Well, the Kraken are out of games to play, and did not make the NHL playoffs. They’re good and done. We’ll talk about how they got there in due time.
That doesn’t mean the Kraken’s prospects are done however. Not by a long shot.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds season is just wrapping up with a mere two games to go, and they are ready to take on the quest for the Calder Cup once again after an ignomious end to their last attempt, so tantalizingly close to the goal.
While the Kraken struggled mightily, the Firebirds played so well this year that not only can I say that the Firebirds won the AHL Pacific Division handily, I can even give you the entire Coachella Valley Firebirds AHL Playoffs First Round Preview in a single sentence. As such, let’s get to that single sentence!
Firebirds AHL Playoffs First Round Preview
Thanks to how the AHL sets up its playoff structure; the Firebirds get a First Round Bye, and play the lowest-seeded team of the first round’s victors in the Second Round.
Firebirds AHL Playoffs Second Round Prognostication
Alright, good work by everybody involved! Man, I was really concerned I’d typo at some point across that sentence, maybe make it a little too run on…That was tough, blogging can be a little more difficult than you think.
Anyway, onto the Firebirds preview for the playoffs in full.
After a somewhat unusually spaced out schedule and a slow start, the Firebirds roared back to life in the new year have been a total force of nature across the AHL Pacific; and have been rewarded justly for their efforts with their first regular season championship, and said first round bye.
Don’t think that means they’re going to be goofing off however; the AHL First Round is only a Best-of-3 to weed out the undeserving before it goes to a Best of 5, and as such their wait could be over in as short a period as three days or as long as a week. The playing field as of right now is just too wide to get a clear idea as to who would be their first foe. It could be a team like the Abbotsford Canucks, who were relatively good all year, or it could be the Calgary Wranglers who just squeaked in.
Thankfully, they got a little help from returning players Shane Wright, Ryan Winterton, and Logan Morrison to help keep their battlestations manned, as well as Lleyton Roed and Jani Nyman to ensure the depth is both hungry and plentiful. Combine that with strong performances from Ales Stezka and Chris Driedger in net, and there’s all the makings of a nice, long, repeat performance in Coachella to get them back to the finals.
The only question is whether or not it’s enough.
Firebirds X-Factors to Keep in Mind This Playoffs
Can Lind and McCormick have a repeat performance of last year?
Last year, Max McCormick and Kole Lind were the pride of the Pacific once the playoffs started; eventually ending their time in the postseason with league leading points (Lind, 31 in 26 games) and goals (McCormick, 14 in 26 games) in the 2023 Calder Cup. This year, Lind and McCormick are once again top five in the AHL in these categories; Lind in points, McCormick in goals. It’s entirely within their power to do this again too, as they’ve shown no signs of slowing down and have mostly terrorized the entire Pacific Division this season without stopping.
But that was then, and this is now. They are not a sudden shock to the AHL Pacific Division’s system like they were not too long ago. Whoever they face in the 2nd round will know good and well that these two players are going to be dangerous. They’re going to not just be respected for the threat they pose, but planned for. It’s up to Dan Bylsma and company to make sure that not only can these two find success in the ramped up action of the playoffs, but also that they can line match with some of the Pacific Division’s hottest young prospects and come out on top.
After all, they’re gonna need these two to be their anchor once again.
Can Chris Driedger keep the revenge tour going?
Chris Driedger is having a spectacular season going into this year’s playoffs; sporting a 4th in the AHL-best Goals-Against Average of 2.22 and a Top Ten SV% of .919% in 38 games played; a proper tour of redemption after injury cut his season short last year. He should absolutely be proud of the work he’s put in.
But the Redemption tour’s biggest issue is that he has such big pads to fill.
Joey Daccord’s 2023 Calder Cup run was absolutely phenomenal; playing at a .926 SV% pace over the course of 26 games, with no less than six overtime games. That’s as battle hardened as you can possibly get. It got Joey the starting job with the big club (mostly due to Grubauer’s injury but…still!) and Driedger will now be tasked with measuring up to such a run.
Helluva task, but if there’s anything we’ve learned this year, it’s that Driedger is more than ready to prove he’s got what it takes to measure up.
What can the Young Phenoms bring to the table?
We already know what Ryan Winterton, Shane Wright, and Logan Morrison are at this level of the game; they’ve all proven that they can be will be expected to be major contributors to their opening foe of these playoffs.
But what about the new…er kids? How do they stack up?
Jani Nyman and Lleyton Roed only recently joined the Firebirds from their College/SHL clubs respectively, and already have shown immense promise as Firebirds; with both getting their first goals as members of Coachella Valley within their first five games. It’s these late additions who will be most interesting as not only rookies potentially asked to play meaningful pro hockey, but also as relative unknowns in a division that is already pretty chummy with one another and knows what one another has. The Firebirds need them to be useful depth precisely because of this lack of familiarity that the rest of the division has with them; to use their unknown status as a weapon to trip up their upcoming foe.
…whoever that is.
Is this Bye a blessing or a curse?
Granted, a Best-of-3 first round bye is not a long wait, and if any team in the AHL can make momentum last over what could charitably be referred to as a long weekend’s worth of games, it will be the Firebirds for sure; having rolled into the end of their season on a 7-1-1-1 clip.
But the playoffs are a different animal to regular season hockey altogether. It’s true in the big leagues, and it’s true in the AHL’s bizarre 23 team setup as well. The momentum gained from even extremely short series can catch any team off guard and possibly lead to their early exit. The Firebirds should know this well after all; the battle to win the Pacific last year ended up with them having to go the distance against every single team they faced, and brought the Calgary Wranglers, last year’s holders of the bye, to a Game 5 overtime loss.
In fact, since the league implemented this system for the Pacific Division back in 2022, no team who’s gotten it has made it any farther than the Division Finals. This is a big division with a lot of really good talent in it; to lose momentum for any reason, even innocuous ones like “we earned a rest”, can make battles much harder than they need to be. The Firebirds will have to expect more than just a team that won a couple of games; they will have to expect a freshly battle-tested opponent that could, and more than likely wants to, take ample advantage of the short playoff structure.
Can I watch the Firebirds Playoff Run?
You absolutely can!
The AHL’s streaming service; AHLtv, is running a $30 dollar promotion where you are allowed to watch the entire Calder Cup Playoffs of a given year, and it’s set to do that this year as well. This gives you access to not only the Firebirds, but also any of their potential opponents you may wanna check in on.
There are, of course…unconventional means, On which you could watch Hockey as it happens on the dot when you wanna watch it on your TV, but officially speaking we think it’s better/easier/safer that you support the official streaming service.
We of course, will be covering it best we can!
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