What The Hockey World Learned In The Springfield-WBS Series

The Atlantic Division Final had an anticlimactic ending. Game 5 was like a cowboy duel in a spaghetti western movie where one of them gets hit by a bus. The Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins defeated the Springfield Thunderbirds 8-1 to punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference Final. 

Yet, in some ways, that was the appropriate ending to the series. The Penguins were the better team throughout the series, and all three of their wins were decisive. The Thunderbirds, meanwhile, clawed their way to victories, taking Game 2 in overtime and taking Game 4 in a defensive battle. The final game of the series reflected how dominant the Penguins were both this season and in the Calder Cup Playoffs. 

For casual hockey fans, this series, like most action in the American Hockey League, goes unnoticed. Those who followed, even from a distance, learned a lot about the two teams and the future of hockey. 

The Penguins can score anywhere in the lineup from their top line to their fourth. They have four forward lines that come at teams in waves, while their blue line stepped up when they needed it most. Owen Pickering missed Game 5, and it didn’t matter as Harrison Brunicke stepped up as the number one defenseman. 

They were tested in this series with the Thunderbirds pushing them to a fifth game. That said, they were the better team, and it showed with an exclamation point Game 5 win. They didn’t just defeat the Thunderbirds, they ran them out of the building with a 4-0 lead after one and an 8-1 final. 

The Penguins now head to the Eastern Conference Final with the home ice advantage. They’ll start the upcoming series at home and have the chance to close it out in Northeast Pennsylvania as well, regardless of the opponent. Taking things a step further, if the Penguins reach the Calder Cup Final, they’ll have home ice as well. They’ve earned this right as well, as the best team left in the AHL record-wise, and a play that reflects it. 

Steve Ott was the longtime assistant in the NHL who was always in the conversation to become a head coach someday. Yet, every year, he’d always come up short with teams opting for coaches with a proven track record or previous head coaching experience. His move to the AHL was a bet on himself. “The only thing missing on my resume was the head coaching position,” Ott mentioned in a conversation with The Hockey News. 

He led the Thunderbirds to the playoffs, taking a team that wasn’t talented and turning them into a contender. Ott got a group to buy into his system halfway through the season and play great two-way hockey. The Thunderbirds finished in sixth place in the Atlantic Division but there’s a good chance they would have been a top team in the AHL if he had started the season with them. 

Once the playoffs began, Ott’s coaching was on full display as he continued to give the Thunderbirds an edge. The in-game adjustments and the line matching stood out, along with the ability to find the hot line and lean on it. It allowed the Thunderbirds to upset the Charlotte Checkers and the Providence Bruins. Ott took this team to the Atlantic Division Final and did about as good a coaching job in the second half of the season as anyone in the AHL. 

The question now is whether Ott goes to the NHL and becomes a head coach. Spots are opening up with the Edmonton Oilers, Nashville Predators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Vancouver Canucks all looking for head coaches. The AHL is filled with up-and-coming head coaches, and Ott is the headliner of the group.  

It was fitting for Tristan Broz to get the scoring spree started with the first goal of the game and another in the first period. He’s been the best forward for the Penguins throughout the playoffs with one goal and four assists. Game 5 was an exclamation point as he scored two goals and added two assists as part of the offensive onslaught. 

Broz has plenty of great qualities that make him a great player for a playoff run. He centers a top-six line and drives the play while often finding the open skaters on the wings, making his wingers better. He’s unlocked the skills of the top prospects in the system, including Ville Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty, and Mikhail Ilyin. Plus, Broz does all the little things well to allow head coach Kirk MacDonald to play him in all situations. 

In the big picture, Broz is the prospect the Penguins can build around. He’s not flashy or skilled like the wingers he sets up but he’s the center who does it all. He’s the player the Penguins can play as the second line center and eventually fill in for Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby without the NHL team experiencing much of a drop off. 

Rafael Harvey-Pinard missed the first four games of this series but returned for Game 5. To say his return was felt would be an understatement. He’s one of those veteran AHLers built for big games and put on a show in the series-clincher, scoring twice, including the dagger at the end of the first period. 

The St. Louis Blues got some great play out of their prospects. Specifically, Aleksanteri Kaskimaki played well throughout the playoff run and looks like a skilled winger that the Blues can have on their roster next season. 

This series showed what happens when a goaltender on the heater faces a great one. Georgi Romanov came into this series on fire with plenty of great games, and he stole Game 4 with his shutout performance. Sergei Murashov will be in the NHL soon and has proven it with multiple remarkable nights in the net. Murashov never had a bad game in the series, and the Penguins had the edge because of it. 

The Penguins faced adversity this season, as any AHL team does. This was the first series that truly tested them. They blew a 3-0 lead in Game 2, and the loss in Game 4 put their run in doubt. Yet, they handled what was thrown at them and left the series a stronger team. The Penguins face the Cleveland Monsters or the Toronto Marlies in the Eastern Conference Final and will enter the series as the favorites.