Welcome to Syracuse Speaks, a podcast for Field Pass Hockey!

Now in its fourth season, Syracuse Speaks aims to cover the Syracuse Crunch, its organization, and the AHL from the stands. Host Alexandra Ackerman has been covering Syracuse on the internet since 2008, and desires to share her passion for the team and the league with her listeners.

In this episode, recorded October 24, 2021, Alex begins the episode by recognizing the Syracuse community and the Crunch Faithful who came out in droves on Saturday, October 23rd to support their hometown team. Syracuse had passed 603 days without fans in the Upstate Medical University Arena at The Oncenter War Memorial, and the team was welcomed back in style by a sold-out crowd of about 5,000 people. Alex describes the atmosphere and the touching opening ceremony, one which honored front-line workers and first responders. 

Moving on, she then takes a look at some of the storylines dominating Syracuse’s 1-2-1 record so far this season. She discusses the games the team has played against  Cleveland, Rochester, and Utica, and recognizes how a slow start has become a hallmark of the Ben Groulx era. The season is still very early, as Lightning prospect Gage Goncalves expressed post-game on Saturday.

“We’re still early in the year. Not a lot of us played together, especially power play that much. I think it’s just a learning block right now, we’re going to have to figure it out in practice.”

Gage Goncalves talks about special teams early in the season. pic.twitter.com/dLRcx8JHlO

— Syracuse Crunch (@SyracuseCrunch) October 24, 2021

She also touches on the call-ups of Andrej Sustr and Fredrik Claesson to the Tampa Bay Lightning and speculates about the return of forward Alex Barre-Boulet to the organization. She also mentions the injuries to Max Lagace, Otto Somppi, and Daniel Walcott, and how those injuries are affecting the team.

Alex ends with a rundown of who has stood out to her so far this season, including AHL Player of the Week Jimmy Huntington, Goncalves, Gabriel Dumont, and Darren Raddysh. She previews the upcoming games at Hershey on Wednesday, October 27th, vs. Cleveland on Friday, October 29th, and at Lehigh Valley on Saturday, October 30th.

Give it a listen today! 

Syracuse Speaks is hosted on Anchor, but is distributed to many of the major podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify, and Stitcher. The royalty-free music featured in this episode was by Purple Planet Music and Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License.

Thanks for listening!

Follow Alex on Twitter for all the latest news and notes regarding the Syracuse Crunch! Don’t forget to also follow Field Pass Hockey on Facebook and Twitter for all the latest AHL, ECHL, and SPHL minor league hockey news and analysis!