Prospect Info: Hershey Bears/South Carolina Stingrays 2022-2023 Vol. 1

[notDkristich]

Hatty for Frank!! He has 30 goals on the year!
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Over/Under on Frank making Caps roster next season?

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Over/Under on Frank making Caps roster next season?

I think he deserves a shot. Especially given that he's an older rookie.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Bears win 6-4 but they were absolutely the better team tonight. Phantoms had a quick answer to both of the first two Bears goals. Went up 3-2 in the 2nd and Phantoms tied it again several minutes later. The goal that put the Bears up 4-3 wasn't called at first and had to be reviewed by the refs at the next stoppage. Killed off a Frank penalty with about 3 and half minutes left and Franky scored on an odd man rush for the hatty and a 5-3 lead. Phantoms pulled the goalie almost immediately and scored about a minute later, but Gersich beat out an icing not long after to score the empty net dagger.

Providence won tonight. It will be up to Springfield to win tomorrow to keep Hershey in 1st.

As an aside, I would love to see Garrett Wilson get his ass kicked one of these times.

 

[AZ Caps Fan]

Over/Under on Frank making Caps roster next season?

Haven't watched Hershey at all but I will watch the playoffs.

If he plays a two way game and continues to score, he should make it.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Bears will really have home ice in name only if they play Charlotte or Springfield. Due to the distance, they'd start on the road (2-3 away-home format). So they'd get more games at home but only it they made it that far in the series. On the other hand, Lehigh or Hartford would see them start at home with a more traditional 2-2-1 format. It's been this way since they switched to a 5 game first (and now second) round but it's still a major gripe of mine. I'd love to see them just make all the non qualifying rounds best of 7 again (especially since they already slashed the regular season) but I digress.

 

[Calicaps]

Bears will really have home ice in name only if they play Charlotte or Springfield. Due to the distance, they'd start on the road (2-3 away-home format). So they'd get more games at home but only it they made it that far in the series. On the other hand, Lehigh or Hartford would see them start at home with a more traditional 2-2-1 format. It's been this way since they switched to a 5 game first (and now second) round but it's still a major gripe of mine. I'd love to see them just make all the non qualifying rounds best of 7 again (especially since they already slashed the regular season) but I digress.

WTF? So needlessly complicated.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

WTF? So needlessly complicated.

The Calder Cup playoffs in general have grown so needlessly complicated. I don't think the qualifying round should exist anyway, but it makes teams that wouldn't have made it an extra game or two of revenue so it's not going anywhere. That round is best of 3. Then the next two rounds are best of 5. Then the conference finals and Calder Cup Final are best of 7. I think this format, or something similar, was used briefly in the past (early 2000s), but when I first started following the AHL, it was simply the top 4 teams in each division made it (with crossover if the 5 seed in one division finished higher than the 4 seed in the other division in the same conference), all best of 7, with a 2-3-2 format if there was significant distance between the two teams. Given that the regular season is 8 games shorter now than it was back then, it'd be nice to see that format make a return for the non qualifying rounds if they're going to keep that. Barring arena scheduling conflicts (which the Bears have faced their share of over the years), there is no reason for the higher seed to not start at home in a playoff series.

The close to two week layover between Hershey's final game of the regular season and their first playoff game is another concern and gripe of mine.

 

[Hivemind]

AHL does what it can to try to keep costs down and revenues up for teams. That includes some weird formats to try and get more teams into the post-season and minimize travel while keeping as many games on the weekend as possible.

 

[Rayquaza64]

finally saw a bears win this year

 

[swansonsays]

I was there last night, too. In fact, I see myself in your photo.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Providence up 6-3 in the 3rd period. Safe to say the Bears will be finishing in second place

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Atlantic seeding is finally... finalized.
1. Providence
2. Hershey
3. Charlotte
4. Springfield
5. Hartford
6. Lehigh Valley

So in the qualifying round, we'll have Charlotte vs Lehigh Valley, and Springfield vs Hartford.

The Bears won't play Lehigh under any circumstances in the second round so that leaves three possible opponents.

Charlotte scares me most because Hershey historically struggles mightily there, and that would be one of the matchups that would see them play games 1 and 2 on the road. Also because I think they're going to be their most likely opponent. Hershey went 3-3-2 against Charlotte this year with one road win in four games. Four of their five losses were by one goal and, as you can see, two of them were ot/shootout so it's not like they were consistently blown out by them. The Bears played them well the last two games they played against them. this past week. I would feel a lot better if they got the true advantage of home ice and got to start at Giant Center but you've gotta overcome adversity to win in the playoffs, and as always, it's a new season.

As an added bonus for the Checkers, they'd probably get Alex Lyon back in net from the Panthers by the time a a series against Hershey would start assuming Boston takes care of them.

Hershey swept Springfield this year and haven't lost at home to them in a few seasons if memory serves. The Tbirds have some top heavy offensive players and a great goalie in Joel Hofer but the Bears have just played them very well recently. Again, new season and all that, and the Tbirds still have some of the players and personnel that went to the Finals just last year, but they would be my personal most desirable opponent of the three. This would be another series that would see Hershey start on the road.

Hartford finished the year piping hot and went 8-2-0 in their last 10 games. They've gotten a lot of reinforcements via both the Rangers and the AHL trade deadline. If memory serves, I think Hershey only dropped one game to the Pack this season (EDIT: they lost two), but this is a pretty different Hartford team than the one Hershey faced most of the year (they haven't played each other since February). Domingue and Garand are also a solid goalie tandem in net. I think the Pack would pose a challenge to the Bears, but we'd have the benefit of having true home ice in this series.

Even with the expanded playoffs, there's no cakewalk matchups here. There were only about five points separating seed 3 from seed 5 and all of them finished at least 9 games above .500, so it's not like the Pacific division where you've got a team that finished under .500 in the playoffs (which is silly but I digress). The long time between games is also a big concern for me (if not my biggest concern). But I trust Nelson and I've finally come around to trusting the team at large. They dropped a big game on Friday that could've clinched the division, but they were missing several key players and have been otherwise solid this whole last month in getting to where they finished. It's the season for the unexpected and anything can happen. Drawing back 17 years here, I still remember how Hershey had middling records at best against both Norfolk and WBS in 05-06 and swept both handily in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Here's hoping the Bears come out swinging in a couple weeks and bring home Cup number 12.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

It could be worse for the Bears... ALL THREE of Lehigh Valley's games against Charlotte, should the series go that far, are IN Charlotte. Damn, they got screwed.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

So it's not just Lehigh and Charlotte. All three Pacific play in series also have all the games played in the highest seed's arena. Apparently there is a league mandated distance limit between teams that is the difference between receiving a 1-1-1 (or 1-2) format series and a 3-0.

I will never not find the qualifying round dumb as hell. Look out west, even though it's basically a different league given that we never see those teams. Coachella Valley had the second best record in the league with 103 points. They should be locked into a playoff spot without any doubt. Why the hell should they have to play a 3 game series against a team that finished under .500 with 34 less points? If you're not in a playoff spot after playing through the whole season, you're done, you don't get a second chance. At the very least, just keep it between the 4 and 5 seeds in each division.

 

[swansonsays]

I agree that Charlotte is the worst (and most probable) match up for Hershey. I can't see Lehigh Valley taking two of three from Charlotte, in Charlotte.

It'll be interesting to see how the goaltenders play. Based off the past couple of games, goaltending (either of them) is probably the biggest weakness.

I think the T-birds have the best chance to knock off Providence, so I'll be rooting for them, as well in the first round.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

I agree that Charlotte is the worst (and most probable) match up for Hershey. I can't see Lehigh Valley taking two of three from Charlotte, in Charlotte.

It'll be interesting to see how the goaltenders play. Based off the past couple of games, goaltending (either of them) is probably the biggest weakness.

I think the T-birds have the best chance to knock off Providence, so I'll be rooting for them, as well in the first round.

If the Bears were to somehow knock off both Charlotte and Providence in the first two rounds I think I would have full confidence in them to go all the way. Those have probably been their two toughest divisional opponents this year. Granted there are some very tough teams out west.

Since they made the conference finals in 2017, the Bruins have had a tendency to bow out early despite good regular seasons. Would be nice if that trend continues should the Bears make it to the divisional finals. Gotta take it one opponent at a time though, obviously.

I would feel a lot better about a Charlotte matchup if the Bears got true home ice advantage. If they meet in the first round and Hershey manages to split the first two in Charlotte I'll feel much better about their chances, though the Checkers have good depth and will probably have Lyon back by that point. Plus Charlotte will be relatively fresh and the Bears will be coming off two weeks of no games. Never know in the playoffs though. I just wanna get to attend more than one more game this season (IF that, game 3 would probably be a weekday and work beckons early!), lol.

Looks like Lehigh and Charlotte split their season series at 4-4, but only one of those Phantoms wins came on the road.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Ghosts really taking it to the Checkers so far. 4-1 Lehigh halfway through the 2nd period of game 1

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Phantoms hold on to win game one 4-3.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

4-0 Hartford over Springfield after 2... ****, maybe I would rather play Charlotte

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Hartford obliterates Springfield 6-1

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Checkers win 4-3 in 2OT. Game 3 tonight. If Charlotte wins, the Bears will play them. If the Phantoms win, the Bears will play the winner of Springfield/Hartford.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Well, I'm actually watching this game instead of the Stanley Cup playoffs, lol, but the Checkers and Phantoms are scoreless after 1. That said I think I might be starting to prefer the Checkers as a 1st round matchup. Hartford is up 3-0 over Springfield after 1 (EDIT 3-1, Springfield scored late in the period). Regardless, the Bears are going to have to get past some very good teams if they're gonna win the Cup.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

3-0 Checkers a little over halfway through the 2nd period

 

[swansonsays]

Watched the 1st of the Hartford game. They look dangerous. Just turned on the Iowa & Rockford game to see some teams we don't get to see. It's not nearly as physical as the East games have been, so far.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

5-0 Charlotte after 2. Think it's safe to say they're our opponent.