Bridgeport’s dramatic home turnaround sets stage for Hershey playoff opener

Bridgeport’s playoff opener against Hershey carried a built-in edge that would have been unthinkable a year ago. The Islanders had won all four regular-season meetings with the Bears over the final month, including a 2-1 victory in their most recent matchup, and they opened the Atlantic Division first round with a home-ice profile that looked nothing like last spring’s disaster.

The turnaround at Total Mortgage Arena was the headliner. Bridgeport finished 21-12-1-2 at home in 2025-26 and closed the regular season with a 10-game home winning streak after posting the worst home record in AHL history the year before at 4-28-1-3. The Islanders won only 15 of 72 games in 2024-25 and were minus-113 in goal differential, numbers that made the reset around the franchise impossible to miss. New York Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche made Bridgeport competitiveness a priority after taking over in May 2025, and the organization followed by hiring Rocky Thompson as head coach on June 23, 2025.

That move gave the Islanders a different identity and a different voice. Thompson came in with a track record that mattered, having coached the Chicago Wolves from 2017 to 2020 and gone 113-71-29 while reaching the 2019 Calder Cup Finals. “We’re not going to be the punching bags anymore,” Thompson said, and Bridgeport’s home record offered the clearest proof that the message landed. The Bears, meanwhile, had to deal with a playoff series against a team that had already solved them repeatedly and now had the confidence that comes from surviving a full season-long rebuild.

The individual name that widened the series beyond Bridgeport and Hershey was Ilya Protas. The rookie led all AHL first-year players in scoring at 29-37-66, was named the AHL Rookie of the Month for April after producing 11 points in six games, and made his NHL debut during that stretch. Washington recalled him on April 6 when he had 62 points in 66 games, a number that underscored how quickly his game had translated. Matt Luff added another layer to Bridgeport’s depth with 13 points in 20 games after arriving from the St. Louis organization.

The same opening-night map also made Toronto-Rochester feel like another series with a short fuse. The home team had won all six regular-season meetings between the Marlies and Americans, and Toronto had just closed the year with a home-and-home sweep of Rochester. Milwaukee carried a seven-point edge into Manitoba, while San Diego’s return to the postseason sent the Gulls into Colorado for Game 1. With the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs starting April 21, the first week arrived with familiar opponents, heavy home-ice patterns and enough recent head-to-head history to make every opening-night read feel like a clue.