It’s odd when you come face to face with yourself, or an image of yourself from the past. Things look so different but you know those lines, you know those curves, that was you during what was more recent past than your mind and society lets you realize.
For a segment of the Syracuse Crunch roster, they come face to face with the recent past on Friday night at the Onondaga War Memorial Arena, by way of the visiting Norfolk Admirals. They’ll travel down to Norfolk and their old stomping grounds at Scope Arena next weekend for a two game set. They’ll get to see a championship banner they won for the Ads last season, will encounter some of the office personnel they were friendly with when they were playing for Norfolk, as well as being cheered (or booed?) by the local fans who followed them for several seasons, leading up to their historic run during the 2011-12 AHL season.
And what of the current Norfolk Admirals (nee 2011-12 Syracuse Crunch)? The Anaheim Ducks affiliate was aligned with Syracuse for three years until summer 2012. While there will be the familiar sights and sounds around Syracuse for some players, the revamped War Memorial may be a welcome sight or completely foreign due to some of the changes put in place by the Tampa Bay Lightning organization.
It’s a homecoming for that Admirals club on Friday, bu tit’s not. It’s a homecoming for the Crunch next weekend in Norfolk… But it’s not.
On a competition level, the two teams are at different points in the Eastern Division: Syracuse leads the division and Eastern Conference with a .690 win percentage in 29 games played (18-7-1-3) while Norfolk is at the bottom of the same division (and 12th in the 15 team Eastern Conference) with a .500 record in 27 games (13-13-1-0).
