The Syracuse Crunch had an unusually light weekend of hockey, playing just one game. They took on the Cleveland Monsters, the same Monsters team that bounced them from the playoffs last season, on Saturday night. Much like last year’s postseason, they came up just a little short, dropping the game, 5-2. For the Crunch, it was their third straight game without a win and, after a strong October, November has gotten off to a rocky start with a 1-2-1 record, dropping their overall record to 5-5-1.
The main problem has been offense, more specifically, the lack of it. In their four games, the Crunch have scored eight goals. Our math skills, honed at the legendary North County High School in Glen Burnie, Maryland, tell us that they are averaging just two goals a game so far this month. Sadly, it doesn’t look like this is a blip on the radar, as they are at 2.36 GF/G on the season, which ranks 28th in the league. Making things a little sadder is the fact that of the 26 goals they’ve scored this season, 10 of them came in two games (a 5-0 win over Utica on Opening night and a 5-2 in over Belleville on October 20th).
The power play isn’t helping either with just 6 goals on 41 attempts for a 14.6% success rate. The good news is that they are 3-for-11 this month, so it is trending upwards (but it also means they’ve only scored 5 goals at even-strength on the month, and one of those was a 3-on-3 overtime goal by Max Crozier).
The good news is that, despite the lack of goals going into the opponents’ nets, the Crunch aren’t allowing that many into their own. Outside of a 6-2 loss to Belleville on November 2nd where the Senators scored three times in the first period, the Crunch have been close entering the third period in just about every game they’ve lost this year. Okay, they were down 4-0 on Saturday as well, but had clawed their way back to 4-2 midway through the final frame.
They are playing tough hockey, but at this point are the prototypical “not good enough to win on talent alone” team. There are a lot of young players on the team right now, and they’re finding out it’s a bit tougher to score in the AHL than it was in college, Europe, or Canadian Junior hockey. By the AHL’s definition, they currently have seven rookies on the roster along with key second-year players like Max Groshev and Crozier.
There is a rookie sitting on top of their scoring table, though which is nice. Dylan Duke hasn’t really missed a beat from his days as a Michigan Wolverine. The forward has 7 points (4 goals, 3 assists) in 11 games, which ties him for 15th among rookies in the AHL. San Jose’s Colin Graf is leading all youngsters with 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists). Veteran free agent Derrick Pouliot joins Duke at the top of the Syracuse list, but he’s flipped his numbers with 3 goals and 4 assists with 4 of those points coming on the power play.
Again, we had an inkling that this might be a concern, especially considering how much offensive talent they lost over the summer, but only having six skaters with more than one goal is a bit troubling. Prior to the game against the Monsters, Coach Joel Bouchard mentioned that the AHL is a tough league, and there isn’t as much space out there as some of the younger players are used to. Right now they are in an adjustment period, and we’ve seen younger players start to figure things out as the season goes on.
What has helped them keep their rivals in the North Division within sight is the play of Brandon Halverson. Coach Bouchard has kept to his goaltender rotation with Halverson getting 5 starts and Matt Tomkins 6, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Halverson start getting the bulk of the playing time when the schedule allows it. In his 5 starts he’s posted a league-leading 0.99 goals against with a top-of-the-charts .956 SV% which has led to a 3-1-1 record. In his regulation loss he allowed just one goal, while he made 19-of-21 saves in his overtime loss. The kid has been rock solid.
The Crunch have two sets of back-to-backs in their next five games, so Tomkins will still get a few starts, but after that, things open up a bit, and if Halverson keeps it up, he’ll likely get the bulk of the work moving forward. Still, he can only hold the fort for so long. The Crunch have to find a way to start scoring some goals. There was some hope that the injection of forwards would help things out, and to their credit, Conor Sheary (3 points in 4 games), Gage Goncalves (6 points in 5 games), and Gabe Fortier (2 points in 4 games), have helped, but they need some more folks stepping up.
The season is long, and even with their recent run of poor results, the Crunch are still just 4 points behind second-place Toronto. Scoring is contagious. If one or two players get hot, the overall team confidence will go out and some more pucks will start going in. There is plenty of time left in the season and they are entering a North Division-heavy portion of the schedule, so a few wins will vault them up the standings.
