History
The Monarchs played their first game on October 6, 2001 against the Lowell Lock Monsters, losing 6–3. Their first win was a week later, on October 13, 2001, against the Norfolk Admirals. The team has been competitive within the division every year of its existence. They won their first Atlantic Division title in 2004–05, but lost in the first round to the Providence Bruins. This continued the streak of first round playoff exits, which the team had experienced in every year of existence, and would come to include the 2005–06 season.
2006–07 was the team's best season to date. With rookie head coach Mark Morris, leading scorers Matt Moulson and Noah Clarke, and former league MVP Jason LaBarbera in goal, the team had their best finish ever, winning the Atlantic Division title with the second-best points total in the league.
Heading into the playoffs, there were doubts within the team, as star goaltender LaBarbera had ended the season injured. The team faced the Worcester Sharks in the first round. With LaBarbera coming back by Game 2, the Monarchs defeated the Sharks in six games, including double-overtime thrillers in Games 2 and 6. The second round brought the Providence Bruins, who put up as much — if not more — of a fight. The Monarchs found a way, however, and defeated the Bruins in six games. This brought the Monarchs to their first ever Eastern Conference finals, but they were swept by the defending champions — the Hershey Bears — in four games.
Following their run in 2007, the Monarchs looked to have holes to fill, as Jason LaBarbera was brought up to the Kings, along with several other players. The 2007–08 season was an up and down one, which ended following a sweep by the Providence Bruins in the first round of the playoffs. 2008–09 was a landmark year for the franchise, but not in the way they would hope. Despite a late surge, the team finished fifth, five points out of the playoffs, for the first time in franchise history.
The first half of the 2009-2010 season has proven to be successful for that year's Monarchs squad. Several players have been promoted to Los Angeles, including Rich Clune and Alec Martinez. The Monarchs won their home opener of the 2010-2011 season, as David Meckler scored the game-winning goal in front of 9,035 fans at the Verizon Wireless Arena on October 16, 2010. The game was also noteworthy as left wing Brandon Kozun and center Justin Azevedo were awarded penalty shots, the first time in franchise history that two players were awarded penalty shots in the same game.
The Manchester Monarchs have made it to the playoffs every season since their coming into existence, but are still yet to win The Calder Cup Championship.
Read more about this topic: Manchester Monarchs
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)