The Syracuse Crunch will open their 24th season of play on Saturday October 7th against the Rochester Americans.
👊🏼 vs. 🇺🇸
We’re hosting @AmerksHockey for the 2017-18 home opener presented by @UpstateNews on Saturday, Oct. 7. pic.twitter.com/M5rawrVB7W
— Syracuse Crunch (@SyracuseCrunch) July 10, 2017
The reigning Eastern Conference champions will welcome their arch rivals to town with open arms after dominating the season series this past year. The bad news for the Crunch is that the Buffalo Sabres’ new management team made Rochester one of their top priorities on the first day of free agency on July 1st.
Some of those big names Buffalo brought in include AHL sniper Seth Griffith, forward Kevin Porter, and former Crunch goaltender Adam Wilcox. It’s safe to say that the new look Amerks-and the rest of the talent-loaded North Division-will pose a bigger threat to the Crunch in the upcoming campaign than they could in 16-17.
The complete AHL schedule has been finalized and is set to be released tomorrow (Tuesday) at 3:00. Crunch fans can probably anticipate a North Division-heavy schedule, especially with Laval (formerly St. John’s) now being within driving distance. Belleville (formerly Binghamton) and Binghamton (formerly Albany) round out Syracuse’s “new” rivals. Utica will also surely be featured 48 times, as well (okay, probably only 12, but it sure feels like 48), with Toronto slotting in, too.
The rest of the Eastern Conference will probably be seen with its usual sparsity (except for the Pennsylvania teams). New this season is Charlotte, who slides into the Atlantic Division. Charlotte’s addition creates an uneven distribution in the divisions again, although no mention has been made of the return of the crossover rule.
Over in the Western Conference, Grand Rapids Griffins has their Opening Night slated for Friday, October 6th. Manitoba will be visiting. Here’s hoping the league’s punching bag from last season will be much improved this season so that they can give the reigning Calder Cup champions a solid beating.
The remaining dates for the AHL’s opening weekend can be found over on the league’s website.
