Sound Tigers placed in tiny division for shortened season
Three teams opted out of the new American Hockey League season, leaving the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in a tiny division.
The Charlotte Checkers and Springfield Thunderbirds won’t play, and the Pennsylvania and New York State teams were placed in one division for this pandemic-disrupted season, scheduled to begin Feb. 5.
That left Bridgeport in a three-team group with the Hartford Wolf Pack and the Providence Bruins. The Bruins will play this season at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Mass., with the Dunkin’ Donuts Center devoted to Rhode Island COVID-19 initiatives.
The Sound Tigers had no comment. Details on the new season, a schedule and any playoff format remain to be announced.
The three teams that opted out are owned independently and not by their parent club, making the financial impact of missing spectators a heavier blow. All three — the Milwaukee Admirals are the third — plan to return in 2021-22. The other 28 said at a Monday Board of Governors meeting that they’ll play this shortened season.
“Given the current status of the COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts, it has also become clear that we will be unable to host fans, the lifeblood of our organization, at our games in the foreseeable future,” Thunderbirds president Nathan Costa said in a statement. “As an independentlyowned franchise, our foremost obligation is to ensure that our team is financially viable for the long term, something that is not possible without gameday revenue.”
St. Louis announced that it will place its prospects with the Utica Comets this season; the Blues were to begin their first season as Springfield’s parent club. The Florida Panthers are Charlotte’s parent club, and Milwaukee’s is the Nashville Predators.
“There are several travel, safety and player supply challenges to consider,” Checkers owner and CEO Michael Kahn said in a statement. “Those, coupled with the increasing number of new cases in our area, make it very unlikely that we will be able to host fans at our games in the near future.”
The league announced that four teams were granted “provisional relocations” for the season, including Providence. The other three will play out of their parent club’s practice facilities: the Binghamton Devils in Newark, N.J.; the Ontario (Calif.) Reign in El Segundo, Calif.; and the San Diego Gulls in Irvine, Calif.
The AHL’s four Canadian teams will play in their own division as well if they get approval from provincial governments.
NHL teams have begun training camp for their own shorter season, to begin Jan. 13, and they’ll all carry a taxi squad of four to six extra players, a rule intended for this year only.
ANOTHER FAREWELL:
John Hall, a longtime off-ice official in both New Haven and Bridgeport, died early Friday morning. He was 86.
Hall was a penalty box attendant at state pro hockey games. He was also a driver, owner and official in local auto racing.
The New Haven Nighthawks’ off-ice crew has lost three members since late September: Hall, penalty timekeeper Frank Camera and PA announcer Hal Baird.