Welcome back to Field Pass Hockey’s American Hockey League podcast, The Holy GrAHL, where your hosts, Andrew Rinaldi, Zack Power, and Corey Swartz, are back to get you set for the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs! Episode 65 takes you around the league with a special look at each of the upcoming series, plus a special guest to help put a bow on some of the action from the first round. What knowledge helps Zack sleep at night? Does Tucson stand a chance at beating Coachella Valley (spoilers: they don’t)? The answers to all that and more this week.
First, the crew looks at the news recap of the week, which saw the Minnesota Wild announce that they will not renew the contracts of head coach Tim Army and assistant coaches Nate DiCasmirro and Nolan Yonkman. The announcement happened shortly after Iowa’s loss to the Rockford IceHogs in the first round of the postseason. The organization will go in a different direction, joining San Diego, Grand Rapids, and Henderson as teams needing new bench bosses before the puck drops in the fall.
Next, a very special guest Sam Wismer from Flyers Knitty Gritty joins the show to talk about the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and their loss in the first round to the Charlotte Checkers. Sam talks about what went right and what didn’t, as the Phantoms fell short in three games, and about the Hartford Wolf Pack dropping the Springfield Thunderbirds. The crew looks ahead to the series between the Hershey Bears and the Charlotte Checkers, as well as the Providence Bruins taking on Hartford.
After that, we take a spin around the rest of the league for a comprehensive look at the other series taking place. The crew recaps the action from the North, Central, and Pacific while previewing the series coming later in the second round. It’ll get you set for action in the second round as the series shift to a best-of-five. The previews include important questions to be answered when the puck drops about each team if they plan to contend for the Calder Cup.
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