A good and Crunchy season

/ January 14, 2015
Fun from high above.

Interesting from high above.

We had fun watching them from high above in the Carrier Dome in November.

Fun behind the goal.

More interesting from behind the goal.

We had more fun from behind the goal in the Onondaga County War Memorial in December.

On this Wednesday in January, I write about the successes of Syracuse Crunch for my weekly community blog for Syracuse Public Media site waer.com. You can read the column by clicking the link below.

http://waer.org/post/its-good-time-appreciate-crunch-our-war-memorial

FYI, when I awoke and took a look at the temperature scream on the “Today” screen this morning, it was colder than yesterday, at minus-10 F. Now that’s some hockey weather for you.

Do you seem to like ice hockey even more as winter settles in? Who’s your favorite hockey team and why? If you’re not a hockey fan or follower, why not?

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27 thoughts on “A good and Crunchy season”

  1. I am a die hard hockey no matter what the weather is outside. Growing up in NYC I became and still am a die hard Rangers fan. However over the last few year, because of their affiliation with the Crunch who I am also a huge fan of. The Lightning have become a secondary team I follow

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    • It’s hard not to get caught up in the Crunch enthusiasm around here, Ben, no matter which team holds your NHL heart. You and I have a Rangers-Islajders downstate thing going on, but that’s cool. There was plenty of that for me growing up on Long Island back in the 1970s.

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    • Hockey has speed and beauty, Apple Pie. It’s art on ice, I think, because I’ve watched it so much, and I played so many years of street hockey and broom ball in my past, that my mind can break down the action to its ballet essence.

      I’ll have more of a rooting interest for Nashville now, thanks to you and your casual friend. It works like that for me.

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  3. I used to watch the BGSU hockey team, I also had a hockey playing (French horn tooting) boyfriend in high school. Growing up on Lake Erie, we had a high school team, now they have little league hockey teams there! Smiles! I love the organ music and used to think the Canadians who played on our college team were ‘cute!’

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  6. Sigh. I better explain again… I do not understand sports. I do not understand watching sports. If I was going to like sports, it would be because I would get to play them. LOL. 🙂 I do like watching the Zamboni clean the ice. 😀

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  7. When I was VERY young I went to Toledo to stay with a friend who had moved there from central Ohio. Her brother had joined a hockey team. At some unGodly hour we went to watch a game. I fell asleep. When I woke up people were cheering so I started cheering. It was for the wrong team. That is my full experience with hockey. 🙂

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  8. North Stars, RIP. Wild just ain’t it. Hockey is my favorite spectator sport, only because I grew up watching it. My high school team usually went to state, so fun games to watch. Spendy to go to professional games, so maybe we’ll get to some Gopher games this year. What’s your fave sport, Mark?

    We are at triple your temps today with 21–woot woot. Funny the ups and downs, but it’s still all cold.

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    • I quote you, marvelously. “It’s still all cold.” You betcha, Liz!

      College hockey is awesome. When I was married to Elisabeth’s mother and we lived in Morrisville, we had season tickets to Colgate hockey games in Hamilton, which is four miles southeast of Morrisville. Hamilton is where Elisabeth now lives, with her mother, and works, at the orthopedic office.

      Baseball, football and hockey are my three favorite spectator sports, very close together, but I’d put them in that order, Liz. I can empathize with you lamenting the loss of the North Stars, still. That just ain’t right.

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  9. I don’t follow hockey much but i root for our local NHL team – the Ottawa Senators. We have some dandy triple A teams here as well and I have been to a few of their games (much easier on the pocket book) and they play excellent hockey. It’s a good town for hockey – which is appropriate since it is the capital of Canada and hockey is our national sport.

    Those are great pictures Mark, and I must say I prefer the top one which shows the big picture. The lower one is perfect when the puck is in the close end, but otherwise, no so much.

    Great post and Thanks.

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    • I grew up loving hockey, Paul, and feel lucky that it is second nature to me. As kids we took the tennis nets down and played street hockey on the tennis courts. Because I was an awful ice skater, street hockey became my favorite version of the sport to play. They even started making street hockey sticks with blades out of hard plastic that would not splinter or shatter. Lo and behold, when I moved to Syracuse for my job at age 25, I discovered a sport called broomball. Hockey rules, played on an ice rink, in grippy rubber shoes. Official city league teams with standings and all. I played for a few years on a team sponsored by Pat’s Pizza. It was very competitive, but also a lot of fun! Thanks for your comments. I’ll try to get better long-range pictures for you next time. 🙂

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      • Oh, the pictures were fine Mark – actually excellent. I know many people prefer seats that are right behind the crease – I was just commenting on the fact that I like to see the strategy and dynamic of the game, and for me that is only possible when sitting up higher – like your first photo. I am sure that a lot of your readers would prefer the shot from behind the crease.

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  11. Love hockey! Richmond no longer has a hockey team, so I don’t get to see it very often.

    Pro team is the Penguins. Gotta go Pittsburgh with hockey and football 😀

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  12. Although Devils is a strange mascot, Crunch is even stranger. How can a team be a Crunch? I picture little orange Cheetos out on the ice. Since we have no ice here, kids don’t grow up playing hockey, so it’s not a big sport. That said, we did have a team that started in the 90s, and I did go watch a few games in my single days. The players just always seem to want to brawl. Fighting and the cold–those are not my favorite things.

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    • And one of their mascots at the start used to be called Captain Crunch, I’m pretty sure, but it had no resemblance at all to the cereal admiral, Kerbey. Then they had one called Al the Gorilla. As the team changed parent squads from the AHL, the Crunch persona was modified, too. I think it’s settled into meaning the rattle of a good body check on the ice.

      You are right. There are lots of fights in this level of hockey as these players try to make a name for themselves in any way possible and get to the NHL, where the big money awaits. I was very against the fighting on principle and then found myself standing and gawking with the rest of the crowd. I felt guilty when I sat down even more because my dear wife Karen did not stand up, abhoring the fighting as do you.

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