The American Hockey League (AHL) season is in the home stretch, with two months of regular-season hockey before the sprint that is the Calder Cup Playoffs begins. It’s hard to tell whether the Hershey Bears are a good team or not. They sit in fourth place in the Atlantic Division which in many ways reflects their middling status.
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“I like where we’re at,” Bears head coach Derek King noted after Saturday’s morning skate. It’s the same sentiment that King noted a few months back when the team was struggling and, similarly, a few weeks back when the Bears were turning a corner and making up ground in the standings. “We don’t quit, we just keep fighting, it doesn’t matter the score, which I like,” he added, and it’s that fight that has them in a good spot heading into a pivotal time in the season.
Bears Can Lean Into Their Forecheck
The Bears are a heavy team, one that won’t win on the rush or with speed. Instead, they forecheck and slow the game down to win. The Bears operate best when they control the puck in the offensive zone and look for quality shots, something they’ve done lately.
It’s how they won four games in a row, including a 3-2 overtime win over the Charlotte Checkers, a team that loves to play fast and generate high-volume offense. “I think the players know how we have to play too, we’re not an open ice, run and gun team, we’re a puck deep, cycle team,” King added following the practice.
The third and fourth lines are filled with defensive-minded forwards. Matt Strome and Sam Bitten have made a career out of checking and defending, while Grant Cruikshank is centering a checking line, yet has nine goals on the season. The Bears are relying on these skaters to win with physicality and, in the process, set up the offense.
The Rookies are Carrying Them
The top two scorers on the Bears are rookies. Ilya Protas has 22 goals and 23 assists for 45 points while Andrew Cristall has 13 goals and 30 assists for 43 points. The last time a rookie led the Bears in points, it was Connor McMichael in the 2020-21 shortened season. The last time two rookies finished in the top three was 2015-16 when Riley Barber (55 points and Travis Boyd (53) were second and third on the team.
Protas is the do-it-all center on the top line. Many casual hockey fans will know him as Aleksei’s brother and assume he plays like him. Protas has similar skill sets and size but the younger version has the skill offensively that can make him a great top-line center someday.
Cristall is the playmaker on the wing who is a steady contributor on offense. “He always seems to get his name on the scoresheet somehow,” King noted after the recent 5-2 loss to the Hartford Wolf Pack, a game where Cristall scored. He’s an older rookie at 21 years old, as he spent a few years in the Western Hockey League (WHL). Now, he’s burst on the scene as a player who always seems to find the puck and take advantage. The key for the young winger is “He has to learn how to play when he doesn’t have the puck,” as King noted after the game as well, hinting that his play defensively isn’t as good.
The Bears are known historically for having a veteran-heavy team. Usually, it’s the older players setting the tone and establishing a winning culture to help the prospects take a step forward. This season, the rookies are leading the way. In the big picture, this will go a long way for the Bears as both Cristall and Protas will be the leaders on the Bears for years and will be ready for the NHL sooner than expected.
The Bad Habits Keep Costing The Bears
One theme that keeps coming up with the Bears in the King era is bad habits. When he was hired, he mentioned that he wanted to remove bad habits from the players, or “Not make the same mistakes I did as a player.” It’s a message he confirmed multiple times throughout the season.
The Bears, at times, are their own worst enemy. The opponent won’t win the game but they will lose it. Sometimes it’s turnovers in their zone, while other times it’s breakdowns in the neutral zone. When the Bears play a full 60-minute effort, they look poised to go on a Calder Cup run. They’ve shown flashes of that but that’s the key: it’s only flashes and not a consistent part of their game.
The recent defeat to the Wolf Pack was a prime example. The mistakes in the neutral zone and the defensive zone cost them. “Too many little mistakes, not huge mistakes,” King noted afterwards. They scored the first goal but allowed four unanswered goals and ultimately lost 5-2.
Where The Bears Will Become a Top AHL Team
The Bears are a young team and have been most of this season, especially after multiple veterans, including key contributors to the back-to-back Calder Cup run, left in the summer. It’s why the veterans in the lineup go a long way. “Obviously, we missed having Sonny Milano in the lineup,” King mentioned after the recent game, one that Milano missed due to illness.
Milano, like many players on the Bears, has spent multiple seasons in the NHL and made his mark as a scorer. He’s with the Bears these days and playing a big role in their top-six. Milano’s absence forced Wyatt Bongiovanni, who was playing his first game with the Bears following a trade, to center a top-six line.
The question for the Bears is whether they can round out their game or not. Can they win with defense, and is the goaltending good enough? If not, will the forwards set the tone and control the pace of play in games? “We still can manage the puck better,” King noted, and it’s the area the Bears will focus on with everyone making a push for the playoffs.
