New mindset lets Isles turn the page on disastrous ’24-’25 season | TheAHL.com
Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
Chris Terry calling it “scar tissue.”
The 2025-26 Bridgeport Islanders didn’t have much of a foundation to build on after a disastrous 2024-25 season. The team won just 15 of 72 games last year. They had a goal differential of minus-113. Their 4-28-1-3 mark at Total Mortgage Arena was the worst home record in AHL history.
When the New York Islanders are recruiting Mathieu Darche as their new general manager in May 2025, he quickly demonstrated that Bridgeport’s competitive team was the organization’s top priority. And one of his first orders of business was hiring Rocky Thompson to be the new coach of the AHL club. Thompson’s resume was impressive: the Calder Cup Finals as the head coach of the Chicago Wolves, two conference finals in four years as an assistant in Oklahoma City, a Memorial Cup title with Windsor of the OHL, NHL experience as an assistant in San Jose and Philadelphia.
And as a player, 10 pro seasons included 566 games in the AHL, where he ranks 10th all-time in penalty minutes (1,919).
There is often a tendency, especially when a new coach comes in, to declare the past done and buried and never talk about it again. But the Islanders had plenty of returning players – led by veteran forward Terry, Adam Beckman again Liam Foudy – which they had to deal with last season before they could get into this season well. To ignore it would be to brush aside its painful lessons.
“First of all, it’s a mindset, and we had to change that,” Thompson admitted. “And it was still lingering. There was no question. Like, we had a hard time with this thing. You have to learn what it takes to win hockey games.
“You can’t cheat the game. You cheat the game, the game will humble you. So our guys finished that area. We had mistakes and setbacks, obviously, mistakes we had to learn from. But they started to find out what it takes to win.”
Thompson also pushed his leadership team.
“I’ve been very tough on our guys,” Thompson continued, “and I’ve been tough on my leaders, and you have to be. It’s the same message for everybody. It’s the same standard for everybody. Not just the young guys, but the older guys, there’s a standard they have to stick to and I give them all the credit in the world. It’s not easy, but that’s the bottom line.”
Terry, a veteran of more than 1,100 professional games, has the respect of the Bridgeport locker room, and he believed in Thompson’s message.
“He’s very smart,” Terry said of his coach. “He’s really smart about the game from the general view down to the little details to help each individual as a player, and then as a team benefit us.”
The Islanders play a power-hungry, aggressive system that pushes the puck up-ice and skates a lot. It requires high physical conditioning, and Thompson has made improving that a priority for the first season.
“Hard work,” Thompson said. “We will beat all the teams, we will play hard, we will test a lot, we will be a high level team, we will attack, no matter what we do we will attack.
“Our guys accepted it, and it’s not an easy way to play. But they did what they had to do.”
And most importantly, they put those habits into practice every day. Eventually that system became second nature.
“You have to practice that way,” Thompson emphasized. “If you don’t train that way, you’ll never play that way. You have to get enough rest. You have to take care of yourself to recover, and your body to do it again. That’s how they live day in and day out.”
Now their reward is a trip to the Calder Cup Playoffs, Bridgeport’s first since 2022, and a first-round date with the Hershey Bears. The Islanders won 10 of 13 regular season games, including four against the Bears. They have won their last 10 home games, a year after completing a four-game home win streak all season. Overall, it was a 39-point improvement over last season.
“It’s been a long year so far,” Thompson said, “and it’s been a lot of hard work to get to this point. We’re building a foundation. I give the guys a ton of thanks. They’ve endured a lot of adversity this year, and that’s why they’re where they are.”
“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” said Terry. “It took us a while to learn the systems and get comfortable with them. In February, I think you saw the result of the understanding we have and the ability we have to play as a team. The second half, we really came out.”
The addition of Matt Luff from Springfield in February gave Bridgeport an additional offensive weapon. Cole Eiserman again Victor Eklundboth recent first-round draft picks, have been stellar since making their pro debuts last month. Rookie Calum Ritchiefirst round pick in 2023, is eligible to play for Bridgeport after skating in 65 NHL games this season.
How the Calder Cup Playoffs might fare for this team remains to be seen. Maybe it all ends this week. Maybe it continues until June. But what is clear is that the Islanders are not a team that the enemy will be eager to face, especially in the playoffs. They are a smoking, puck-hungry team.
Terry, a 17-year champion in his fourth season at Bridgeport, welcomed the change. For one of the AHL’s best players of his generation, the Calder Cup Playoffs offer the potential to surpass the stat line. In his long career, this is only Terry’s eighth appearance. His only extended game was a trip to the conference finals against Charlotte in 2011. He is just as hungry as his teammates to send Bridgeport a winner.
“The team’s success just inspired me,” explained Terry. “Obviously it’s on my bucket list of what I’d like to achieve – the Calder Cup – and we’ve made the first step in.”
“The real season,” Thompson said, “starts now.”
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
