The Headline
While the Tampa Bay Lightning flew out to hang with the Minnesota Wild and JT Brown, the Syracuse Crunch pulled off a victory against the Binghamton Senators last night, with a 4-0 shut out from goalie Connor Ingram — INCLUDING killing a six-on-four in the last few minutes of the game.
A 27-save shutout for @CBIngram1. 👊 pic.twitter.com/WdGf2uyiFB
— Syracuse Crunch (@SyracuseCrunch) October 20, 2018
Excellent Crunch players who contributed offense to the effort included veteran Andy Andreoff, with a goal on each of his shots on Binghamton’s Mackenzie Blackwood; Mitchell Stephens (1G), Gabriel Dumont (2A, 6 SOG), and an empty-netter from Boris Katchouk (1G). The ship has righted itself, and hopefully Mr. Groulx has turned his frown upside down. [Game Sheet]
Our Crunch editor Alex said of the match, “This is quite literally the best they’ve looked all season. An infusion of talent and an increase in competition clearly made a difference for the Crunch last night, as the team pulled off a most convincing victory at Binghamton. The surprising thing was that all of the talent wasn’t there yet. Cory Conacher and Mitch Hults haven’t even arrived yet.”
Tonight is 200 @TheAHL games for Danick Martel.
That makes for a @BurdickFord milestone. pic.twitter.com/EC1rPTzm1p
— Syracuse Crunch (@SyracuseCrunch) October 20, 2018
A rocket, man. 🚀#SYRvsBNG pic.twitter.com/UPIhBGPuFb
— Syracuse Crunch (@SyracuseCrunch) October 20, 2018
Andy Andreoff’s first shorthanded goal since March 29, 2014 for the Manchester Monarchs. It’s the third of his pro career (all in the AHL). #SyrCrunch https://t.co/rPIxMexLCa
— Lukas Favale (@LukasFavale) October 19, 2018
Out. Of. Mid. Air. 😲#SYRvsBNG pic.twitter.com/kOaO8JSqMV
— Syracuse Crunch (@SyracuseCrunch) October 20, 2018
The Prospects
Yesterday Alex posted a great photo gallery from Syracuse Crunch photographer Scott Thomas, on the opening moments of the silver anniversary season. Gallery: Syracuse Crunch opening night. [Raw Charge]
Great conversation with #SyrCrunch defenseman Erik Cernak last night at #CrunchWeekly. Covered his expanded role with the Crunch, his summer in Slovakia, learning from Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh at #BoltsCamp and much more! https://t.co/8Gq2mCCskj
— Lukas Favale (@LukasFavale) October 19, 2018
JustinG weighed in on how he thinks the Syracuse Crunch rookies are doing. [Raw Charge]
Yes, Cal Foote is still a rookie. Despite the fact that he was playing what seemed like 20 minutes a game in the playoffs (we’ll never know for sure thanks to a lack of decent stats at the AHL level), this is still his first full season as a professional. That hasn’t stopped Coach Groulx from rolling him out there at every occasion this season. He’s cemented on the second pairing with Dominik Masin, kills penalties and sees some time on the power play.
Update: Adeline’s jersey was found and is being returned!!! That makes her so happy and she has something she wants to say to the person returning it… pic.twitter.com/tSwkbaAXJ5
— Rachel McKenna (@RachelMcK17) October 19, 2018
The Bolts
Will be in Minnesota tonight!
Nuts and Bolts: Lightning hit the road to face the Wild [Tampa Bay Lightning]
The Lightning established a franchise record for consecutive games to start a season without allowing an opponent power-play goal (5 games) after going 5-for-5 on the penalty kill Oct. 18 vs. DET…The Lightning penalty kill is a perfect 23-for-23 in 2018-19 and 32-of-33 over the last 10 games dating back to last season’s playoffs…The Bolts are the only team in the NHL that hasn’t given up an opponent power-play goal…Tampa Bay is giving up just two goals a game and ranks tied for second in the NHL for least amount of goals against per game.
NHLPA, Dotchin file grievance against Bolts [TSN]
”The rationale is two-fold. Now that Dotchin is signed with the Anaheim Ducks at $800,000 pro rated and he had a contract for $925,000 from the Tampa Bay Lightning, Dotchin is going to be out over the course of this season about $189,000. So first and foremost, they want to try and get that money back for him. But second and maybe broader issue, more important, the NHLPA does not want to set a precedent that teams can terminate a contract for material breach if a guy shows up to training camp vastly out of shape.”
Some free verse poetry from our friend Tom Jones: A road trip worth taking for the Lightning [Tampa Bay Times]
No team likes to play too many games in a row at home or too many on the road.
Too many home games becomes monotonous and boring. Teams lose focus.
Too many road games becomes exhausting. Teams wear down.
With #TBLightning GM Julien BriseBois expecting a “challenging” summer due to cap crunch, there could be some changes. ICYMI updates + projections for pending free agents Point/Gourde, with an eye on Vasilevskiy. “Gourde could hit a home run (as UFA).” https://t.co/1GgBmr1qKY
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithTB) October 19, 2018
The Game
‘My hockey hero’: The story of Greg Pateryn and his 12-year-old superfan [The Athletic, paid content]
Pateryn, who plays a regular-season game against the Stars on Friday night for the first time since signing a three-year contract with the Wild on July 1, not only remembered who Noah was, he actually remembered his name from a visit eight Stars players made to a pediatric hospital an entire month before.
After 220 regular season games with the Wheat Kings and 723 games in the NHL I have decided to retire from the NHL to focus on giving back to the Indigenous community. @NHLBlackhawks @PredsNHL @NJDevils @DetroitRedWings @bdnwheatkings
— Jordin Tootoo (@Jtootoo22) October 19, 2018
The language of hockey is universal, from Kenya to Canada [The Star]
Never mind that Azegere’s skates were rarely sharp (the skate sharpener at the rink has long been on the fritz and the only other working unit in the country is located 90 minutes away). Never mind that he and his hockey friends didn’t have proper equipment (Azegere played without a helmet and pads for most of the first few years). Although his loved ones were bewildered by his attraction to Canada’s national winter sport, Azegere was hooked.
