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Lightning Round: Syracuse Crunch announce 2023-24 Schedule

Syracuse Crunch Anthony Richard (90) celebrates his Overtime goal against the Belleville Senators in American Hockey League (AHL) action at the Upstate Medical University Arena in Syracuse, New York on Sunday, March 20, 2022. Syracuse won 5-4 in OT. Credit: Scott Thomas

The Syracuse Crunch, looking fresh with their new 30th anniversary logo, have announced their 72-game regular season schedule starting in October. Opening night is Friday, October 13th in Utica against the Comets, with the home opener the next evening on Saturday against Bridgeport.

Syracuse’s 72-game schedule features 36 home contests comprised of one Sunday, one Monday, three Wednesdays, 16 Fridays and 15 Saturdays. All home games will start at 7 p.m., except Monday, Jan. 15 at 1 p.m. and Sunday, February 25 at 5 p.m.

The Crunch will face 13 teams in the North and Atlantic Divisions. The most frequent matchups will be 14 contests against Utica. Syracuse will also play 12 games against Rochester, eight each against Laval, Belleville and Toronto, four each against Cleveland, Providence and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and two each against Bridgeport, Hartford, Hershey, Lehigh Valley and Springfield.

December and March will be the Crunch’s busiest months with 14 scheduled games. The team will play 11 in November, 10 in January and February, seven in April and six in October. This season, Syracuse will have three three-in-threes with one each in December, February and March.

The team will have one six-game homestand this season in January and four three-game homestands with one in November and December and two in March. The most home games fall in March when the Crunch host eight. The most road contests fall in December with eight.

One key aspect of this schedule that was talked about a lot last year is the economics of the schedule. Every year the AHL has been getting better at limiting travel for teams in order to reduce associated costs where possible. That’s not to say the teams won’t travel at all, but you won’t see any jumping across the map and few planned days in between to rest.

You’ll see this schedule have more “weekend series” in one place, or day trips to Utica and Rochester around home games. In terms of the road trips for Syracuse, there isn’t one until December when they do a weekend set back and forth in Utica (less than an hour’s drive from the arena), Wilkes-Barre, and Providence during the week before coming home for a few games. And then at the end of the month over the holidays, a game in Rochester followed by pairs of games in Laval and Toronto a full week apart. This gives Canadian players a great chance to disband for a few days over new years and see family. You will find lots of time before and after any trip through Canada in this schedule.

One tough part of the roster (because it can’t all be good) is a triple header where the Crunch need to be in Syracuse, Springfield, and Providence in one weekend. It’s the only one of two triple headers in the schedule, with the other being two games at home and a third in Utica less than an hour away.

Some stats:

  • The Crunch play every Saturday night from October 14th to April 20th when the season ends. No matter what the hockey season has in store for you, the Crunch say “I’ll be there for you” on Saturday night.
  • The Crunch also only miss four Friday nights all year to go along with those Saturday night games.
  • The Crunch play five times on Sunday, almost always on the road (teams like Toronto, Providence, and Laval like those weekend back-to-backs rather than Friday-Saturday.
  • The Crunch play once on Monday, once on Tuesday, and NEVER on Thursday. Thursday is a very quiet night across the Eastern Conference.
  • December and March are the busiest months (because they both have five weekends) with 14 games in each.
  • The lightest months are October and April that start and end the season with six and seven games in each. I love the October schedule being no games during the weekdays because it maximizes the coaching staff’s time in practice to help bring prospects along and develop the systems.

Here’s the schedule below, what’s your favourite part about it?

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