Wolf Pack Embracing Team Identity in New Year
After a 2025 that wasn't up to standard, the Wolf Pack have started to find their game in the first days of 2026.
For the Hartford Wolf Pack, 2025 was a challenging year.
In the final stretch of the 2024-25 season, the team fell short of the Calder Cup Playoffs after two straight springs of playoff hockey. Over the summer, the roster was heavily retooled in an effort to get the team back to playoff qualification. However, inconsistency continued to plague the new squad in the waning months of 2025.
It's something nobody is happy about.
"You look back at the first half of the year, there's a couple games that we won bigger than one or two goals. There's a couple games we lost more than one or two goals. A lot of games are one goal games, and we got to find a way to get that game to the finish line," Wolf Pack head coach Grant Potulny told Blueshirt Banter following a Wolf Pack practice on December 26th. "Those are really crucial points. I think we're right there. We got to find a way to get that extra goal."
If you look at the Wolf Pack's schedule early in the 2025-26 season, you'll see plenty of games decided by just one or two goals. More often than not, they came out on the wrong side of those games, losing out on key points.
It was maddening for players, coaches, and fans alike, and it's become a focal point of the Wolf Pack's post-New Year game.
"The biggest thing for us is just our ability to play our game," Wolf Pack captain Casey Fitzgerald told Blueshirt Banter following a Wolf Pack practice on December 26th. "Having that rush offense, building the track back, the little things that we've talked about."
There's no better time for the Wolf Pack to find their game than the present.
