AHL WEEKEND: Marlies begin repeat Calder Cup bid amid plenty of competition

The first weekend of the Calder Cup Playoffs has arrived in the AHL.

Among the storylines are the Toronto Marlies attempting repeat as the AHL champion, the Charlotte Checkers starting as a strong playoff favorite, and 16 prospect-filled teams competing to play deep into June and skate the Calder Cup.

PLAYOFF TIME IN TORONTO

It has been nine years since an NHL organization won back-to-back Calder Cup championships, and this spring the Toronto Marlies will try to stop that drought.

Last year the Marlies capped a 112-point regular season by going seven games with the stubborn Texas Stars before finally taking the Calder Cup. They will attempt to repeat as the Calder Cup champion when they start their first-round best-of-five playoff series on Friday night against the Rochester Americans. Affiliated with the Washington Capitals, the Hershey Bears won the back-to-back Calder Cups in 2009 and 2010.

The Marlies’ 2018 Calder Cup championship was the first for the Leafs organization since the New Brunswick Hawks conquered the AHL in 1982. That was in a dual affiliation with the Chicago Blackhawks, however.

Repeat Calder Cup champions have been rare in the past 40-plus years. Before Hershey, the Springfield Indians had been the last AHL team to win the Calder Cup in consecutive seasons. They did that in 1990 and 1991, albeit with two different NHL affiliations (the New York Islanders and Hartford Whalers). One then has to reach back to the disco era when the Maine Mariners (Philadelphia Flyers) repeated as the AHL champion in 1978 and 1979. Immediately before that, the Nova Scotia Voyageurs (Montreal Canadiens) took consecutive championships in 1976 and 1977. The Montreal-Nova Scotia affiliation in its 1970s heyday helped to fuel the star Canadiens clubs of that decade and featured Larry Robinson, Yvon Lambert, Pierre Mondou, and Guy Chouinard among its alumni.

That was a very different era in pro hockey, however. Thanks in part to NHL and WHA expansion and competition from other minor-pro circuits, the AHL had fallen to six teams by 1976. The AHL started its long climb back and had grown to nine clubs by the time the Mariners first skated the Calder Cup in 1978.

Now these Marlies skate in a 31-team league full of modern facilities and lucrative contracts. It is one that reaches from Quebec to Southern California and is on track to increase to 32 teams when the new Seattle NHL expansion franchise places its affiliate in the AHL in 2021. The AHL postseason of the late-1970s only had three playoff rounds, needing only a month to wrap up by mid-May. Nova Scotia’s 1977 championship featured a two-round, four-team playoff field and finished on the final day of April that year. Last year in a 16-team playoff field, the Marlies’ four-round playoff campaign lasted 55 days and stretched until June 14th.

That Marlies roster graduated several players to the Toronto Maple Leafs, including forward Andreas Johnsson, who won the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the most valuable player in the Calder Cup Playoffs after a 10-14-24 performance. Frederik Gauthier, Travis Dermott, Justin Holl, Martin Marincin, and Garret Sparks also earned roster spots with the Leafs this season. Calle Rosen and Trevor Moore are very close to full-time roles (Moore is already in the line-up for the Leafs in this spring’s Stanley Cup Playoffs). Carl Grundström is a solid bet to land a full-time job with the Los Angeles Kings next season after a midseason trade there. Top prospects Timothy Liljegren and Jeremy Bracco (who played four playoff games before finishing second in AHL regular-season scoring in 2018-19) also had spots on that Calder Cup-winning roster, and there are more candidates who could eventually break through for NHL opportunities with the Leafs or elsewhere.

Unlike last season, however, the Marlies do not enter the postseason as the Calder Cup favorite this year. Instead that belongs to the 51-17-7-1 Charlotte Checkers, who won the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the regular-season champion after a 110-point finish. Charlotte will meet the Providence Bruins in a first-round match-up.

Rochester finished second in the North Division yet third overall in the AHL at 99 points on a 46-23-5-2 record. The Marlies’ 39-24-9-4 mark landed them third in the North Division with 91 points. This is the third-ever Marlies-Amerks playoff series. The Marlies took out Rochester in first-round sweeps in 2012 and 2013 (Rochester also won a first-round series in seven games in 1984 against the Leafs’ former AHL affiliate, the St. Catharines Saints).

With Toronto hockey fans already invested in the Leafs-Boston Bruins first-round series, Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe is ready for another playoff run with his Marlies.

“It’s that time of year,” Keefe told MarliesTV. “No matter who you’re playing, you’re going to be playing against a good hockey team. With the team we’re playing, even more so. You’ve got to be great in all of your details.”

Marlies defenseman Vincent LoVerde has been down this path before. He first won the Calder Cup in the Los Angeles organization in 2015 before last season’s championship in Toronto. He also went to the Western Conference final with the Ontario Reign in 2016.

“I think that execution off the start is a huge factor,” LoVerde said to MarliesTV earlier this week. “We’re pretty familiar with Rochester, as they are with us. I just think that our execution has to be good from the drop of the puck.”

One wrinkle for the Marlies will be in net, where Michael Hutchinson was recalled to the Leafs earlier this month after Sparks had struggled. That turned the Marlies’ number-one job over to 25-year-old Kasimir Kaskisuo. Part of a changing cast of Marlies goaltenders in the first half, Kaskisuo and Hutchinson eventually settled in as the team’s goaltending tandem. Kaskisuo led all Marlies goaltenders with 30 games and finished 12-9-5 | 3.07 | .896.

Kaskisuo will be up against a Rochester offense that tied for sixth in the AHL at 3.34 goals per game, but he finished the regular season strong. In his final five regular-season appearance, he had a .951 save percentage.

THE MATCH-UPS

Along with Marlies-Rochester and Charlotte-Providence, there are two other Eastern Conference first-round series.

Three days after the Columbus Blue Jackets shocked the Tampa Bay Lightning with a four-game sweep in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, their AHL affiliates will go head-to-head. The Syracuse Crunch will have defenseman Cameron Gaunce back from the Lightning when they open their first-round series against the Cleveland Monsters. Sniper Zac Dalpe was re-assigned to Cleveland this week. The Bridgeport Sound Tigers-Hershey series will round out the Eastern Conference.

In the Western Conference, the Chicago Wolves take on the Grand Rapids Griffins. The Wolves posted a Western Conference-best 98 points and took a division title for the second consecutive season as the Vegas Golden Knights’ AHL affiliate. A Central Division series between the Iowa Wild and Milwaukee Admirals is also on tap.

The Pacific Division regular-season champion Bakersfield Condors oppose the Colorado Eagles. Meanwhile, the San Diego Gulls and San Jose Barracuda have already started play. San Diego took Game 1 at home in overtime, 6-5 before the Barracuda evened the series with a 5-3 victory in Game 2. Five more series begin on Friday night before Charlotte-Providence and Milwaukee-Iowa start later this weekend.

All AHL first-round series use a best-of-five format. After that, the final three rounds are best-of-seven. Last year’s first round featured three first-round sweeps. Two series went a full five games.

Full EP Rinkside previews can be found here for the Eastern Conference and Western Conference.

MORE CHANGE IN HARTFORD

There has already been one AHL coaching shake-up.

The New York Rangers did not retain Hartford Wolf Pack head coach Keith McCambridge. They also declined the contract option on Hartford assistant coach Joey Mormina.

The changes are the latest to hit the Wolf Pack, who have missed the Calder Cup Playoffs in six of their past seven seasons. McCambridge lasted two seasons as Hartford’s head coach. He had replaced Ken Gernander after the Wolf Pack’s 54-point performance put them last overall in the AHL in 2016-17.

McCambridge took the Wolf Pack to a 23-point improvement last season before this season’s club dropped eight points to a last-place finish in the Atlantic Division after trades wiped out the Hartford roster. On January 14th, the Wolf Pack sat three points below the Atlantic Division playoff line and were four points ahead of last-place Hershey.

Instead the Rangers traded Wolf Pack captain Cole Schneider, who was tied for second in team scoring at the time, to the Nashville Predators organization. Schneider went on to post 10-12-22 in 24 games with the Milwaukee Admirals. Later leading scorer Peter Holland (20-29-49 in 52 games for Hartford) went out the door to the Rockford IceHogs along with veteran goaltenders Marek Mazanec (Utica Comets) and Dustin Tokarski (Charlotte). Injuries hit the Hartford line-up, and the Rangers recalled several Wolf Pack players.

Hartford dressed seven rookies for the season-ending game at Hershey last Sunday and used only six players (Steven Fogarty, John Gilmour, Ville Meskanen, Shawn O’Donnell, Shawn St. Amant, and Sean Day) from the opening-night line-up.

The Wolf Pack won only 11 of their 37 games after the Schneider trade (11-19-5-2 – .392). Hershey, on the other hand, quickly zipped past the Wolf Pack and went on a 26-5-4-2 (.784) run from that same point.

This past offseason featured 12 AHL affiliates with new head coaches. Only 11 head coaches remain from as recently as the 2016-17 season. Barracuda head coach Roy Sommer is the AHL’s longest-tenured head coach and has been guiding San Jose Sharks AHL prospects since 1998-99. Derek Laxdal took over Texas in 2014-15, the same season the Mike Stothers began running the Kings’ AHL affiliate. Keefe, Dallas Eakins (San Diego), and Clark Donatelli (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins) all started in 2015-16. Troy Mann’s AHL head-coaching career started in 2014-15 with Hershey before he took over the Belleville Senators this season.

THREE LEAGUES, SIX ORGANIZATIONS, 18 TEAMS

Six NHL organizations qualified for the postseason at the NHL, AHL, and ECHL levels this season.

Toronto was among that six-pack, with the Leafs, Marlies, and Newfoundland Growlers all advancing to the postseason. They were joined by the Hurricanes (Charlotte, Florida Everblades), Golden Knights (Wolves, Fort Wayne Komets), the now-departed Lightning (Syracuse, Orlando Solar Bears), and the Capitals (Hershey, South Carolina Stingrays).

The Colorado Avalanche rounded out that group on the second-to-last day of the AHL regular season. The Eagles, the Avs’ first-year AHL affiliate, edged out the Tucson Roadrunners to take a playoff spot. The group nearly reached eight teams as the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets each came down to the AHL regular season’s final weekend as well with their AHL clubs in still in the Central Division playoff race. However, the Manitoba Moose and Texas each missed.

AROUND THE A

Syracuse teammates Alex Barré-Boulet and Carter Verhaeghe tied for the AHL lead with 34 goals. Verhaeghe also won the AHL scoring title with 82 points (34-48-82). They were among the 13 AHL players to reach 30 goals. Syracuse and Hershey (Riley Barber and Mike Sgarbossa) were the lone teams to have two players in that club. Dalpe and Toronto’s Chris Mueller each hit 33 goals. Sam Carrick of San Diego had 32 tallies while Barber and Reid Boucher (Utica) had 31. Daniel Carr (Wolves), Anthony Greco (Springfield Thunderbirds), Joel L’Esperance (Texas), Victor Olofsson (Rochester), Aleksi Saarela (Charlotte), and Sgarbossa finished at 30 goals apiece.

Springfield missed the postseason after a second-half slump, but goaltender Chris Driedger bounced back in his first season in the Florida Panthers organization. Driedger, a 2012 third-round pick by the Ottawa Senators, had stalled after four pro seasons in that organization divided mainly between the AHL and ECHL. Driedger, 24, signed an AHL contract with Springfield last summer, divided most of the first half of the season between the AHL and ECHL, and then finally stuck with the Thunderbirds. He worked closely with Florida goaltending development coach Leo Luongo to revamp parts of his game, and the work paid off for him. With Sam Montembeault on recall to Florida for the final six weeks of the regular season, Driedger ran with the opportunity to be a number-one. He ended up playing 32 games, going 18-10-2 | 2.45 with an AHL-best .924 save percentage.

Along with Dalpe, Cleveland will have Columbus Blue Jackets 2018 first-round pick Liam Foudy on hand as the postseason begins. Columbus assigned the 19-year-old forward, the 18th pick in last June’s NHL Draft, to Cleveland from the OHL’s London Knights. Foudy was 36-32-68 in 62 regular-season OHL games before a 6-6-12 performance in 11 playoff contests. Up against the Guelph Storm in the second round of the OHL Playoffs, London lost a 3-0 series lead and fell in seven games.

The Wolves have added forward Ben Jones from the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs. Jones, 20, was selected by the Golden Knights as a seventh-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. He captained Niagara and had 102 points (41-61-102) in 68 regular-season games before adding 2-5-7 in 11 playoff appearances.

Charlotte has brought in NCAA forward Jacob Pritchard from the University of Massachusetts. Pritchard, 24, signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Hurricanes that will begin next season and was assigned to the Checkers. Pritchard went 16-31-47 in 41 contests for the Minutemen after transferring from St. Lawrence this season. Massachusetts went to the NCAA championship game.

Former Syracuse goaltender Connor Ingram is performing well in the ECHL after his late-season demotion to Orlando. Ingram had ranked among the AHL’s top goaltenders before Tampa Bay management shipped him out of Syracuse to the ECHL twice in March. The 2016 Lightning third-round pick has remained there ever since. In the first round of the Kelly Cup Playoffs against South Carolina, Ingram is 2-1 | 1.72 | .946 in three games. Orlando leads the series, 2-1.

FINAL REGULAR-SEASON LEADERS

POINTS – 82
CARTER VERHAEGEHE – SYRACUSE

GOALS – 34
ALEX BARRÉ-BOULET – SYRACUSE
CARTER VERHAEGEHE – SYRACUSE

ASSISTS – 59
T.J. TYNAN – WOLVES

PENALTY MINUTES – 154
BRANDON BADDOCK – BINGHAMTON

GAMES (GOALTENDERS) – 51
ALEX NEDELJKOVIC – CHARLOTTE

MINUTES – 2,798
ALEX NEDELJKOVIC – CHARLOTTE

WINS – 34
ALEX NEDELJKOVIC – CHARLOTTE

GAA – 2.26
ALEX NEDELJKOVIC – CHARLOTTE

SAVE PERCENTAGE – .924
CHRIS DRIEDGER – SPRINGFIELD

SHUTOUTS – 6
CONNOR INGRAM – SYRACUSE
KAAPO KAHKONEN – IOWA

QUOTEBOOK

“I knew there would be a lot of turnover at the AHL level, and we got to December. I was looking at the staff saying, ‘Is this normal?’ ‘Yeah, this is normal.’ Then we got to January, ‘I’m like, oh my goodness, is this normal?’ ‘They would say this is normal.’ And finally we got to February, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, this isn’t normal.’”
–Binghamton Devils rookie head Mark Dennehy this week to local reporters via the team’s YouTube page. Binghamton had 174 player transactions in the regular season.

THIS WEEKEND

Friday – Bakersfield at Colorado: The Condors locked down the Pacific Division on the final weekend of the regular season while the Eagles had to scratch their way into the field of 16.

Saturday – Charlotte at Providence: The Calder Cup favorite has the somewhat unusual challenge of starting on the road. For the P-Bruins, they have to hope that the Boston Bruins do not come calling for roster help. If the Checkers can gain a split in Providence, they would force the P-Bruins to need to win twice at Charlotte next week.

Sunday – Milwaukee at Iowa: The Admirals have home-ice advantage, but the series will start in Iowa. Milwaukee charged through Central Division competition to earn that home ice and has not lost in regulation since March 9th. Iowa nearly threw away a playoff spot with an eight-game losing streak, but the arrival of Ryan Donato, Jordan Greenway, and Luke Kunin brought three consecutive victories to close the regular season and make them a very dangerous opponent.