Here’s the great news; the Crunch are offensively equipped for success. This weekend, seven of the Crunch’s eight total goals were scored by different players. There is no one star for the Crunch, but a squad in which wealth of scoring can be shared. Adam Wilcox is proving to be very much improved from last season. In five games, he has gotten three wins, all with him standing tall in goal and making a handful of great saves. In Saturday night’s game, he made a couple of great saves in which Providence had breakaway chances. The Crunch are fast and when they are on their A-Game, the shots are plentiful and plays are run seamlessly.
However, besides the opening weekend, I haven’t seen a Crunch squad on their A-Game. Last weekend, we saw a Crunch team frazzled by a weak Utica Comets squad who has struggled against everyone else in their season so far. That was followed by a terrible road game against Scranton which was best summed up by Raw Charge’s Brandon Curtis as “a complete dumpster fire.” This weekend, the Crunch have come out like a bullet from a gun in the first periods. They are crisp, fast, and attack the net like a swarm of wasps. However, come the second and third periods, the Crunch have transformed into fatigued lines which are victims of bad or over passing and defense which is slow to respond to transition and turnovers. If not for Adam Wilcox, the Bruins should have scored at least three more goals last night. To sum it up, the Crunch have problems closing out games. Please, stop me if you’ve heard me say all of this before.
Obviously, it’s early in the season. There’s games to be be played and transactions yet to happen. The Crunch can improve. No, the Crunch need to improve. To be completely honest, I was having flashbacks to the 2015-16 season far to often last night watching the current team. You can’t blame the loss of Ty McGinn and the call up of Corey Conacher for the lapses in offense. Kristers is off. In his last two starts, he has given up 10 goals. A lack a defense hasn’t helped him. Letting opponents swarm him and Wilcox is the real cause. Over passing and sloppy play from the offense doesn't help either. My worry is more focused on this great team not playing to their potential and digging an early hole in which they don’t recover from. It’s bad enough the Syracuse Chiefs constantly hurt themselves doing that in the summer, we don't need the Crunch doing that in the winter.
If the Crunch can keep their first period play up through the entire 60 minutes, they can be unstoppable. They need to shoot first and pass later. Last night, there were several great shot opportunities which were neglected and resulted in over passing or big turnovers in the zone. In close games, being greedy and taking shots at the net is never a bad thing. For the Crunch, rebound goals have always been their strength. More shots will increase rebound opportunities for guys like Gourde, Dumont, Erne, and Peca, thus probably creating more goals. Add that to better transitional defense, and you have a winning Crunch squad that runs up the score and can comfortable close out more games.
After a week of rest, the Crunch travel to play the Amerks on Friday, November 4th with a rematch against Utica in the Old Barn the following night. The Crunch need to find their spark from the first couple games and use it in these games. Early wins now will better help them down the road. Let’s see if they can find that closing ability they so desperately need.