
Western Conference Finalist Coachella Valley Battle-Tested In 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs
Coachella Valley FirebirdsThe Coachella Valley Firebirds have been through it all and then some in their inaugural season in the American Hockey League (AHL), and they're hoping they aren't done quite yet as they look to put themselves two wins away from the 2023 Calder Cup Finals with Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals on the docket for Saturday night.
The AHL affiliate of the expansion NHL franchise, Seattle Kraken, the Firebirds first season began with a challenge.
With their new home rink in Palm Springs, California undergoing delays during the pandemic, they began play in the AHL this season with what was essentially 22 straight road games. They didn't get their first home game in at Acrisure Arena until December 18th, but the Firebrids met the challenge head-on going 14-5-3 in that grueling opening stretch.
"Yes a couple of them were 'home games' but looking back on it, and we talked about it with the guys to have them all together at the start of the year we handled it as a challenge for the group but I think it's an easier challenge when you don't know any different," Firebirds head coach Dan Bylsma told InsideAHLHockey.com earlier this week. "If we had played five games at home and then 22 on the road it would have been a bigger challenge than just facing those 22 games right off the hop."
Bylsma said the team challenged themselves by making 45 wins in the regular season their goal in spite of beginning the year with 22 games away from Acrisure Arena.
"It was it was a great time for our team to come together and kind of figure out how we were going to be a good team - a good, winning team - and the guys certainly did that," Bylsma added of the early-season challenge setting the tone for the season.
Despite finishing with the second-best record in the AHL in the regular season at 48-17-7, the Firebirds - because of the Pacific Division's wonky playoff format - found themselves, as the 2nd place finishing team in the division, hosting the Tucson Roadrunners (ARZ) in a best-of-three opening round series. The Roadrunners won Game 2, forcing a winner-take-all elimination game in Game 3.
The Firebirds also faced elimination in the Pacific Division Semifinal Round against Colorado, where they overcame a 2-1 series deficit by staving off elimination in Game 4 before winning the series in the all-decisive Game 5.
And if that wasn't enough in the battle-tested department, they defeated the AHL's top regular season team, Calgary, in the Pacific Division Finals - winning the winner-take-all Game 5 of that series in overtime.
"Yes... yes we are," Byslma laughed of being asked about being battle-tested in these playoffs - staving off elimination in the best-of-three first round play-in series with Tucson in addition to the following two rounds of the post-season.
"I maybe forgot... how awesome playoff hockey is," Byslma admitted. "How high the emotions are, how low the emotions are, how desperate the emotions are... of playoff hockey, and our team going into the playoffs we were certainly a tested team."
The Firebirds didn't have Andrew Poturalski to begin the postseason. He was expected to be out for the season after suffering a serious injury on an accidental unfortunate hockey play and having surgery in early February, only to return in Game 3 of the Pacific Division Finals and scoring the game-winning series-clinching overtime goal in Game Five.
Jesper Froden and Tye Kartye were also up in the NHL with the Seattle Kraken on their Stanley Cup Playoff run into the second round.
While the Firebirds have overcome every challenge thrown their way thus far, the Milwaukee Admirals will certainly bring a unique challenge to the table as the Western Conference Finals brings about the first meetings between the two teams since they did not play each other in the regular season.
"[An opponent] we haven't seen and probably one we haven't seen anything like, so far this season," Bylsma said of the Admirals, noting the size of their forward core and their big-bodied center ice depth down the middle with several forwards coming down from Nashville at the end of the year.
"They want to play a big physical grinding out game with those big bodies. And that's something we haven't seen all season and something that will probably be our biggest challenge to date," Byslma said of Milwaukee's game. "Not to mention that when you scout their team and you look at the individual players, you're you're looking at, it's hard to count up all the NHL games, because a lot of guys with a lot of NHL experience and a lot of NHL games. So this is going to be a more experienced team and a more NHL type team than we've seen all season."