It was a rough weekend for the Syracuse Crunch. After beating Hershey 4-1 on Friday to run their winning streak to five games, they dropped a weekend home-and-home to the Utica Comets, mustering just one goal in each game. Devante Stephens scored his third of the year (with another assist going to Mitchell Chaffee) to tie the game in the third period, but Utica responded with two goals in just under three minutes to take the lead. Matt Tomkins suffered his first loss as a member of the Crunch as he made 26 saves on 29 shots.
Syracuse Speaks [Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from]
Auntie Alex chats about the Crunch and the Teddy Bear Toss.
David Perron will have an in-person hearing, kind of [NHL DoPS Twitter]
It looks like David Perron will be missing a few games for his crosscheck of Artem Zub in the fracas following Mathieu Joseph’s hit to the head of Dylan Larkin, that left Larkin unconscious on the ice. Perron will have an “in-person” meeting with the Department of Player Safety, but it will be over a Zoom call. Chances are he will be hit with a five-game suspension.
Phillip Grubauer placed on IR [Seattle Kraken Twitter]
If you stayed up late Saturday night you saw Grubauer leave the game with a lower-body injury. In response the Kraken have placed him on IR.
Tony Granato taking break after cancer diagnosis [The Athletic]
The 59-year-old will take a break from his position as an analyst for NBC Sports Chicago and the NHL Network after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Joey Daccord’s mask for the Winter Classic is Topps [NHL.com]
The Kraken will be hosting the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile park for this year’s Winter Classic and goalie Joey Daccord is getting in the baseball spirit with a mask sporting some of the classic Seattle Mariner’s rookie baseball cards. Featured are Ken Griffey Jr.’s iconic 1989 Upper Deck, Ichiro’s 2001 Topps, a 1988 Fleer Edgar Martinez, a Cal Raleigh Topps Now card, Julio Rodriguez Topps Chrome parallel, and a JP Crawford Topps Heritage.
