Now the season’s movers and shakers move into action. The regular-season champion Providence Bruins will begin their postseason following a 13-day break. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins get down to work in an I-81 clash with their long-time rival, the Hershey Bears. For an Original Six feel, AHL-style, the Laval Rocket and Toronto Marlies will meet; it will be the first postseason battle between AHL affiliates of the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs since 2001.
Like Providence, the Grand Rapids Griffins have had a lengthy break. They finished second overall in the regular season. In the Pacific Division, the Ontario Reign face the Coachella Valley Firebirds in a Southern California battle. Two offensively dangerous clubs in the Colorado Eagles and Henderson Silver Knights will also face each other.
Let’s examine who is rising, holding, and falling among the remaining 16 Calder Cup Playoff teams.
Henderson Silver KnightsBill McDougall’s 1993 postseason run with the Cape Breton Oilers. McDougall produced an unfathomable 26-26-52 – AHL postseason records in all three categories – in only 16 games to lead the Oilers to the Calder Cup.
A run like that just does not happen in today’s AHL, a circuit much different from the run-and-gun product of the 1980s and 1990s. But Henderson forward Raphael Lavoie is not all that far off, however. Lavoie, who delivered 30 goals in just 45 regular-season games, added three more as the Silver Knights swept the San Jose Barracuda in their best-of-three opening-round series. Combining the regular season with the postseason so far, he has 24 goals in his past 26 contests.
Two key question marks arose when the Vegas Golden Knights recalled offensive dangers Braeden Bowman and Trevor Connelly following the Silver Knights’ opening-round victory. If they return in time for Friday’s Game 1, all will be well in Henderson. If they remain in the NHL, however, they would represent a significant loss for a team that has sliced through the league since the AHL All-Star break.
But even without Bowman and Connelly, this team still has Ben Hemmerling, Alexander Holtz, and Tanner Laczynski among others up front, plus a dangerous blue line that features Dylan Coghlan, Lukas Cormier, and Jeremy Davies.
Manitoba MooseAs much as any team in the Calder Cup Playoffs, the Moose really need a strong showing this spring.
The parent Winnipeg Jets had an extremely disappointing season that left them with all kinds of question marks before they scattered for the offseason. And for their part, the Moose went through their own struggles and doldrums for significant stretches of the season.
They took care of their first task against the Milwaukee Admirals, rebounding from a 4-1 loss in Game 1 to capture the series with back-to-back wins.
First-round picks Colby Barlow, Brad Lambert, and Brayden Yager are all in the Manitoba line-up for the postseason. All three need strong performances on both sides of the puck and to drive this team. The Moose will need all the contributions that they can find with a match-up against Grand Rapids ahead of them. And the Winnipeg organization, one that has so many offseason matters to handle, needs to see where some of these prospects really stand.
Toronto MarliesThe Marlies got through a somewhat dicey best-of-three series against the Rochester Americans.
But thanks to recalls, injuries, and trades this season, Rochester brought a rather depleted line-up into the postseason and still managed to give the Marlies a fair amount of trouble. Laval, a deep, dangerous opponent, will present a much more significant challenge for the Marlies. And much like in Winnipeg, there are many questions swirling around the NHL parent team in Toronto, where the Maple Leafs remain in the process of reconstructing their front office.
The Marlies know quite well the attention and focus that comes with playing in Toronto. They’ll have even more of it with the Leafs done for the season. Forward Easton Cowan is with the team for the Calder Cup Playoffs. He made some noise against Rochester, but the Marlies could certainly benefit from him taking on a more dominant presence.Wilkes-Barre/Scranton PenguinsCan the Pittsburgh Penguins pull off a first-round series comeback against the Philadelphia Flyers?
If so, that leaves Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at risk of player recalls should Pittsburgh need help in the second round. If not, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is good to go for the remainder of the Calder Cup Playoffs. Certainly head coach Kirk MacDonald and his players will go with whatever the team’s roster looks like. Still, every advantage adds up in the postseason.
Charlotte CheckersIt was an abrupt, severe end for the Checkers, last season’s Calder Cup finalist.
The Checkers found themselves having to fight their way out of the best-of-three round. They drew the Springfield Thunderbirds, a team bolstered by two key late additions in defenseman Theo Lindstein and forward Otto Stenberg. However, the Checkers had gotten eight players back from the Florida Panthers themselves.
It all started splendidly for Charlotte with an 8-1 victory in Game 1. But the Thunderbirds turned to goaltender Georgi Romanov in Game 2, took that game, and then dragged the Checkers into a deciding Game 3. Charlotte took a 1-0 lead into the third period only to see Springfield tie the game and then win the series in overtime on a goal from former Checker Julien Gauthier.
With the Panthers not qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Charlotte had a prime opportunity to make a significant playoff run. Instead their postseason lasted all of four nights.San Jose BarracudaThe Barracuda did something that any Henderson opponent is well advised not to do: they tried to match the Silver Knights goal for goal. For extra measure, they tempted the AHL’s top power play with ill-timed penalties.
They paid for those mistakes dearly, losing 5-4 in overtime in Game 1 before taking a 5-1 thrashing in the series-ending contest. The brief two-game series looked a lot like the stretch drive in which the Barracuda lost 10 of their final 12 games. That fall put them into sixth-place and a much more difficult with a potent team like Henderson.