Hershey Bears head coach Todd Nelson had finally seen enough.

A 5-0 home loss to the Syracuse Crunch this past Saturday night at Giant Center set off the five-time Calder Cup champion. The Bears, back-to-back Calder Cup champions looking to become the first AHL team to three-peat since 1962, had been testing Nelson’s patience for quite some time.

• Jesse Puljujärvi Signs PTO With AHL Charlotte After Leaving Penguins
  
• AHL All-Star Classic Recap
• Subscribe today to watch the AHL all season on FloHockey

There had been a garish 9-0 loss at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Jan. 29. Then came a pair of wins at home against Bridgeport, a team buried at the bottom of the AHL. They were wins, yes, but as Nelson pointed out, the Bears had needed to score five goals in each game. They had also let a 2-0 lead disappear in the first game of that set and had fallen behind 3-1 in the follow-up game before being able to overtake an Islanders team that has only won 11 times in 46 games this season.

Saturday, though, that was enough for Nelson. Yes, the Bears had to play one skater short against the Crunch. Illnesses and injuries add up this time of the year. Top sniper Ethen Frank remains on recall with the Washington Capitals, something that is almost sure to continue for the rest of the season. But the Bears had just nine shots through 40 minutes, getting outshot 20-3 in the second period by a visiting opponent that had bussed in overnight from Syracuse after a home loss to Utica. The Crunch also had to go without captain Gabriel Dumont and standout goaltender Brandon Halverson. Just about every team in the AHL has to deal with some combination of NHL recalls, injuries, and illness in February.

So Nelson delivered a fiery post-game address. And it came from someone who has 434 AHL coaching wins, fifth-most in league history, and not one who tends to lace into his team publicly very often.

“Well, I definitely didn't expect that,” Nelson told the Hershey media. “The guys had four days off. We had two really good practices, I felt good about the game [Saturday], a lot of energy, and we were dead from [the get-go].

Just no life. It truly was an embarrassing effort. It's unacceptable, and it's happened now twice in the last couple weeks. I'm not going to use an excuse, the flu bug going around. We played short tonight -- I don't care. The bottom line is that the guys that we count upon to go out there and do a job to provide offense for us were not even in the building [Saturday]. They didn't even show up. [Recall Justin] Nachbaur tonight….played like he cared, and nobody else did. I was looking for guys to throw on the ice in the third period, and nobody wanted to be on there.

“It's embarrassing. That's pretty much it in a nutshell."

At 14-11-1-0 (.558), the Bears are a lackluster 20th in the AHL on home ice. This was a team that won 29 of its 36 home dates last season and had pulled out several dramatic home victories during the Calder Cup Playoffs. In their past two Calder Cup runs, they have gone a combined 16-5 at Giant Center, a building that is jammed with Bears fans whether it’s a Game 7 or a weeknight midseason game.

The Washington-Hershey union is 20 years old, and the two sides work closely to give prospects and veterans alike in Hershey every possible resource needed to succeed. If there is a desire to bus a day early on the road so that the team can get settled in, the Bears do it. The home dressing room at Giant Center got an offseason makeover to make it that much more comfortable for players, coaches, and staff to carry out their day-to-day work. And even after winning back-to-back Calder Cup titles, management quickly went to work last July to restock the roster in Hershey. Veteran forwards Luke Philp and Spencer Smallman signed. AHL standout veteran Brad Hunt signed to help anchor the blue line.

Standings-wise, the Bears look to be in good shape with a 28-13-5-0 record that has them tied with the Calgary Wranglers for second overall in the AHL and just two points off the league lead.

But open the hood, look at the engine, and you see some trouble. Just five points behind the Bears are the Penguins, who have five games in hand on Hershey. Those Penguins come to Hershey on Tuesday night for the teams’ first get-together since that 9-0 pounding last month. And what the Hershey schedule for the rest of February lacks in quantity in regard to opponents, it more than makes up for in quality. The Bears have to go back to Northeastern Pennsylvania this Saturday and then have a two-game trip south to Charlotte the following weekend.

Then comes the behemoth that is their March schedule. With the team in its 87th AHL season, firsts are hard to find. But the March schedule will provide something new for Hershey – a 10-game road trip that is the longest in team history. It starts March 7, and it will follow three difficult home games against the Penguins, Lehigh Valley, and Belleville to open the month.

Given the Bears’ place in the standings, they should easily secure another invitation to the Calder Cup Playoffs. But merely getting there is not the point.

Nelson has always had his own take on the regular season. For Nelson, it’s a six-and-a-half month preparation for what really matters -- the Calder Cup Playoffs. A means to an end. This is a head coach who has five Calder Cup rings and has sent one player after another on to NHL work in Washington and elsewhere.

Slip too much, and a team can find itself in a best-of-three series. In that spot, one loss puts a team on the brink of elimination. Those six-and-a-half months of work can disappear in just a few days.

Even if the Bears do win the Atlantic Division again, they are at best guaranteed a best-of-five series. Best-of-seven play does not kick in until the AHL playoff field is down to four teams.

Just ask the Providence Bruins, who have seen excellent regular-season performances quickly vaporize in quick playoff exits against the Hartford Wolf Pack the past two springs. Or the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the Bears’ match-up in the past two Calder Cup Finals. The Firebirds nearly saw their playoff run end quickly and abruptly in a first-round best-of-three match-up against Tucson in 2023 before they managed to survive and advance.

So what to make of Monday’s work by the Hershey front office? The Bears recalled defenseman Andrew Perrott along with forwards Ryan Hofer and Alex Suzdalev from the South Carolina Stingrays, the organization’s ECHL affiliate. Joining them in Hershey will be defenseman Hudson Thornton from the ECHL's Orlando Solar Bears.

Maybe bringing in those four players is merely a way to buttress a roster dealing with illness. But it could certainly attract some attention inside the Hershey dressing room. Nelson had singled out Nachbaur, a South Carolina recall, for praise after Saturday’s loss. Making his Hershey debut and only playing his ninth career AHL contest, Nachbaur provided a physical presence and tangled with Syracuse veteran Jujhar Khaira in a first-period fight.

ECHL players arrive in the AHL hungry. This is their big call-up, their key opportunity. Nachbaur made his case convincingly. If any of those recalls play Tuesday, they might do the same. And they might begin to edge out someone more established for ice time. This is the AHL. Even the league’s top players are only playing on the briefest of contracts. Toronto captain Logan Shaw’s three-year AHL deal was the longest in the league in years, and that is an All-Star veteran who is worth every bit of that deal in both money and term. The stars in the AHL don’t have a seven- or eight-year deal to carry them like their NHL counterparts do.

“[Nachbaur] cares,” Nelson continued in his post-game media comments. “He wants to be here. The guys that worked hard, they’re afraid of coming out of the line-up, so they want to stay in. But the guys that think they’re an automatic shoo-in to play, they were non-existent [Saturday].

“It has to come from within the room. I can go in there and yell and scream all that I want. Did it [Feb. 1] to get their attention. It has to come from the leadership group. It has to come from every individual.”

How To Watch The AHL On FloHockey 

The AHL is streaming on FloHockey and the FloSports app. Live games, replays, highlights and breaking news also will be available on both platforms.

NHL Prospect Coverage On FloHockey

The best, and most complete, coverage of the NHL minor league hockey and NHL Draft is found on FloHockey. Don't miss the latest new prospect guides, rankings and more from Chris Peters and the FloHockey staff.

Watch the AHL, ECHL, USHL, And More On FloHockey

FloHockey is the streaming home to some of the best hockey leagues in North America, including the ECHL and more. Check out the broadcast schedule to watch more hockey.

Join The Hockey Conversation On FloHockey Social

• Follow us on Twitter @FloHockey
• Follow us on Instagram @flohockey
• Follow us on TikTok @flohockeytv
• Watch us on YouTube
• Like us on Facebook