CLEVELAND – “We plan on being here a long time. We’re really looking forward to it.”
And so begins a new era of hockey in the state of Ohio, one that was officially ushered in with a Thursday media event at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. The Blue Jackets and Lake Erie Monsters, two teams separated by only a two-hour drive but who had been unaffiliated for the past eight years, finally joined forces with a multi-year agreement that was signed off on last week.
In the short term, it means a natural and convenient fit for two teams that were looking to better their AHL affiliations from a business perspective and get players to and from destinations faster.