The Hershey Bears and rest of the AHL season is cancelled.

It feels like another lifetime ago, I was at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, jumping up and down excited when Matt Moulson tied the game at 2 with only 4 seconds left in regulation. The Bears had clawed back, haha, from a two-goal deficit against the hottest team in the Eastern Conference. We may have lost miss you. But we got a point, five out of six on the weekend was a successful road trip and we went back to Pennsylvania feeling good about the home stretch.

Although it never happened, Corey Covid-19 of that as the season was suspended back in early March. Yesterday Dave Andrews confirmed what we all had suspicions of after his interview on NHL radio on May 1st.

The AHL has cancelled the season and the 2020 Calder Cup playoffs. For the first time in 83 years, The Calder Cup will not be awarded to any team. The Milwaukee Admirals will be recognized as the regular season and Western conference champions.

To be honest, I knew this was coming, with every other minor league organization canceling Seasons dropping like flies, this was inevitable. The AHL unlike the NHL relies heavily on gate Revenue, only a handful of teams throughout the league has TV deals and can rely on that money. But every other team regardless of the size of their Market, even Hershey, needs that gate Revenue, i e ticket sales, merchandising, Etc.

When my fiance asked if I was sad that the season ended, I wasn’t, I’m more as Pink Floyd one said, Comfortably Numb. It made complete sense to shut down the season, it may have been false hope that they extended it out as long as they did. Maybe some Deus Ex machina type solution would come in at the last minute and we get over this virus quickly. But that’s not going to happen, and that’s another show, don’t at me with your conspiracy theories and government hack theories.

I feel bad for the San Antonio Rampage, this team didn’t get any closer, their fan base didn’t get any closure. Why am I saying this, because the team is moving to Henderson, Nevada next season whenever that is. Ending a almost 20-year run in the state of Texas. There was no stick raising or a long video montage of the Rampage greatest moments, it just ended.

There will be more affiliation swapping, as St Louis Blues move their affiliation to Springfield, Massachusetts and the Springfield Thunderbirds could be rebranded into the Springfield Blues. It appears to be a done deal as the Carolina Hurricanes will move their affiliation out of Charlotte and to Chicago, well technically Rosemont Illinois. And the Chicago Wolves will be the new affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes, what will the Charlotte Checkers become, time will tell.

Washington appears to be re-upping the affiliation between Hershey and Washington, despite me being a fan of a rival, it makes all the sense in the world to keep this going. There is no reason to bring in the Pittsburgh Penguins or the New Jersey Devils, or the Seattle Team whenever that happens. You want short travel and logistically it makes sense for the Capitals to continue the affiliation deal with the Hershey Bears.

And so we enter into the longest offseason that the AHL will experience, it’s a long road ahead. But we will get through this, other sports will come back in some capacity throughout the late spring and summer. It’s not as much open waters as we think, there is land out there.

So for now, this might be the last Bears post I made for quite a while. Until a regular off season starts by the NHL, who knows where we go from here.

That’s My Opinion

Follow on Twitter @RBloss64.

Check out on podbean my Game Over series as we say goodbye to every NHL team whenever they are eliminated from playoffs or by their own accord.

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