2024-25 Bridgeport Islanders: Historically Bad at Home; What Went Wrong

The 2024-25 Bridgeport Islanders home schedule has come to a close. They finished with a record of 4-28-1-3 at home. More numbers, you ask? They had a -70 goal differential on home ice. 146-76.

None of that is a typo. They finished with a points percentage of .167 on home ice. From October until now, they have won four games in Bridgeport, setting the record for the fewest home wins in league history. The 1987-88 Baltimore Skipjacks set the previous low, with an 8-27-5 (.263) home record.

That is double the amount of wins that Bridgeport posted this year to set what’ll surely prove to be an unbreakable record. Four home wins in one regular season. That level of unmatched futility begs the question: what went wrong? What led to such a horrid record?

#1: Horrific Goaltending

You can’t win if you don’t have goaltending.  As stated above, the Bridgeport Islanders allowed 146 goals on home ice this year. They did that in just 36 games. That’s an average of 4.06 goals per game, an impossible amount to concede and still try to win.

One of the biggest issues last year for Bridgeport was goaltending. The organization specifically brought in Marcus Hogberg to be the third goaltender and start in Bridgeport, helping to solidify a shaky position.

Then in the NHL, Semyon Varlamov suffered a season-ending injury in November. The New York Islanders recalled Hogberg, after just 11 AHL games. He posted a 2-5-3 record with a .898 SV% and a 3.26 GAA.

With Hogberg gone, that left the organization with the returning Jakub Skarek and Henrik Tikkanen. Tikkanen showed a lot of promise in 18 AHL games last year, posting a .930 SV% and 2.10 GAA.

For any number of reasons, Tikkanen played the most games for Bridgeport this year. In his 30 games, he posted a 6-18-3 record with a .865SV% and a 4.12 GAA. That’s never a recipe for success.

Skarek returned with a positive mindset, hoping to overcome his bad 2023-24 campaign. In training camp, he opened up on that: “Wasn’t that much fun to play, cause when you don’t win and don’t play well, it’s never fun.” He went on to say he had a good summer and felt prepared, and he even had a noticeably strong training camp.

He wound up playing just 22 games for Bridgeport, posting a 5-13-1 record with a .854 SV% and a 3.52 GAA, both decreasing from 2023-24 stats.

The organization brought Hunter Miska over from the KHL. After not playing in North America since 2021-22, he appeared in 12 games posting a 2-8-0 record to go with a dreary .861 SV% and a 4.28 GAA

Tristan Lennox played four games and posted a 0-3-0 record with a .832 SV% with a 4.44 GAA. Most recently, the team signed college-free agent TJ Semptimphelter.

He started their final home game and lost in a 5-3 defeat. By far, with this type of goaltending, the team never stood a chance. It’s never only a goalie’s fault, but not a single regular goaltender after Marcus Hogberg could stop more than a few pucks consecutively consistently.

#2 Defensive Woes

Another thing that set this ball rolling the wrong way was injuries. The team expected to have deep defensive depth headed by youngsters like Isaiah George and returning veterans like Grant Hutton. Instead, nine games into the AHL campaign, the NHL squad lost multiple players to injury, forcing them to recall both. Bridgeport lost both of those defensemen for two months or more.

Hutton, widely expected to be a key leader on the team, played just 29 games in the AHL this season. He suffered injuries in the AHL and played only one game from January 31 until March 2. Aidan Fulp, a college signing in his second pro season, suffered an injury and hasn’t played since February 7.

Samuel Bolduc leads the team in games played defensively. He played on NHL game in November, was publicly lambasted by Patrick Roy, and returned to the AHL afterward.

Calle Odelius and Travis Mitchell had up-and-down campaigns, but as youngsters, it’d be hard to expect much else. Christian Krygier and Cam McDonald, two players widely expected to spend the year in the ECHL played 26 combined games in the AHL.

Overall, with the injuries and prolonged absences of Hutton and George, leaving the team with Bolduc to lead them, set the team behind the 8-ball. They could not recover.

#3: No Special Offensive Talent

One thing the vast majority of AHL teams end up having is some good, solid prospects. The Bridgeport Islanders do not have any. Of the organization’s top-four prospects at forward, all four played college hockey this past season. Cole Eiserman, Kamil Bednarik, Danny Nelson, and Quinn Finley all played in the NCAA and all are set to remain in college for another year. The recently-acquired Calum Ritchie plays in the OHL and is not expected to play any time in the AHL next season as a ready-made NHL prospect.

That’s a crushing blow for the organization. If you don’t have any exciting offensive prospects, it leaves you hoping you’ve hit on lower-drafted forwards and veteran signings.

Julien Gauthier, expected to be a major veteran and first-line forward on the team, suffered a season-ending injury in November. Liam Foudy played ok, scoring 20 goals and 42 points in 68 games. Cole Bardreau and Tyce Thompson, two guys the team needed to be key contributors as veterans, failed. They combined for 39 points (Bardreau 18 pts, Thompson 21).

Prospects like Matt Maggio and Alex Jefferies did not produce consistently and were disappointing. The team traded away William Dufour as a throw-in in the Brock Nelson trade.

Bright Spots:

The biggest bright spots came from tried-and-true veterans Brian Pinho (25-23-48) and Chris Terry.

Terry, a beloved figure in Bridgeport, broke the all-time scoring record for the Bridgeport Islanders this season. He’s posted a 19-47-66 line in his 67 games. He’s been one of the brightest spots on a team with very little to celebrate.

When I asked Simon Holmstrom about Terry and his impact the other day, Holmstrom couldn’t hide his smile. Holmstrom played with Terry a lot back in 2021-22.

Holmstrom called him a “great guy and an unbelievable player… Just a lot of fun to play with him.”

So, Now What?

So, from top to bottom, the team had too many holes and it led to historic futility. If you’ve paid any attention in recent days, Bridgeport GM Chris Lamoriello has been busy. He’s signed four college-free agents to the forward group (Max Dorrington, Ross Mitton, Gleb Veremyev, Joey Larson).

Cameron Berg, a 2021-fourth-round draft pick, left college and signed with Bridgeport this spring. The team knows how they were constructed this year was nowhere near good enough and they’ve already begun the rebuilding process.

Defensively, too. Jesse Pulkkinen, the 2024 second-round pick, has already made his Bridgeport after coming over to North America after his European season ended. Semptimphelter will be a key goalie piece, as Skarek is a UFA and is not expected to re-sign.

Coaching Change?

As for the coaching staff, your guess is as good as mine. Rick Kowalsky replaced Brent Thompson ahead of the 2023-24 season as head coach after serving as an assistant in the previous two. This season, Bridgeport as a whole is 15-48-7. His record for those two years is 40-86-16.

Islanders President and GM Lou Lamoriello has made it clear, that the record isn’t the biggest thing in the AHL, but rather player development. With the successful callups of Kyle MacLean and Marc Gatcomb in two consecutive seasons, that could be Kowalsky’s lifeline to another season.

Kowalsky has a long history with Lamoriello, beginning to coach his ECHL Devils affiliate in the 2006-07 season. Lamoriello promoted him to the AHL Head coach in 2010, a position he held long after Lamoriello left the organization. He remained the AHL coach until 2018 when he received a promotion to the NHL bench under John Hynes. He held that role until the 2021 offseason when he was let go and signed on with Lamoriello and the Bridgeport Islanders.

All this to say, it’s clear Kowalsky has a very strong resumé and is respected in the hockey world. With the rosters he’s had in Bridgeport, it’d be pretty hard to do much more than he has.

That said, winning four games at home in one season is wholly unacceptable, and he’d be the first to tell you. Whether or not that and the ugly two-year record in charge costs him his job remains to be seen.

Bridgeport has two more games this season, Friday in Hartford and Saturday in Providence. Until then, it’ll remain the status quo.