“It’s never going to be perfect, we’re always going to have to clean up some areas” - Derek King
The standard in Hershey is a Calder Cup, and anything short of that is a failure. The Hershey Bears are one of the few teams in the American Hockey League (AHL) that have those expectations as an original AHL franchise and a 13-time winner. The Bears haven’t played to that standard this season.
Their 4-2 loss on Saturday night to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms has them fighting for a playoff spot. “We let one slip away. They capitalized on their chances, and we didn’t. We made some mental mistakes,” head coach Derek King noted after the game. They only have a three-point cushion on the sixth-place Phantoms and a five-point lead on the Springfield Thunderbirds, who have a game in hand.
King has insisted that he likes where the Bears are as a team. It’s something he mentioned at the holiday break, then repeated before the All-Star Break, and reiterated following the trade deadline. With a few games left in the season, the Bears are in a fight, and there’s a chance this team misses the playoffs.
Bad Habits Are Still Costing The Bears
A message King has relayed to the Bears is to try to remove bad habits. It’s something he talked about when he was hired and has noted throughout the season. From defensive breakdowns to playing out of position, the goal was to clean that up from the start of the season by the time the playoffs roll around.
There are nine games left in the regular season, and the same issues keep costing the Bears. “Our defense didn’t play the right way, and it ends up in the back of our net,” King mentioned after the 4-2 loss, where poor play on the defensive end led to multiple goals. On top of that, the Bears would find the back of the net to get back into the game, only to allow a goal minutes or even seconds later.
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The Bears have tried playing a complete game all season. They have flashes where they look like a great team or put together a dominant performance from time to time. However, they’ve struggled to consistently play at a high level. “It’s never going to be perfect, we’re always going to have to clean up some areas,” King mentioned in a conversation with The Hockey News.
This Isn’t the Same Bears Team
The Bears knew things would be different heading into the season. They would be a younger team, and many of the core players who led them to back-to-back Calder Cup titles were gone. The Bears had to replace Riley Sutter with Sam Bitten and Hunter Shepard with Mitch Gibson. Likewise, Mike Vecchione, Perrick Dubé, Garrett Roe, and a handful of players who were vital to the culture left in the offseason, and talent alone can’t replace that.
The Bears tried but have also battled injuries. Cam Allen, Spencer Smallman, and Eriks Mateiko, three players who were expected to play a bigger role considering the roster turnover, are all out of the season, while Clay Stevenson has been out for a few weeks, forcing the Bears to rely on Gibson for more starts than they hoped. They entered their game against the Phantoms with a depleted roster, and it showed.
It’s why the Bears can miss the playoffs. The teams around them are getting better and playing their best hockey, notably the Bridgeport Islanders and Springfield Thunderbirds. Both teams are hot on their heels and can pass them by if they don’t put it together.
How Hershey Can Still Go on a Run
The Bears must lean on their star power, which, oddly enough, is the two rookie forwards who lead them in points this season. Ilya Protas has 27 goals and 28 assists while Andrew Cristall has 16 goals and 36 assists. They drive the offense and are the two players King can rely on for goals.
“It’s going to be up to me to have the right guys on the ice,” King noted after the latest loss. King played Protas and Cristall along with Bogdan Trineyev, who has 13 goals and 23 assists, all on the same line. It shows the Bears will want that trio on the ice when they are trailing or need a goal.
The other key for the Bears to secure a playoff spot is to lean into their identity. “We’re not an open ice run-and-gun team. We’re a puck deep, cycle team, hard on boards, and we need to play a simple road game,” King mentioned following the AHL trade deadline. The Bears have three lines that can forecheck and play a heavy game, and they must do that to win.