Don’t Miss Home Games For The Admirals Before The AHL All-Star Game
By Ted Warren
In a recent post by Duck Daily Editor Jared Dobias, he wrote a piece on three home games not to miss this season for the Ducks. Using his article as a model, I will outline the three home games or series not to miss for Admirals’ fans before the AHL all-star game. However if you live on the west coast there is a way you can still watch these games during the season. The site is ahllive.com and the cost of viewing a game is under 10 bucks.
With AHL hockey not starting until the 2nd week of October, there are only four home games for the Admirals during the opening month of hockey. All four games will be played in a weekend series against Atlantic or Northeast division opponents on Friday and Saturday.
Turning the season’s agenda to Wednesday, November 28th Admirals fans will have their first glimpse of the 2012-2013 Hershey Bears when they skate on to enemy ice to take on the Admirals. There has been a strong disliking for the Hershey Bears by Admirals’ fans since the Admirals came into the AHL as an expansion team. As the Bears are the closest foes in the AHL, the teams play each other quite frequently, which causes friction.
The Admirals play their first games of the New Year at home against the Syracuse Crunch, the AHL affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning. This weekend set will be a homecoming for the current Crunch players who won the Calder Cup with Norfolk last year. Not to mention that many fans have already chirped about not playing the Crunch at home until so late in the season. If you’re looking for a die-hard hockey fan in Norfolk Friday or Saturday night, odds are they are down at Scope watching the Admirals wage battle against the Crunch.
In the 3rd and final month of the three cannot miss home games or sets before the all-star break, the Admirals take on another Eastern Conference rival the WBS Penguins on January 15th. Just like the Hershey Bears, the Penguins are also one of the closest teams by location so the teams do battle quite often during the season. However the Admirals Faithfuls do not get to see the Penguins play in person until this game. Whenever these two teams meet regardless of affiliation there are always fireworks. This series is a definite cannot miss. In one of my later articles in the season, I will revisit this topic and talk about the three cannot miss home games through April.
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