HERSHEY, PA — As Derek King walked into the media room on Thursday night, he looked down from the podium and smiled.
“Too dumb to quit,” he said proudly.
The Hershey Bears had just defeated the Bridgeport Islanders 5-2 in front of their home fans, sweeping the higher-seeded Isles out of their best-of-three Atlantic Division First Round playoff series in shockingly simple fashion (at least for this team) and delivering King his first postseason series win as an AHL head coach.
“I think that’s the first time this year I’ve had the same lineup twice in a row,” King observed.
After years of AHL dominance, including back-to-back championship teams in 2023 and 2024, Hershey transitioned to a much younger roster this season under King, leaning on 19-year-old Ilya Protas and 20-year-old Andrew Cristall to be their two top scorers.
While the Bears’ youth and inexperience were already limiting factors for a contender, they also suffered from seemingly unending roster chaos due to frequent injuries and NHL call-ups to the Washington Capitals. The constantly revolving door meant forward lines and defense pairings were different most nights. Chemistry? Well, the guys would just have to figure it out the best they could.
Notable roster changes
- Sheldon Rempal placed on unconditional waivers and returns to KHL
- Calle Rosen traded for Corey Schueneman
- Sam Bitten acquired from Springfield, Brett Leason signed as an unrestricted free agent
- Longterm injuries to Eriks Mateiko, Aaron Ness, Louie Belpedio, Spencer Smallman, Matt Strome, Leon Muggli, Ryan Chesley, David Gucciardi, and Cam Allen
- Ethen Frank and Hendrix Lapierre fully graduating to the NHL
- Call-ups to the NHL for Ivan Miroshnichenko, Ilya Protas, Bogdan Trineyev, and Clay Stevenson
“You learn from it, let’s put it that way,” King said. “I’ve dealt with it before, with (the) Rockford (IceHogs) being young and all that, but not a lot of the call-ups like this. Not using our East Coast Hockey League team, and I think it was Indy at the time. I’ve never seen something like this where, you know, sometimes we had three or four East Coast guys in the lineup. They all came up and did a great job, but I like when I have my solid lineup.”
One of the most pivotal games of the season may have come on January 28, when the Bears took on the Rochester Americans. The team was struggling mightily and sinking in the Atlantic Division standings — losing six of their previous seven games in either overtime or the shootout — and was without four of their starting six defensemen due to injury, including captain Aaron Ness, Ryan Chesley, David Gucciardi, and Cam Allen.
Hershey Bears lines and unavailable list on January 28
With Phip Waugh, a McLean, Virginia, native signed to a professional tryout, on their top pairing and Reilly Webb recalled from the ECHL, the Bears defeated Rochester 3-1, killing all three of their power plays and limiting them to 28 shots.
“Hey, good job, way to stay with it,” King said in the locker room, before praising several players individually. “And then, like I say, and you guys say it now. What are we?”
The entire locker room then said in unison: “Too dumb to quit.”
Derek King postgame locker room speech on January 28
“That’s what we’ve done all year,” King said. “We go in spurts, we’re streaky. I think we went 9-1 earlier in the year, and then we went another 10 or 11 games with getting points. And then we went eight or nine games without a win.”
Three nights later, the Bears fell behind 3-2 to the Utica Comets with 5:33 remaining after initially taking a 2-1 lead in the first period. Ivan Miroshnichenko tied the game with 54 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. There, the Russian sniper played the hero again, winning the game in sudden death.
Ivan Miroshnichenko OTGWG against Utica on January 31
The victory was Hershey’s first in Utica, New York, in four years. They also managed to snag two points with star forward Bogdan Trineyev and both of their starting goaltenders in Washington. Their lineup, out of necessity, featured 11 forwards and 7 defensemen.
“So what are we?” King asked afterward.
“Too dumb to quit!” the players replied.
Derek King postgame locker room speech on January 31
On February 21, against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the Bears summoned forward Kaden Bohlsen from ECHL South Carolina. While Bohlsen arrived in Hershey, his gear did not, getting lost on the flight up to Central Pennsylvania. The mishap kept him off the ice for the team’s morning skate.
“I said, ‘Just come to the rink like you’re playing,'” King recalled. “It’s not easy. You’re playing your first game with the Bears, and you’re not sure if you’re in the lineup because your equipment’s missing.”
Bohlsen’s gear eventually arrived at Giant Center around 2:30-3:00 pm, and hours later, he was making his Hershey debut as if nothing was ever amiss. The game started well; Jon McDonald scored 2:17 in to give Hershey a 1-0 lead early. But then the Bears surrendered four consecutive goals to the Phantoms in a little over 20 minutes of game time.
A team not as resilient could have easily thrown in the towel. Instead, the Bears battled back. Henrik Rybinski scored consecutive goals 41 seconds apart on the same shift early in the second period.
Henrik Rybinski’s two goals against Lehigh Valley on February 21
Then Bohlsen crashed the net, found his own rebound, and tied the game at 4. They scored three goals in 2:56 of game time.
Kaden Bohlsen’s first AHL goal
The Bears would end up losing the game 6-4, but the comeback bid, combined with a big play by an unlikely hero, was another example of how the 2025-26 Bears keep fighting seemingly oblivious to their dwindling odds for a positive outcome.
“Yeah, they kept coming, right?” King said. “And a lot of people are asking me about this ‘too dumb to quit’ thing. It’s not a knock on them being actually dumb. It’s just they’re relentless. They don’t quit.
“Like, there are teams you can play over the year, course of the season, and you get them up 4-1, and they’ll just lay down, and the game’s over. They don’t have any pushback. We have pushback. It’s not always pretty. Sometimes our results aren’t the best, like tonight. I thought we had a lot of pushback. And we didn’t quit. We kept going and going and going. We had opportunities that just weren’t going in.”
According to King, the mantra dates back to much earlier in his coaching career, over a decade ago. From 2009 through 2015, King served as an assistant (2009-2014) and an associate coach (2014-15) for the Toronto Marlies, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ AHL affiliate. King was first brought on as a member of Dallas Eakins’ coaching staff, then served under Steve Spott and Gord Dineen.
“I coached with a gentleman in Toronto, and he was on the bench after the game,” King explained. “We won a game where we were down like three or four goals. And when we were walking out, he said, ‘These guys are just too dumb to quit.’
“And it’s not a bad thing to say. It was more like these guys; it just doesn’t matter what the score is, they just keep coming and coming and coming. Hey, I’ve been in hockey games, you’re down 6-1, and it’s five minutes left in the third, and it’s just like, okay, just dump it in, get off, dump it in, get off, and just get the game over with, and regroup and get ready for the next team. These guys, they could be [down] 10-0 with five minutes left in the game, and they’ll still compete, and that’s where that comes from.”
The players have generally accepted the saying as a badge of honor.
“We’re just a super resilient team,” Andrew Cristall said. “No matter what the score is or whatever the situation is, we keep going no matter what. We always think we have a fighting chance. So that’s what we think of it. And I think it’s kind of funny that, you know, whenever we have a comeback win, we kind of go to that. So it’s good.”
“Our group, we never really give up,” Matt Strome said. “There have been times where we’ve had some stinkers of games, but you know, we bounce back quick the next game, so yeah, I guess we are too dumb to quit.”
As the Bears turn their attention to their second-round series in the Atlantic Division Semifinals, they suddenly have nearly their entire roster healthy as they look to take on intrastate, I-81 Rival, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, who will have been off for 12 days due to their first-round bye at puck drop for Game 1.
The Bears went 3-5-2 against the Penguins during the regular season, getting outscored 39-25 in those 10 contests. Those statistics wouldn’t necessarily bode well for most teams, but the Bears seem to be finding their stride and identity at the right time.
“These guys just find a way,” King said. “It doesn’t matter what the score is, where we are in the standings. You know, you have a bad game, they tuck it away, they forget about it, and they come back, and they bounce back.
“They’re too dumb to quit.”
