The crowning of this season’s American Hockey League champions is rapidly approaching.
Skating into Sunday’s AHL action, only the Charlotte Checkers are qualified for Eastern Conference Finals play. After eliminating the Hershey Bears in the Division Finals, Charlotte, the top minor affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Florida Panthers, await the victor of the Laval Rocket—Rochester Americans series.
The series between these two teams from Quebec and New York is knotted at 2 games a piece. Game 5 is scheduled for Sunday in the Montreal suburb.
Over in Western Conference play, the best of the Pacific Division, the Colorado Eagles and Abbotsford Canucks are scheduled for Game 5 of their series on Sunday, with the winner moving on for a seven-game series.
The winner of Sunday’s Game 5 between the Milwaukee Admirals and the Texas Stars, best of the Central Division, will move on to the Conference Finals, as well.
The Calder Cup Finals could begin as early as the first week of June.
The Calder Cup postseason is in the process of completing Round 3, heading into Round 4, and two teams will reach Round 5—the league’s championship round.
Long considered the “second best professional hockey league” in North America, just behind its NHL “big brother,” for skaters, goalies, and coaches to have their names etched on plaques attached to the Calder Cup’s base is an achievement few could boast and even fewer revel in.
Hoisting the Calder Cup, named after the NHL’s first president and Hockey Hall of Famer Frank Calder, is a major accomplishment in professional hockey. Just as in the NHL, there are a select few in the AHL who have celebrated as league champions, not just once, but on multiple occasions.
The major role in hockey development, as the AHL is concerned, is to have the players prepared for possible call-ups to the NHL. Play at the top minor league level for major league competition.
This is the end goal for promising AHL players. New Englander Chris Bourque is a prime example of a hockey success story deeply rooted in AHL ice.
What the legendary Hall of Famer “Mr. Hockey” Gordie Howe will forever be remembered for in NHL circles, Bourque shares a similar status on the AHL level.
Sharing with his Hershey Bears’ teammates in three Calder Cup championships (2006, 2009, 2010), Bourque skated during parts of 12 AHL seasons. It’s those nine campaigns with the Bears that continue to resonate with Bourque now, well into his third year of retirement as a feisty left wing.
“I had an incredible time during my 19-year career,” Bourque told The Epoch Times by phone from his Boston home. I was fortunate to win three Calder Cups while at Hershey. That city is amazing. My oldest son was born in Hershey. It [Hershey] is a big part of my life.”
Bourque champions the AHL experience as one that well prepared him for NHL assignments. With nearly 800 AHL games under his belt, 604 with the Bears, during Bourque’s tenure, he collected the league’s top prizes.
Appearing in four AHL Games, Bourque was also selected the league’s MVP, the Calder Cup Playoffs MVP, and was the AHL’s leading scorer during the 2012 and 2016 seasons. There were 51 games played on the NHL level, and stints skating in elite European leagues, but for Bourque, the AHL experience is the one hockey stop that remains most special.
“The level of competition is arguably the best, next to the NHL,” says Bourque, a second-round draft pick of the NHL Washington Capitals in 2004. “The league has gotten younger and faster. But, what makes the AHL special is the smaller cities that host the teams. The passion of the hockey fans in those cities comes out, long and loud.”
These days, Bourque has transitioned from skating to scouting for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He finds the work of looking over the best of the NCAA and other amateur competitions rewarding. Keeping close tabs on player signings and trades doesn’t seem like work at all for this second-generation hockey lifer. As the son of Hockey Hall of Famer and Stanley Cup winner Ray Bourque, Chris Bourque finds himself in a position today that few former players could.
“I find scouting very enjoyable work. When I finished skating, I wanted to stay in hockey. This [scouting] is where I chose to be.”
Whereas the NHL is in full swing of its Conference Finals, en route to Stanley Cup matchups, the AHL continues on of equal importance in cities whose fans remain deeply committed to their teams’ success.
