the way we would have liked). The Leafs had a great group of fans that never had a chance to see a club hoist the Cup. When the AHL begins again this fall, it will do so without a team in the Canadian Maritimes for the first time since 1971-72.

If you're looking for a pick from me from the West for the Finals, I really like the Chicago Wolves. With all due respect to the Rochester Americans, I think the Wolves are the class of the conference, although a Chicago/Rochester conference final could be epic if the Amerks get by the Manitoba Moose. In the East, I really thought Binghamton would slice and dice their way to a conference championship, but now that they're on the golf course, it's pretty wide open. With the Senators gone, the Phantoms look even tougher to beat, but my darkhorse pick is the Lowell Lock Monsters.

My thanks to Howard Rosenson for sending me a story that appeared in Sunday's Windsor Star about head coach Paul Fixter. According to the story, the former BEARS bench boss is rumored to be the next coach of the OHL's Windsor Spitfires. Fix is a graduate of the University of Windsor, so it would be a homecoming of sorts for him. If Fixter is indeed the next coach of the Spitfires, it would set up an interesting matchup for HERSHEY fans in the OHL next season when Windsor meets the Sudbury Wolves. The Wolves are coached by former BEARS coach Mike Foligno.....stay tuned.

Before getting to some of your e-mails, I did want to chime in with the latest on our radio coverage for next season. We've been looking at a number of ways to improve our coverage in central Pennsylvania for next season, and I'll keep everyone in the loop here on the website as details become available. The folks at Clear Channel did a very nice job for us last season with the production of the broadcast, if we can take the coverage up a couple of notches in time for next season, we'll be in good shape.

For those new to the summer column, you can e-mail your questions to me at jwalton@hersheypa.com. A lot of you out there already know the drill, which is why for column number one of the off-season, we have plenty of questions and comments already:

John:

I'm really happy about the new affiliation. I'm a big Bears fan and also a Caps fan, so it couldn't be better for me. I don't know much about Portland's season last year, but I do know they didn't make the playoffs so it couldn't have been that good of a year. Do you think that's a problem for the Bears that the Caps didn't win in the AHL this past season? We listen on Penn Live here in College Park, keep up the good work.

Howie M.

College Park, MD

Howie, that's a great question with a pretty simple answer. Don't worry about the Pirates finishing fifth this season. Portland had no shortage of young talent in their lineup, the problem with the Pirates was a lack of veteran players that honestly didn't produce. The only veteran that made consistent contributions on offense was Brian Willsie, and he didn't join them until mid-season. The Caps make terrific sense for an affiliation for the next several seasons because of all of the draft picks they have accumulated. Caps GM George McPhee said recently on Washington's website that the Pirates were perhaps too young this season. That won't be a problem next year with Doug Yingst helping find vets to fill HERSHEY'S roster. Keep in mind too that division was wicked good. Manchester, Hartford, and Lowell were pretty tough to catch.

Hey John:

Having the Capitals in Hershey should help the Bears quite a bit. I don't think we got a lot of help from the Avalanche the last couple of years. Do you think Brian Willsie could be back in Hershey next season? What about Eric Perrin? Peter Budaj?

Amanda W.

Mechanicsburg

Willsie and Perrin are possibilities, but alas, Peter Budaj is not. I would expect to see Peter as one of the goaltenders for the Lowell Lock Monsters next season. Colorado is the new secondary affiliate behind Carolina there. If you want to see Peter next season, that's the game I would get tickets for if I were you.

John:

I heard you say on the air when the Bears were in Binghamton you thought they would win the Calder Cup. Guess that didn't work out for you very well. How did they lose to Wilkes-Barre?

Stan B.

Camp Hill

Yeah, rub it in why don't you? Seriously, I can't believe that the Sens went as quietly as they did the last four games in that series. All I can say is that as much as Wilkes-Barre struggled in February and March, they won against the BEARS when it mattered, and there still is a lot of talent on that Penguin roster. Andy Chiodo seems to rise to the occasion in the playoffs, he did it last season and he did it in the first round once he was given an opportunity to play again. Maybe the Penguins should have had him in net along instead of Fleury, but Marc-Andre is always going to get the benefit of the doubt since he's a former number one pick. In the series against the Phantoms, I don't think the goaler is going to matter much. Chiodo, Fleury, or even Tom Barrasso isn't going to deny the Phantoms a trip to the conference finals. I'm taking the Phantoms in six.

E-mail whatever you have, and you too might have your note in a future column. A final note: if you're looking for a hockey fix on the internet, here are a couple of good listens in our league. The Providence/Lowell series should be a great one, you can listen to either Corey Masse and Adam Alper on www.providencebruins.com, or Ryan Johnston, who does a great job on www.lockmonsters.com. There's always the veteran call of Don Stevens on www.amerks.com as Rochester battles Manitoba. The box scores and real-time scoring for all Calder Cup Playoff games are available at www.theahl.com. Enjoy the games this week, and we'll see you back here next Monday.

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