Nov 1, 2023
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @Mossbrooks48
For the first time since Game 5 of the North Division Semifinals, the Rochester Americans and Syracuse Crunch will go head-to-head to start the first full month of the 2023-24 regular season.
“These teams don’t like each other,” said Amerks head coach Seth Appert after Wednesday’s morning skate. “There’s a good, healthy hatred between each other. That happens when both teams play hard and are committed to being hard to play against and physically engaged. We played them 17 times last year and 12 times this year. That builds some healthy hatred which usually makes the games very good.”
Rochester went 6-3-2-1 in 12 regular season meetings with the Crunch last season, though the Amerks won five of the first seven encounters. Syracuse hasn’t missed the playoffs since the 2015-16 season. Longtime former head coach Benoit Groulx, whose first AHL coaching stint was in Rochester years ago, led the team to five playoff appearances, including a trip to the Calder Cup Finals in 2017, but a new bench boss was found over the summer when two-time AHL All-Star Joel Bouchard was named head coach.
“They have a new coach this year and it looks like a bit of a change in the defensive zone, but they’ve always been a good defensive team. They’re heavy, they’re older, they have an older defensive core, so they’re always a hard team to score against. They make you earn your goals. You have to earn your offense against this team, and you also better make them earn theirs because if you give this team free goals, they’ll make it harder to get those back.
“They’re focused to details,” said defenseman Ethan Prow. “They always play hard. They’re physical and a good forechecking team. With those things and the way that we play, it makes for a good battle and a great game to come watch.”
The Amerks will be without one of their top forwards, but for good reason. Brandon Biro has been called-up to the Buffalo Sabres and is expected to make his season debut with the team Wednesday night in Philadelphia.
“I couldn’t be more excited to watch the replay of that game later on tonight,” said Appert. “Brandon Biro signed here as an undrafted free agent. He wasn’t thought of as a high-end prospect in our organization. He struggled that COVID year. Had a pretty good year after that. What Brandon Biro does every…
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