Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
Put away the video. The pre-scout materials, too. No extra conferences.
Recreation 1 of the Calder Cup Finals has arrived for the Abbotsford Canucks and Charlotte Checkers, two far-flung opponents who will open their best-of-seven collection tonight at Bojangles Coliseum (7 ET, AHLTV on FloHockey, SiriusXM NHL Community Radio). Each the Florida Panthers and the Vancouver Canucks organizations are looking for their first Calder Cup title. Historical past between these two groups is minimal. In reality, the latest match-up of Florida-Vancouver prospects got here Jan. 3, 2020, when their former associates, the Springfield Thunderbirds and Utica Comets, met.
However already there are some first impressions as every crew has gotten a crash course within the different this week.
“I feel it’s a bunch that’s very structured, very organized,” Checkers head coach Geordie Kinnear mentioned of Abbotsford. “Been collectively for a bit. Clearly well-coached, they usually play the sport the best means.”
Stated Canucks goaltender Artūrs Šilovs of Charlotte: “They appear [like a] bodily, hard-working crew. I feel they play an analogous model as we do. I feel it may be problem for us.”
Current historical past for every membership is one thing that they do have in frequent, too. Each groups completed second of their respective divisions within the 2024-25 common season. They’ve been via almost two months of the playoff grind, be it on the schedule or between collection after sprucing off an opponent. Abbotsford has been via 4 playoff collection already, eliminating the Tucson Roadrunners, Coachella Valley Firebirds, Colorado Eagles and Texas Stars, coming via in elimination video games in opposition to Tucson and Colorado. The Checkers almost noticed their season finish within the division semifinals in opposition to Windfall, however they prevailed after which went on to brush the back-to-back Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears and the regular-season champion Laval Rocket.
Powered by a late-season 13-game successful streak, Abbotsford went into the Calder Cup Playoffs sizzling and has barely slowed down. Charlotte has an eight-game successful streak.
“We will anticipate a very, actually good crew,” mentioned Checkers ahead Will Lockwood, a former Canuck. “They’ve been one of many hottest groups within the league within the second half of the season and coming into the playoffs. I feel we are able to anticipate a crew that’s taking part in with a variety of mojo and a variety of confidence and a crew that’s going to compete and work actually arduous. It’s going to be very structured as nicely.”
Canucks captain Chase Wouters has come away impressed by what he has seen of Charlotte in his crew’s pre-scout work.
“They’re battle-tested,” Wouters mentioned. “They’re able to go. Everybody goes to be doing every little thing they will to win on the market. They’re an incredible crew and we’re trying ahead to the problem.”
In web, Abbotsford has Šilovs and his 5 shutouts. Charlotte counters with Kaapo Kähkönen, a late-season commerce acquisition who solidified their standing as a prime Calder Cup contender. The Šilovs-Kähkönen match-up might nicely develop into the story of this collection.
Robust blue traces underpin every membership. Charlotte has Second All-Star Group member Trevor Carrick together with Mike Benning, Matt Kiersted and Tobias Bjornfot serving to to cleared the path. Abbotsford’s Jett Woo performs a tough, abrasive recreation. Christian Wolanin, who received the Eddie Shore Award because the AHL’s prime defenseman two years in the past, has been wonderful. Rookie Kirill Kudryavtsev has gone from a seventh-round decide to one of many prime prospects within the Vancouver system.
Up entrance, Canucks sniper Linus Karlsson’s 9 objectives tie him for the postseason lead. Arshdeep Bains has been a important piece of the Abbotsford offense. So has Sammy Blais, a Stanley Cup winner with St. Louis in 2019. Charlotte’s John Leonard tied for second within the AHL with 36 regular-season objectives. Rasmus Asplund added 20 objectives within the common season. Justin Sourdif can dominate play. NHL veteran Jesse Puljujärvi, one other late-season newcomer in Charlotte, has been sturdy for the Checkers this postseason. Accountable, harmful two-way forwards are up and down every crew’s roster, and every membership has ample depth choices as nicely.
Every membership possesses a shut-down penalty kill. Abbotsford had killed off 39 of 40 opposing power-play possibilities earlier than Texas lastly began to determine a option to counter that success. The Checkers led the AHL with 16 regular-season shorthanded objectives and have carried that straight into the Calder Cup Playoffs, burning opponents six extra instances. The Canucks are clicking at an excellent 22 % on the ability play, although, and can check that Charlotte penalty kill.
Above all, every membership has cemented an id. That’s no small activity within the AHL with turnover and inexperience typically undoing the work and basis that had been put in place earlier.
These are arduous, puck-hungry, bodily groups outlined by their skill to grasp one of the crucial troublesome duties in hockey: consistency. Every night time they will implement their recreation shortly, outline that night time’s play, and preserve these components. There’s little panic of their video games. Abbotsford has NHL veteran ahead Manny Malhotra – a Calder Cup winner with Hartford 25 years in the past – in his first season behind an AHL bench. Kinnear has been within the AHL teaching enterprise since 2001, received a Calder Cup as a participant in 1995 with the Albany River Rats, and has led Florida prospects since 2016. Neither head coach will bow to the stress of the Finals.
Each groups have mastered the emotional highs and lows that include a playoff journey that may lengthen two months, take them throughout the AHL, and put them via psychological assessments one night time after the following.
“I feel that’s the precise feeling within the room, the highs and lows,” Wolanin mentioned. “You’ve obtained to handle them. You’ve obtained to get pleasure from them. You’ve obtained to purchase into them. There are occasions once you really feel such as you may by no means lose once more. After which once they make issues tight, you are feeling such as you may by no means win once more. It’s simply human nature to fall into the entice of the feelings, however that’s additionally what makes this so particular.
“Manny’s accomplished an incredible job of protecting us in that mindset, and we’ve accomplished an incredible job inside the room of actually having fun with this course of, every little second, the prolonged month-and-a-half collectively, the lengthy highway journeys, the motels, the fast turnaround. It’s fairly arduous to not develop into nearer as a bunch going via all this collectively.”
Whether or not it’s Abbotsford or Charlotte that in the end lifts the Calder Cup, Šilovs outlined a time-tested path for any crew to have championship success.
“Simply must out-work them, out-will them, and be extra determined.”
On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally presently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
