Syracuse Crunch

Kris Humphries wouldn’t be known if it weren’t for Kim Kardashian. Instead of just being another player who averages 5.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in his career, Humphries is continuously on the front page of tabloids.

But that “marriage” ended so it’s time to move on to being a normal NBA player that averages 5.6 points in their career, right? Wrong.

Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League reached out to Humphries and offered him a position with the club.

Really? Could his off-court life get any weirder?

Does he even have experience with the game of hockey? Apparently just being from Minnesota can result in garnering a position with a real-life club.

"We would welcome Kris Humphries to Syracuse, where unlike Hollywood there are no paparazzi within hundreds of miles and he could reclaim his privacy and self-esteem," said Syracuse Crunch General Manager Vance Lederman. "Being from Minnesota, Humphries will surely enjoy the hockey and feel right at home in the cold, gray, dismal weather we experience this time of year in Central New York."

Is this another joke? Are we experiencing another hoax?

That would be like a Canadian Football League team calling me and offering me a position just because I’m from Western Pennsylvania.

It must be nice.

Just like some people suggested with Humphries and Kardashian’s “marriage” this may be strictly for publicity.

When was the last time we heard about the Crunch?

Exactly.

Humphries, a seven-year NBA veteran, averaged 10 points and 10 rebounds last season—the best numbers of his career.

Maybe he was feeling extremely confident because of being with someone like Kim, but I think he should attempt to duplicate his double-double numbers from a season ago.

Please stick to basketball, Kris. Get away from the extravaganzas and stick to the game you have improved on in the past three seasons.   

From SyracuseCrunch.com:

"The Syracuse Crunch announced today that they will participate in the fourth annual Shapiro Motor Sales of Oswego Classic, a preseason game at the Oswego State Campus Center Ice Arena on Wednesday, September 29 at 7 p.m. vs. the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Former Oswego State player Derrell Levy has been invited to attend the Crunch’s training camp and is expected to suit up for the club. Levy, a 5-foot-10, 187-pound forward, appeared in 97 games with the Lakers over four seasons from 2005-09, compiling 43 points (9g, 34a) and 77 penalty minutes. Levy was a member of Oswego State’s 2007 NCAA Division III national championship."

This could not have happened to a nicer guy.  The odds are stacked against Levy in his quest to make the roster, but Oswego fans will love to watch him try.

I'm interested to see whether or not he drops the gloves.  Levy, like most college players, did not get into a scrap during his Laker career, as doing so comes with an automatic suspension in NCAA hockey.

It's just a shame that the Crunch won't play Rochester this preseason, as we could have seen Levy vs. Eric Selleck.

Photo - ESPN.com

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There’s a lot of opinions about there about Nasty. Some people are already hating on this signing. Once person even said that this signing makes them want to give up their season tickets.

Great News! Mirasty will become the all time Syracuse Crunch Penalty Minutes leader this season. Anaheim is not playing games by signing mirasty so quickly. They will provide a winner in Syracuse this season!

The Syracuse Crunch won their third consecutive game Wednesday night, 3-2 at Lowell. 

That marks the fifth straight game in which the club has earned a point.  They are now 3-0-1 on their current road swing, which concludes Friday night in Springfield, Mass.

As always, Chairman How's Glorious Army gave us Joe Brown's Jewel of the Game .  I remember when I produced games for the Crunch, I'd have to pick a highlight (whether it be a Syracuse goal, save or a fight won) and replay Bob McElligott's call of it in the post game as the Bradley's Jewel of the Game .  This is different:

(Ed. note: I have said I won't criticize Syracuse radio announcer Joe Brown, for fear of coming off as the bitter guy who is just angry he didn't get the job.  I did not say I would never post other people's criticisms of Joe Brown.  And honestly, I know that little prick young man at the ticket office never passed my resume upstairs.  Who leaves a demo and a resume with a ticket agent?  The same guy who has two thumbs... )

Joe Brown’s Jewel of the Game:

–”That should kill off the first period for the Lowell Devils.”

…But not the Syracuse Crunch, apparently. They still have to play.

Also, his excuse that he didn’t see the Devil’s first goal because he was “too busy” watching a scrap between two players is so bogus. If you can’t figure out the important things to pay attention to, then you need a new job. I wish I could only pay attention to 10 percent of my job, but if I did that I’d probably be in jail.

And please, for the love of all that is holy, stop getting so fucking excited when the OTHER TEAM has a scoring chance. If I’m doing something else and you throw a fit all of the sudden, I should be able to tell immediately by the sound of your voice which team you work for and who actually has the puck. 

That can’t happen when you make a big deal in the same tone no matter what. Voice control is a part of good broadcasting. Figure it out.

 

Lindsay Kramer reported the deal to keep the Syracuse Crunch in their home was as good as done on Sept. 1 . 

Some 10 weeks later, the official announcement has come that the Syracuse Crunch will continue to call the city's OnCenter War Memorial their home through at least 2019. The franchise has played all of their home games at the 58-year-old arena since they moved to the Salt City from Hamilton, Ontario prior to the 1994-95 season.

Team owner Howard Dolgon received a large incentive to keep the franchise in Syracuse after the Onondaga County Legislature approved a new scoreboard for the old barn in September.  That's when Kramer first reported that a verbal agreement had been reached between the team and the facility for a new five-year lease with a team option for an additional five years.  It turns out that the option was taken out of the final deal.

From Blog.syracuse.com:

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The positive new twist is that the original pact was going to be five years, and then five one-year options. Now, it's just a straight 10-year commitment.

'We liked the direction the Oncenter is going. We've always said were going to be long-term players in the community," said Syracuse owner Howard Dolgon.

The Rochester Americans lost to the Syracuse Crunch Saturday night by a sad final score of 6-1.  This, of course, is better than last year on the Crunch’s “Pink Out” night when the Amerks were creamed, 9-2.

Riley Emmerson made his AHL debut tonight and did a good job.  But, more on that later.

The first period started out with a quick epic fail when Starkov scored for the Crunch only 17 seconds into the game.  That was only the tip of the iceberg that was to come.

The Amerks went on the power play when Vigalante went to the box for tripping at 3:18.  That chance was short lived, as Ellerby decided to get a penalty of his own at 4:02.  To add insult to injury, Drew Larman took yet another penalty, giving the Crunch a 4-on-3 power play.  The outcome of that situation is easy to imagine.  The Crunch scored their second goal of the night easily.

For the next ten minutes, the Amerks fought off a few more penalty killing problems.  But it wouldn’t last forever.  Wilson tallied his second goal of the night at 14:15 to put another nail in the coffin before the end of the first period.

The second period wasn’t any better, except for one moment.  Before the good, of course, had to come the bad…the Crunch scored their fourth goal of the night only 3:57 into the period (once again on the power play).

But, then came something Rochester fans could get on board with.  Mike Duco dropped the mitts at center ice with Ryan Garlock.  Duco dropped Garlock with one swift punch to the jaw.  A job well done by the “rat.”

Speaking of rats…only a few minutes later, Jon Mirasty was on the ice with Emmerson and the moment we had all been waiting for began.  Emmerson dropped the gloves and tangled with Mirasty.  He held his own.  He got a few punches on the top of Mirasty’s head (seeing as he towers over him by about 25 feet), but Mirasty got a few in on his chin.  Mirasty then pulled Emmerson down and wrapped his legs around his back.  Round one over.

Amerks fans couldn’t celebrate much longer. The Amerks were shorthanded once again when Tanner Glass wanted to get a good fight in but couldn’t find anyone to drop the gloves with him.  Instead he got a roughing penalty, leading to another power play goal by the Crunch.

It wasn’t long until Tanner was out of the box and trying to fight with someone else.  Andrey Plekhanov was more than willing to fight, but he is just an idiot.  He was thrown out of the game for giving Tanner the finger.  Way to be, guy.

The second period ended with the Crunch ahead 5-0.  At this point, the Amerks’ fans in attendance were just hoping not to get shutout.

The third period started and I started to drift off to sleep.  Glass once again tried to take on someone…this time looking to Syracuse’s captain Smith.  Smith wouldn’t fight him because he has a hand injury so they just both took unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties.

Not long after getting out of the box for not fighting Glass, Smith thought it would be cute to hold on to MacDonald’s stick for a while.  Off to the penalty box again for the mighty Crunch captain.

Karl Stewart scored his third goal of the season on the power play.  Assists went to Repik and Matthias.

Vigilante (Best name in the AHL?  Possibly.) thought he would throw the last nail in the coffin when he scored the Crunch’s sixth goal of the evening shortly after Stewart made the Amerks look less like fools.

Just as I was about to take a cat nap, Emmerson and Mirasty were ready for round two.  Emmerson looked more ready this time, knowing what to expect from “nasty.”  He stayed in the fight much longer and got a few good hits in on Mirasty’s face.  The fight still went to Mirasty.

I would say Emmerson is going to do just fine for himself in this league.  This was his first game in this league and he had to take on the fighter with the worst reputation.  And he did it twice.  He was more than willing and probably wanted to have one more go at him.  He said “Mirasty is a tough little guy.”

I want to see more of Emmerson.

Oh yeah…did I mention Billy Baldwin was at the game tonight?  Cause he was…

The Americans clearly missed the presence of their best defenseman (Garrison), their veteran defenseman (Fitzpatrick), their fearless leader (Sprukts), and the boy who should be their top goal-scorer for the year (Meyer).  I mostly just miss Meyer.

There is a new face on the ice today.  That face stands about a full head above all the other players.  Looks like the Amerks are making good with their promise to get us a guy who can plow through goons like Mirasty (Syracuse Crunch) with one fluid punch.  This beast’s name is Riley Emmerson.  He stands at 6′8″ and weighs in at 248 lbs.  He was the tallest player drafted in the 2005 entry draft.
He was assigned to the Florida Everblades this seaon by the Minnesota Wild.

Like posted yesterday, Curt Styres didn’t just want a guy who can just drop the gloves.  Any team that looked on the Amerks’ bench during a game would have to notice Emmerson and bemore careful about the moves they make on the ice, knowing there is someone there who is going to protect his teammates.

Check a few of Riley’s fights out in some YouTube videos.

The very first thing I got to see when I sat down in my seat to watch practice today was Stefan Meyer getting on the ice.  It’s pretty exciting to see him out there…like a missing puzzle piece returning to complete a picture.  He is out doing a full practice.  Hopefully this means he will be able to play this weekend.  He is an important part of this team and I expect him to be wearing the other “A” when the time comes.

Tyler Plante and Chris Beckford-Tseu were out early getting some extra tips from Bob Janosz.  They have been working hard all season, but that just hasn’t been enough so far.  Something needs to click and it needs to happen soon.

Benoit keeps telling the players it doesn’t matter how tired they are.  “If you are tired and you are going to dump the puck, you PLACE it, PLACE IT!”

Jason Garrison still has the greatest looking slapshot I have seen.  He hits the net about 9/10’s of the time and it is powerful.

Janis Sprukts was just at the white board after the coaches explained what they are going to be doing next.  He was helping explain to his linemates (Matthias and Repik) where they need to be during the play they are doing.

Keaton Ellerby was slacking during the sprints at the end of practice.  He wasn’t going all the way to the lines and was almost beheaded by Benoit for it.  He is now going to be the last person on the ice doing laps until he learns not to slack ever again.  There was a lot of yelling and a lot of bad words for Ellerby when he was caught not doing the drill right.

Michael Duco got elbowed in the face and it knocked his neck sideways, but he is fine.  We asked him what he had to say about Mirasty calling him a rat.  He only had one thing to say about it, “He’s a loser.”

Ellerby looks like he wants to kill himself now.  Rory Fitzpatrick even came out from the showers (in his towel) just to yell at Keaton for the slacking he did.  Why Rory was taking a shower is a mystery to me.

Missing players again today were Jordan Henry and Karl Stewart.  Karl Stewart is out not because of injury, but because is having problems with his Visa.  Plante told us everything will be worked out in time for Friday’s game.

Tyler also told our son to wish them luck in the next game because, “They need a win.”

Tyler’s right, this team needs to turn this bus around and hopefully with the (possible) return of Meyer and the acquisition of Emmerson, this weekend can be the point in the season where we look back and laugh at our 0-5 start.

Friday’s home game against the Quad City Flames starts at 7:35pm.  That is only the first game of yet another busy weekend for the Amerks.

On Saturday, the Amerks take the short drive down the 90 to face the Syracuse Crunch.  I would tell as many fans as possible to get to this game.  With Emmerson on the roster, there is sure to be a matchup with Jon Mirasty.  If nothing else…that will be very good to see.

And then on Sunday, the Amerks go down to Hershey to face the Bears.  This will be a game I will purchase on the AHL Live network.  I love to watch the two of the oldest teams in the AHL faceoff against each other.