Syracuse Crunch Preseason Preview

Game 1 Oct. 4, 6:00 p.m. ET vs. St. John's IceCaps, Pepsi Centre, Corner Brook, NL
Game 2 Oct. 5, 6:00 p.m. ET vs. St. John's IceCaps, Stephenville Dome, Stephenville, NL
Game 3 Oct. 7, 12:30 p.m. ET vs. St. John's IceCaps, Clarenville Events Centre, Clarenville, NL

Coverage
Follow @SyracuseCrunch on Twitter for live, in-game updates and SyracuseCrunch.com for recaps. Live play-by-play broadcasts are available on http://www.thisisnewfoundlandlabrador.ca/.

Camp on the Rock
The Tampa Bay Lightning are conducting a large portion of their AHL training camp in Newfoundland for the second straight year. With stops in multiple towns across the island, the Syracuse Crunch's seven-day trip includes three exhibition games against the St. John's IceCaps, AHL affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets. The Thursday, Friday and Sunday games mark the Syracuse's only preseason matchups before beginning the regular season Oct. 12 at Rochester. The last two AHL teams to visit Newfoundland for training camp captured the Calder Cup: Norfolk (2011-12) and Binghamton (2010-11).

NHL Talent
As the National Hockey League's ongoing labor dispute continues, the Crunch -- along with the other 29 AHL clubs -- will enjoy the services of multiple NHL-caliber players. Of the 27 players participating in Syracuse training camp, eleven have played NHL games, including four with more than 40 NHL appearances: Keith Aulie (76), Brett Connolly (68), Matt Taormina (47), J.T. Wyman (43), Pierre-Cedric Labrie (14), Jean-Philippe Cote (8), Evan Oberg (7), Dustin Tokarski (7), Mike Angelidis (6), J.T. Brown (5), Riku Helenius (1).

Calder Cup Experience
The Tampa Bay Lightning's previous AHL affiliate (Norfolk) captured the 2011-12 Calder Cup, and 18 players who helped clinch that championship remain with the Lightning organization in 2012-13. Included among the returnees now with Syracuse are Mike Angelidis (team captain), Mark Barberio (league outstanding defenseman) and Cory Conacher (league MVP and outstanding rookie), plus head coach Jon Cooper (league outstanding coach). The team set a professional hockey record by closing the regular season with 28 consecutive victories. Winning 10 games more than any other AHL team, the Admirals were 55-18-1-2 through 76, and lost only three postseason contests en route to the Tampa Bay Lightning organization's first Calder Cup.

Rookies and Newcomers
Eight of the 27 players on the current Crunch roster hold rookie status -- fewer than 25 games of professional experience in North America (NHL or AHL) or fewer than 100 games of experience in a European elite league: J.T. Brown, Danick Gauthier, Alex Hutchings, Alex Killorn, Dmitry Korobov, Charles Landry, Max Parent, Vlad Namestnikov. An additional two experienced professionals are new to the Tampa Bay Lightning organization in 2012-13: Matt Taormina from the New Jersey Devils organization and Jared Nightingale from the New York Rangers organization. Riku Helenius was drafted by Tampa Bay in 2006 and played North American professional hockey from 2007 to 2010, but spent the last two years exclusively in Europe.

Spanning the Globe
The current Syracuse Crunch training camp roster boasts talent from seven countries: Canada (17), United States (5), Czech Republic (2), Belarus (1), Finland (1), Russia (1), Slovakia (1).

Recent Transactions
The Crunch trimmed their training camp roster by two Tuesday, assigning defenseman Dan Milan and goaltender Pat Nagle to ECHL Florida.

Photos: To see photos from the preseason trip to Newfoundland click here.