The AHL schedule was released today, much to the pleasure of…well…just about everyone. With the NHL looking down the barrel of another lockout, hockey fans from both leagues were paying pretty close attention.
Some highlights from the Crunch schedule under the cut. The full team-by-team schedule can be found here.
- The Crunch start off the season away on Friday, October 12th, at Rochester. Absolutely no one is surprised. Syracuse was 4-6 against the Amerks last year. Of note: Norfolk didn’t play Rochester at all, so the whole Amerks/Crunch thing is going to be very new to those who were there last year.
- Opening Night at the Onondaga County War Memorial will be October 13th against Hershey. The Crunch was 2-4 against Hershey last year. Because it’s almost more relevant, Norfolk was 5-5 vs. the Bears last season.
- Speaking of Norfolk, the new farm team of the Ducks comes to town for the first time since the affiliation switch on December 28th. The Crunch then returns the favor and visits Virginia January 4th and 5th. The Admirals and the Crunch play each other a record 8 times this year. New rivalry?
- The Crunch will play 30 of their 76 games against East Division opponents (Binghamton 8, Hershey 6, Norfolk 8, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 8).
- Syracuse plays Adirondack 8 times, Albany 8 times, Bridgeport twice, Connecticut twice, and our former former team, Springfield, twice.
- The Crunch plays Hamilton 4 times, Lake Erie twice, Rochester 10 times, and Toronto twice.
- The Crunch’s 11/9 tilt against the Hamilton Bulldogs will apparently be in Montreal. Cool.
- The Crunch will be playing on New Years for the second year in a row. Last year we visited the fine city of Bingo, this year we’ll be stopping off in WBS.
- We have our first 3-in-3 almost right off the bat. The second weekend of hockey the Crunch is completely away, playing three games in a row against Albany, Bingo, and WBS. At least the bus won’t have far to drive…
- The Crunch has an insanely home-loaded end of the season: its final 5 games are all at home.
- The Crunch closes the season on 4/21–late this year!–at home against Bingo.
