Pro Hockey at 10:30 a.m. | "Good time to play"

By Michael Fornabaio (@fornabaioctp)

Some AHL players say morning games are nothing too different from games at conventional times. But there's one big difference when the crowd is mostly schoolkids on field trips: Different moments than usual produce the loudest cheers.

"Yeah, you definitely hear it," Bridgeport Islanders forward Tyce Thompson said. "You hear the buzz in the arena. It's nice, whether it's just a big hit or something, or, obviously, a goal. Any time there's something to cheer about, you definitely hear it from the kids."

Lehigh Valley visits Total Mortgage Arena on Wednesday morning at 10:30 a.m., the Islanders' second morning game of the season.

These games traditionally draw nice crowds, symbolic of the team's relationship with local schools and the community at large. When Bridgeport hosted Hershey in November, attendance was 7,068.

"Usually it's a unique crowd with the school games," head coach Rick Kowalsky said, "because the kids may not be watching the game, but they just like the fact they're not in school, and they make lots of noise. And then sometimes I've been at them where the third period there's barely anybody in the stands."

That's one reason these games are at 10:30 now instead of 11, hoping to keep as many kids as possible from having to get back on the bus before the game ends.

"I remember my first ever morning game being in Springfield, which was a great atmosphere," Brian Pinho said. "A bunch of kids, it's loud -- it's almost too loud at the start of the game, but I think they're really fun.

"And it's 10:30, so -- we practice at 10. You're used to skating that early," he added. "I think it's just a good time to play."

The morning games in Bridgeport go back to the team's third season. Bridgeport came into "Cool Fun 101" on Dec. 17, 2003, on a 20-game unbeaten streak with points in 22 in a row. But Wilkes-Barre/Scranton won that game 3-2.

That crowd of 5,130 was its second-loudest in the second intermission, when 50 Cent's then-recent hit "In Da Club" pumped through the arena. They screamed when they heard the riff and sang along with gusto. That crowd was its loudest when the arena cut out of the song as the teams returned the ice. Not happy campers, those kids.

But even if they get excited about different things than their parents might, the kids can get the players pumped up, captain Cole Bardreau said.

"The crowd is more influential than I think people think, yeah. It can cause momentum turns pretty quick," Bardreau said, "whether it's something as simple as a big hit or a blocked shot.

"So it is a game of momentum changes. ... It's capitalizing on those and being able to get yourself out of little ruts or down periods, and take advantage of that and keep going."

Speaking of momentum, it took a few years to for the morning games to build it in the stands, but now the team's 16 biggest crowds for midweek games (Monday through Thursday) are all school-group morning games. The team added a springtime morning game to its usual fall game in 2011 and has played at least two home games in the morning every year since except the COVID-shortened 2021 season.

There are off-ice programs to go with the game, too. Past years have included workbooks with hockey-themed math or science, or team staff and others talking to groups of older students about sports management before games.

The day is a break from the school routine for the kids, though it can mess up players' routines a bit.

"Especially guys who have played, you know, five-plus years, they have their habits, their routines dialed in," Bardreau said. "Whether it's going back (after a morning skate), getting lunch, getting a nap in. So that kind of throws a little wrench in it.

"But at the same time, I think guys are pros for the most part. They adapt. And I think there's a good deal of guys who kind of just like getting up and playing instead of having all day to sleep and think on it."

Pinho counts himself as one of them. He said his preparation for a morning game isn't too different than preparation for, say, practice.

"I would say maybe try to eat a little more often," Pinho said. "Maybe, like, slip a banana in there before the game, something, or in between periods, something that I wouldn't do for practice. But not too much, not any different."

Preparation is key, Kowalsky said, both mentally and physically, and it starts the day before.

"Hydration, rest," he said. "You're only getting one meal in in that morning, and you've got to get it in early because of the 10:30 start. Our pregame meal on the road is 12, 12:30 for seven o'clock games. So I think that's the biggest adjustment. But at the end of the day, our practice time is right around this time."

The weirdest thing about a morning game? Postgame daylight.

"Leaving the rink at 12:30 or one o'clock in the afternoon," Kowalsky said, "especially when the weather is nice -- we don't even leave here as a coaching staff on a regular day like that."