Hamilton's Hammers win their first game, and the kids helped

The Hamilton Hammers are two games old, and they've already shown you the whole season in one weekend: an Islanders farm team that can score in bunches on the power play, with a couple of first-round picks setting the table. Friday was the fun part. Saturday was the education.

Friday in Belleville, the Hammers won the first game in franchise history, 5-2 over the Senators. Mitchell Chaffee scored a hat trick, two of them on the power play. Liam Foudy had three assists. Vitek Vanecek stopped 25 of 27.

Saturday in Toronto was the other side of it. The defending Calder Cup champions scored four times in the first period, Brendan Brisson twice, and the Marlies won 5-3. Hamilton won the last two periods 3-1 on goals from Pierre Engvall, Ethan Bear and Foudy. That's a nice stat and also a reminder that the first period counts.

Why it matters

This is the old Bridgeport franchise, which started as the Sound Tigers in 2001 and became the Bridgeport Islanders in 2021. It moved north this summer, kept the Islanders' orange and blue, and took a name that nods to Hamilton's steel-town roots. Jay McKee coaches it.

Hamilton has had the AHL before, in the same barn, back when it was Copps Coliseum. The renovated TD Coliseum gets its first Hammers game Friday, Oct. 9, against the Marlies, then the same opponent again Sunday.

My read: this team will score. The power play scored three times in Belleville, and the skill on it isn't all veterans. The question is whether the defense holds up against a deep team like Toronto, and Saturday's first period said not yet.

Prospect watch

Cole Eiserman, F (NYI, 20th overall, 2024). On a three-year entry-level deal that runs through 2028-29. He set up both of Chaffee's power-play goals Friday. The shot is the calling card: he holds the U.S. National Team Development Program's career goals record with 127, and in Hamilton he'll get every power play he can handle.

Timeline: a full AHL season, then a real camp push.

Kashawn Aitcheson, D (NYI, 17th overall, 2025). He picked up an assist on Engvall's power-play goal Friday. He scored 18 goals in his first 24 OHL games last season as a defenseman, which tells you where his game lives.

Here's the bar both of them are chasing. Through two games, by our count, Matthew Schaefer is playing 24.2 minutes a night on the Islanders' blue line. That's what a young defenseman who's ready looks like on Long Island, and it's the standard Aitcheson gets measured against in Hamilton.

The Hammers are worth the drive down the QEW for a Toronto kid, and worth a stream for everybody else. Friday night's home opener is the one I'd circle.