You learn a lot in the American Hockey League, especially after a few years. 

The league also teaches anyone a lot about the country, or both the USA and Canada. Traveling through North America, from the major cities to the acres of empty land to the mid-sized cities hosting AHL teams, you see it firsthand. 

During the World Cup this summer, German soccer fan turned social media influencer Freddy mentioned a quote he overheard: “If you want to hate the world, watch the news. If you want to love it, travel it.” The AHL will give anyone that experience, a different experience from the typical hockey fan. This league is distant for those who follow the NHL, who might check in on their prospects from time to time but not much more, yet it provides a unique perspective on both America and Canada. 

The fans and people in AHL markets feel ignored, neglected, and overlooked. Yet, they matter. It’s the story of the AHL and the cities that make up the league. It almost seems non-coincidental that many presidential elections come down to battleground counties in Pennsylvania, counties that host the Hershey Bears, Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. 

Many people associate Massachusetts with Boston and the surrounding area. Western Massachusetts gets ignored. It’s what gives Springfield its unique identity, an us-vs.-them mentality. When the Thunderbirds played the Providence Bruins, the affiliate of Boston’s NHL team, they made sure their home games felt like home games. It made the series upset in the Calder Cup Playoffs even sweeter for a fanbase that put itself on the map.

Hartford is halfway between Boston and New York. When the Whalers left, many hockey fans assumed hockey left the city as well. Most fans overlook hockey in Hartford and sports, for that matter, with UConn in the same state garnering most of the spotlight. 

The AHL cities aren’t the big ones in North America. But something that goes unnoticed is how big and important these cities are. They are fast-growing mid-sized markets that are hidden gems. Many will joke about some cities being a part of flyover country until they visit Cleveland or Milwaukee and notice the underrated cities. Allentown is just a Billy Joel song about the declining Rust Belt until the drive takes you to a bustling city with restaurants and entertainment beyond the sports teams. 

Hamilton is Canada’s latest version, joining the likes of Belleville and Laval. It was overlooked for years. A city teams would drive past as they made their way to the other AHL markets. It was overlooked. Now, everyone has their eyes on it. The Bridgeport Islanders are moving there, and the PWHL is putting an expansion franchise in the market. It’s known as a blue-collar steel town but like many AHL markets, it’s much more than that. 

Like the country, the AHL and every league had to expand. Specifically, everything moved out west in this manifest destiny sort of ideal. The AHL went from being a New England-based regional league to a national one. 

It wasn’t just a move westward. Teams started putting overlooked areas of the Pacific on the map, whether it was Bakersfield, Coachella, or Ontario (which will confuse many hockey fans at first). Sure, San Diego is one of the most popular cities in the US but the move brought attention to those overlooked markets in the west, a market like Utah that now has an NHL team or Coachella Valley, which is adding the Los Angeles Lakers minor league team this season. The move west, while frustrating to traditional AHL fanbases, had to happen, especially as the NHL changed. 

The AHL itself had to adapt as well. It went from being a wild west where some teams were developing players for their NHL affiliates while others had NHL-caliber players who were given better contracts in the AHL. Moreover, some teams had multiple NHL affiliates, which led to conflicting interests. Now, every team has one affiliate hyperfocused on developing their prospects. 

Then there’s the influx of talent from overseas countries. Like the NHL, the AHL has become a global league where players from Finland, Sweden, Russia, and other European countries come over and develop. It’s this American idea that people can come over and achieve greatness here, and the highs and lows are witnessed firsthand in the AHL. It shows the hardships of the move and the adjustment for a player learning the new country while feeling so close to their dreams of playing in the best league in the world. 

Don Stevens talked optimistically about the league and the direction it’s heading in before his final regular-season broadcast. In 40 years, he saw it all and saw a league that developed like the players in it. 

“Well, if it holds its present trajectory, it’s just getting bigger and better. Right now it’s commonly said that this is the best league in the world, and I believe it is, and maybe it will even gain more distance over the European leagues and that,” he noted before the puck drop. That game, interestingly, saw Konsta Helenius, Ilya Protas, and Bogdan Trineyev, three European prospects from three different countries, combine for three goals and four assists, speaking volumes to the international presence in the game. 

At the arena are some of the best people you will meet. They’ll guide someone to the right seats or help someone who is lost on their first trip to an arena, introduce their family, or talk about the joy after a thrilling win of the team they support. 

A fanbase online or on social media will look one way. They might be portrayed as hostile or toxic, giving many the wrong impression of that team. In person, these fans look much different. They are the same people who share a lot in common with hockey fans from the other side of the country. At the arena, people aren’t as divided as they are perceived. 

Yes, the news talks about blue states and red states or a sea of red with some blue dots, yet it’s not what’s noticed on the road. It’s not what’s noticed in these AHL markets, which are a middle ground between the major cities and the rural countryside. Instead, what stands out is how nice people are, regardless of where they are. 

The journey from Toronto after the Calder Cup Final felt like a hockey road trip. The drive around Lake Ontario that passes through Hamilton, the host of the latest relocated team. The long wait at the Niagara Falls border crossing where the mist from the falls hits when the wind blows right. The stop for food and gas in Rochester or Syracuse while looping into Pennsylvania for a drive down I-80 that’s been done too many times to count. 

Even the drives through farms and forests, where there are more cows and cornfields than people. It makes anyone covering the AHL take a step back and take it in. Sitting at a Geneva park, boarding Seneca Lake (one of the Finger Lakes), watching the streaks of pink and blue sunset, it hits that this is a cool country and an experience you won’t get flying from city to city. Instead, it comes with the drives from one AHL city to the next.