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

Now in its fifth 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 February 5th, 2023, Alex welcomes AHL content creator Patrick Williams back to the podcast. At the time of recording, Patrick was fresh off a visit to Syracuse and on the road to the AHL All-Star weekend in Laval. Given this unique opportunity to get a fresh perspective of the team’s performance, Alex and Patrick start off with dissecting Syracuse’s performance in two games vs. the Charlotte Checkers. They talk about the up-and-down nature of the team in the broader perspective of the league and the Eastern Conference. They discuss how injuries have affected the team’s ability to ice a full forward squad, which has resulted in the team going 11-7 over a few games recently, a configuration that doesn’t seem to benefit their game. Despite the challenges facing the team, Patrick stresses that he’s seen growth from when he saw them a month ago, and expresses confidence in the team still being in the “upper echelon” of the North Division. 

The two then turn to talking about the current focus in the league, the AHL All-Star weekend. They discuss Syracuse’s three All-stars – forward and captain Gabriel Dumont, forward Alex Barre-Boulet, and defenseman Darren Raddysh – and the shift in the event from a prospect-focus to a more well-rounded focus when it comes to picking players who attend. Alex brings the focus to the AHL Hall of Fame, which inducts people during the event, and quizzes Patrick on who he thinks might be selected from Syracuse’s history some day. Although Alex was thinking along the lines of Mike Angelidis or Mike McKenna, Patrick surprises her with a convincing argument for team owner Howard Dolgon.

The two end the podcast with a look at Hall of Fame inductee David Andrews, a man who “created a league that works for everybody” during his tenure as President of the AHL.

Give it a listen today!

Syracuse Speaks is hosted on Anchor, but is distributed to many of the major podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible, 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!