During the 2019-20 season, Chris Terry was playing for the Grand Rapids Griffins, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings. The veteran forward was having one of the best campaigns of his 16-year pro career with 21 goals and 30 assists for 51 points in 57 games before the world was turned upside down thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. The rest of the season, as well as the 2020 Calder Cup Playoffs, was cancelled including a night that was supposed to be extra special for Terry.
The Griffins had scheduled “Chris Terry Bobblehead Night” for March 14th, 2020 but it never happened.
“They had 2,500 bobbleheads so I ended up getting a couple of boxes sent to me,” recalled Terry, a 5th round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2007.
Well, the veteran forward is finally getting his bobblehead night although he’ll have to share the honor with another player.
This Saturday at 3pm, the Bridgeport Islanders will host the Hershey Bears at Total Mortgage Arena with the first 2,500 fans receiving a Chris Terry/Matt Martin bobblehead. With this giveaway, the AHL affiliate of the New York Islanders is linking the team’s past with the present.
“It’s really cool,” said Terry. “It’s a tremendous honor to be chosen as the guy to have the bobblehead. I just got to see it last week and I’m really excited about it.”
Terry will be representing the team’s present wearing a Bridgeport Islanders jersey. The team, formerly known as the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, changed their name to the Islanders before the 2021-2022 season. Martin will represent the team’s past. He played one full season for the Sound Tigers in 2009-10 and played 7 games with the team the following season before getting called up to the Islanders with whom he spent 14 of his 16 NHL seasons.
For Terry, who has played four of the last five seasons for Bridgeport, it’s an honor to share a bobblehead with Martin who is now a Special Assistant to New York Islanders General Manager Mathieu Darche.
“It means a lot,” said the 36-year-old native of Brampton, Ontario. “Matty and I are the same age. We played junior against each other. I remember his early days in Bridgeport. What he’s meant to this franchise and what he’s done throughout his career and now being in a front office job…I don’t think you can represent the organization any better than him. To be alongside him is a tremendous honor and something really cool.”
What’s also really cool is that the Bridgeport Islanders, just like the parent team, are locked in a push for a berth in the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs.
The B-Isles are one of four teams fighting for the final three playoff spots in the Atlantic Division. The top six teams in the division will qualify for the playoffs and right now the Islanders are tied with Springfield (St. Louis Blues) for the final spot with 56 points but the Thunderbirds hold the tie-breaker leaving the B-Isles out if the playoffs were to start today. Hershey (Washington Capitals), who the Islanders play on Saturday, is in 4th place with 62 points and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (Philadelphia Flyers) are in 5th place with 58 points.
Bridgeport has struggled in recent years and they haven’t made the playoffs since the 2021-22 season so they are thrilled to be playing meaningful games this season in March and April.
“I’m extremely excited,” said Terry. “The last couple of years haven’t been where we want to be. 13 games left and right in the thick of things…these are the type of games you want to be in.”
A big reason for the turnaround this season has been new Head Coach Rocky Thompson who brought with him an impressive resume to Bridgeport. Thompson had prior AHL head coaching experience with the Chicago Wolves including a trip to the Calder Cup Finals in 2019. He also coached in junior hockey leading the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League to the 2017 Memorial Cup championship.
And now Thompson is working his magic in Bridgeport.
“He’s done a tremendous job,” said Terry. “What we’ve established this year is having an identity of how we have to play. He’s definitely changed the environment and the culture within the locker room and we’re seeing the success of being where we are today.”
Being in contention for a playoff spot has made what was already a milestone season for the franchise that much more special. The Bridgeport Sound Tigers/Islanders franchise is celebrating its 25th season and to commemorate their silver anniversary, the team has been having “Sound Tigers Saturdays” bringing back the Sound Tigers logo for Saturday home games.
“I think it’s been really neat,” said Terry who will be donning the specially designed jersey again this Saturday. “I really love the jersey. It’s something cool and something a little different that we get to wear on Saturdays that gets the crowd excited and really brings back the history of the organization.
We’ve had a tremendous following in Bridgeport and a lot of loyal fans for the 25 years so I think it’s a real tribute to them.”
This will be the final “Sound Tigers Saturday” of the season but those loyal fans are praying that this won’t be the final time that the Sound Tigers logo will be worn on the ice. There have been reports, neither confirmed nor denied by the Islanders, that the franchise is going to be relocating to Hamilton, Ontario at the end of this season. The rumors have the fan base concerned that they could be saying goodbye to their team.
The players have certainly heard those reports as well, but for the moment, the objective is to punch their ticket to the Calder Cup Playoffs.
“We play the game and we hear the noise but right now the focus is on playoffs,” said Terry. “It’s out of our control what happens but yeah obviously it could be the last one…TBD I guess.”
There’s a lot to be excited about for this Saturday’s Bridgeport Islanders game. The team is fighting for the playoffs, there’s the Chris Terry/Matt Martin bobblehead giveaway and the team is wearing Sound Tigers jersey against Hershey.
But there will certainly be mixed emotions for the fans in attendance. For 25 years, hockey fans in Bridgeport have enjoyed having their own team and Islanders fans from Long Island have enjoyed making the short trip to Bridgeport to see future Islanders in action.
It would be a shame to see it come to an end.