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Crunch Corner: Press pause on the season

The AHL suspends its season indefinately.

Well now. What have we to talk about? Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future it isn’t hockey. The AHL has suspended play for the indefinate future. When the puck drops again for the Syracuse Crunch is unknown, except that it won’t be before May. If that is the case, at least the Crunch ended their season with a win.

When, more likely if, the season resumes there would be, at best, an abbreviated finish to the regular season and then an altered post season. My personal, uninformed, souceless opinion that there will be no regular season. Last season, the first round of the playoffs was completed by the first week of May. If the league isn’t even thinking about starting play until then, there’s really no point in having a regular season if they’re hell-bent on awarding the Calder Cup.

If that happens then Crunch finish outside of the top-four teams in the AHL North for the first time under head coach Ben Groulx. After 62 games they are 30-23-4-5 (69 points) which is good for fifth place, three points behind the Binghamton Devils.

They never quite recovered from the ragged start to the season. It was only in the last month or so that they started to string multiple wins together and show a hint of the potential that the team had. With an over increase in the level of play within the division, the gap in points they created was just too vast to overcome.

It would be unfotunate for the season to end this way, but in the best interest of the sport it kind of has to be that way.

Standings

Coming and Going

Everyone left.

Injuries

One bright side of the elongated break in action is that the injured players should all be healthy if regular season action does return. Cory Conacher, Patrick Sieloff, and Nolan Valleau were expected to return in the regular season so if that actually happens in May they should be ready to play. Their return would make for an interesting line-up should it happen.

The Game

Wednesday March 11th at Utica: 3-1 Win (Box Score) (Recap) (Highlights)

Players of the Week

Luke Witkowski: 1 game, 1 goal, 2 shots, 0 penalty minutes. Let’s keep this simple. The Captain gets the nod simply because of this goal:

Thoughts:

I’ve got nothing this week. Be smart, think of others, and wash your hands. Hockey will be back before you know it.

Upcoming Schedule:

Nothing for now. If there is any change we’ll be ready to fill you in on the details.

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