'I take it personal': Firebirds left off the AHL's all-league and all-rookie teams
If Coachella Valley Firebirds head coach Dan Bylsma was looking for a way to light a fire under his team for the Calder Cup Playoffs, he already has something he should be using.
The American Hockey League announced its regular season award winners, all-league and all-rookie teams late last week, with the exception of its MVP award, and the Firebirds are noticeably absent from the list.
“Yes, I noticed,” Bylsma said following Sunday’s regular season finale. “And yes, I take it personal.”
The lack of acknowledgement comes as a bit of a surprise for a team that finished the regular season with the best record in the Western Conference and the second-best in the entire league, after only the Hershey Bears.
The Firebirds, additionally, scored the most goals in their conference and allowed the fewest.
Yet players from other teams within the conference were recognized by the league.
Some of the awards, such as the Hap Holmes Trophy, given to the goaltenders who allowed the fewest goals this season, were statistically based. So, there’s really no room for argument over the Willie Marshall Award, given to the leading scorer in the league, and the John B. Sollenberger Trophy, given to the leading point-getter. Those were presented to Adam Gaudette of the Springfield Thunderbirds and Mavrik Bourque of the Texas Stars, respectively.
Yet no Firebird was named to the all-league or all-rookie teams, which were the result of voting by league coaches and media members and not tied to statistics.
“We already talked about it,” Bylsma said about his team. “There’s a lot of guys who had great seasons. Kole Lind is up there in points. Max (McCormick), our goaltender, our rookies. We feel like there’s plenty of candidates to put in there.”
On the six-person all-rookie team, the forwards were Josh Doan of the Tucson Roadrunners, Brad Lambert of the Manitoba Moose and Logan Stankoven of the Texas Stars. The defensemen were Brandt Clarke of the Ontario Reign and Logan Mailloux of the Laval Rocket. The goaltender was Joel Blomqvist of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Doan finished the season with 26 goals and 20 assists; Lambert had 20 goals and 32 assists and Stankoven recorded 24 goals and 33 assists. All three had solid seasons, with Doan leading all rookies in goals, Stankoven leading all rookies in points (57) and Clarke leading all first-year players in assists.
The argument for the Firebirds is that Shane Wright had 22 goals and 25 assists, Ryan Winterton had 22 goals and 13 assists and Logan Morrison had 16 goals, 25 assists and a 67% shootout percentage for a team that finished first in its conference.
Bears goaltender Hunter Shepard, Moose blueliner Kyle Capobianco and defenseman Brad Hunt of the Colorado Eagles joined Bourque, Gaudette and Stankoven on the AHL’s First All-Star Team. Blomqvist and Clarke were joined by Jake Christiansen and Trey Fix-Wolansky of the Cleveland Monsters, Samuel Fagemo of the Reign and Rocco Grimaldi of the Chicago Wolves on the Second All-Star Team.
Lind finished the season sixth in total points in the league (65), more than Fagemo (62), who played for a team that finished third in the same division. Lind’s total was also higher than Fix-Wolansky (60) and Stankoven (57).
McCormick was fourth in the league in goals (32) and 12th in total points (60). Coachella Valley goaltender Chris Driedger finished the season fourth in the league in goals-against average (2.26).
Andrew John covers the Coachella Valley Firebirds for The Desert Sun and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at andrew.john#desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: 'I take it personal': Firebirds snubbed from AHL all-league teams
