Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Chris Terry calls 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 a year ago. They had a minus-113 goal differential. Their 4-28-1-3 mark at Total Mortgage Arena was the worst home record in AHL history.
When the New York Islanders hired Mathieu Darche as their new general manager in May 2025, he immediately indicated that a competitive Bridgeport team was an organizational priority. And one of his first orders of business was hiring Rocky Thompson to be the AHL club’s new head coach. Thompson’s resume was impressive: a Calder Cup Finals as 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 including 566 games in the AHL, where he ranks 10th all-time in penalty minutes (1,919).
There is often an inclination, especially with a new head coach coming in, to declare the past done and buried and never speak of it again. But the Islanders had several returning players – led by veteran forwards Terry, Adam Beckman and Liam Foudy – who had to confront last season before they could really dig into this season. To ignore it would be to brush aside its painful lessons.
“First, it’s a mindset, and we had to change that,” Thompson acknowledged. “And it was still lingering. There was no doubt. Like, we had a tough 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. And so our guys eliminated that area. We had some ups and downs, obviously, mistakes that we had to learn from. But they started to figure out what it took to win.”
Thompson also pushed his leadership group.
“I’ve been really hard on our guys,” Thompson continued, “and I have been hard 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 that they have to adhere to and I give them all the credit in the world. It’s not easy, but that’s what laid the foundation.”
Terry, a veteran of more than 1,100 professional games, has respect from the Bridgeport dressing room, and he believed in Thompson’s message.
“He’s super-smart,” Terry said of his coach. “He’s really intelligent within the game from a general standpoint all the way down to little details to help the individual as a player, and then as a group it benefits us.”
The Islanders play a physically demanding, aggressive system that pushes the puck up-ice and is skating-intensive. It requires tip-top physical conditioning, and Thompson made upgrading that a top early-season priority.
“Hard work,” Thompson said. “We’re going to outwork every team. We’re going to play hard. We’re going to check hard. We’re going to be a high-conditioned team, and we’re going to attack. No matter what, we are going to attack.
“Our guys embraced it, and it’s not an easy way to play. But they did what they were supposed to do.”
And just as importantly, they instilled those habits day after day in practice. Eventually that system became second nature.
“You’ve got to practice that way,” Thompson stressed. “If you don’t practice that way, you’ll never play that way. You’ve got to have enough rest. You’ve got to take care of yourself so that you can recover, and your body can do it again. That’s how they live their day-to-day.”
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 their last 13 regular-season games, including four victories down the stretch against the Bears. They won their last 10 home games, just a year after finishing with four home victories all season. In all, it was a 39-point improvement over last season.
“It’s been a long year so far,” Thompson said, “and a lot of hard work was put into it to get to this point. We’re building a foundation. I give the guys a ton of credit. They persevered through a lot of adversity this year, and that’s why they’re in the position they’re in.”
“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Terry said. “It took time for us to learn the systems and be comfortable with it. February on, I think you’ve really seen a by-product of the understanding we have and the ability we have to play as a group. The second half, it’s really taken off.”
The addition of Matt Luff from Springfield in February gave Bridgeport an added offensive weapon. Cole Eiserman and Victor Eklund, both recent first-round draft picks, have been stellar since making their pro debuts last month. Rookie Calum Ritchie, a first-rounder in 2023, is eligible to play for Bridgeport after skating in 65 NHL games this season.
How the Calder Cup Playoffs might unfold for this team is still to be seen. Maybe it all ends this week. Maybe it goes until June. But what is clear is that the Islanders are not a team that opponents will look forward to facing, especially in a playoff setting. They are a smothering, puck-hungry team.
Terry, a 17th-year pro in his fourth season in Bridgeport, has embraced the change. For one of the top AHL players of his generation, the Calder Cup Playoffs are energizing far beyond a statistical line. For all his longevity, this is just Terry’s eighth playoff appearance. His only real extended run was a trip to the conference finals with Charlotte in 2011. He’s as hungry as the rest of his teammates to send Bridgeport out a winner.
“The team success has just propelled me,” Terry explained. “It’s obviously on my bucket list of what I’d love to achieve – a Calder Cup – and we did the first the first stage of getting in.”
“The real season,” Thompson said, “begins now.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
