SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks announce 2012-2013 regular season schedule

A few seasons ago in a preseason interview with Sharkspage Mike Mudd, who at that time was the Worcester Sharks Vice President & Assistant General Manager, said that an early season road trip where the team could spend a few days together away from home was a great way to build camaraderie amongst the players. With the release of the American Hockey League’s 2012-13 schedule the now team President Mudd gets his wish as the WorSharks will begin their seventh campaign with a opening weekend trip to Norfolk, Virginia to take on the defending Calder Cup champion Admirals in a two game set beginning on October 12th. Norfolk heads to Worcester in mid April to complete their four game season series.

In the sometimes wacky world that is the AHL, while the WorSharks will be playing the defending championship franchise in Norfolk all of the Admirals players from last season have gone off to the Syracuse Crunch as the two organizations have switched NHL affiliations. The Tampa Bay Lighting were affiliated with Norfolk last season but have now moved on to The ‘Cuse, with the Anaheim Ducks moving their affiliation south to Virginia. The Crunch will make one visit to Worcester in late November, and the WorSharks close out their season with a game in Syracuse on April 20th.

The only changes from last season’s opponents are the addition of the Admirals to the WorSharks schedule and the dropping of the Binghamton Senators. With the trip to Norfolk Worcester will only be going to St. John’s, Newfoundland once to take on the reigning Atlantic Division champion IceCaps. Like last season they’ll play two games during the visit, meaning that despite playing in the same division they’ll meet only four times during the season. Worcester will face their other three division rivals, the Manchester Monarch, Portland Pirates, and Providence Bruins 12 times each.

Their remaining schedules breaks down to eight games against the Springfield Falcons, six vs the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, four each against the Hershey Bears, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, and Connecticut Whale. The Albany River Rats and Adirondack Phantoms will each play Worcester twice, with Albany’s visit on October 20th being the WorSharks home opener.

The AHL is considered a “weekend league”, and this season is no exception with 33 of Worcester’s 38 home games coming on either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Because of that the WorSharks will play three games in three days eleven times over the course of the regular season. Worcester will play all three games of those three-in-threes on the road twice, and have a home three-in-three once. The schedule is very well balanced between home and away games for Worcester, with the WorSharks longest road trip being six games in February while several trade shows take over the DCU Center for their yearly visits, and they have a handful of four game homestands.

One thing that’s noticeably missing from the schedule are the several “mad dashes” to outlying teams and back to the DCU Center for consecutive games that seem to have dotted the WorSharks schedule with alarming frequency over the years. In the upcoming campaign that happens only once, with the WorSharks playing Saturday in Hershey for a night contest and then rushing back home to take on Portland on Sunday afternoon in mid-December.

With Worcester traveling by bus to virtually all of their games hotel stays are rare for the team, and has become a tradition here at Sharkspage this writer likes to guess at the number of overnight stays the team will make. My track record is usually pretty good, and my initial guess before posting was the WorSharks would spend eight nights this season in hotel rooms. A second look at the schedule shows that prior to each of the two trips to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the WorSharks have the day off, so it’s likely the team will head out on the approximately six hour bus ride the day before, bringing the total nights in hotels up to ten.

October
Fri. 12, at Norfolk, 7:30 p.m.
Sat. 13, at Norfolk, 7:15 p.m.
Fri. 19, at Portland, 7 p.m.
Sat. 20, Albany, 7 p.m.
Sun. 21, at Providence, 1:05 p.m.
Fri. 26, Bridgeport, 7:30 p.m.
Sat. 27, at Manchester, 7 p.m.
Sun. 28, Bridgeport, 3 p.m.

November
Fri. 2, at Providence, 7:05 p.m.
Sat. 3, St. John’s, 7 p.m.
Sun. 4, Manchester, 3 p.m.
Fri. 9, Portland, 7:30 p.m.
Sat. 10, Connecticut, 7 p.m.
Sun. 11, at Providence, 3 p.m.
Wed. 14, at Portland, 7 p.m.
Sat. 17, Connecticut, 7 p.m.
Fri. 23, at Manchester, 7 p.m.
Sat. 24, Portland, 7 p.m.
Sun. 25, Syracuse, 3 p.m.
Fri. 30, at Portland, 7 p.m.

December
Sat. 1, at Bridgeport, 7 p.m.
Sun. 2, at Providence, 3 p.m.
Sat. 8, Providence, 7 p.m.
Sun. 9, at Manchester, 3 p.m.
Wed. 12, at Connecticut, 7 p.m.
Sat. 15, at Hershey, 7 p.m.
Sun. 16, Portland, 3 p.m.
Fri. 21, at Providence, 7:05 p.m.
Wed. 26, at Manchester, 7 p.m.
Fri. 28, Manchester, 7:30 p.m.
Sat. 29, Providence, 7 p.m.
Mon. 31, at Manchester, 7 p.m.

January
Sat. 5, at W-B/Scranton, 7:05 p.m.
Sun. 6, at Hershey 5 p.m.,
Tue. 8, at Portland, 7 p.m.
Fri. 11, Springfield, 7:30 p.m.
Sat. 12, at Albany, 5 p.m.
Sun. 13, Portland, 3 p.m.
Wed. 16, Hershey, 7 p.m.
Fri. 18, Manchester, 7:30 p.m.
Sat. 19, Adirondack, 7 p.m.
Fri. 25, at Springfield, 7 p.m.
Sat. 26, Providence, 7 p.m.

February
Fri. 1, at Portland, 7 p.m.
Sat. 2, Providence, 7 p.m.
Tue. 5, at St. John’s, 6 p.m.
Wed. 6, at St. John’s, 6 p.m.
Sun. 10, at Bridgeport, 3 p.m.
Fri. 15, at Springfield, 7 p.m.
Sat. 16, at Adirondack, 7 p.m.
Sun. 17, at Providence, 3 p.m.
Fri. 22, Manchester, 7:30 p.m.
Sat. 23, Portland, 7 p.m.
Sun. 24, Springfield, 3 p.m.

March
Sat. 2, at Portland, 7 p.m.
Sun. 3, at Springfield, 3 p.m.
Sat. 9, Providence, 7 p.m.
Sun. 10, Portland, 3 p.m.
Wed. 13, W-B/Scranton, 7 p.m.
Fri. 15, W-B/Scranton, 7:30 p.m.
Fri. 22, at Springfield, 7 p.m.
Sat. 23, Providence, 7 p.m.
Sun. 24, Hershey, 3 p.m.
Wed. 27, Manchester, 7 p.m.
Thu. 28, at Connecticut, 7 p.m.
Sat. 30, St. John’s, 7 p.m.

April
Tue. 2, Bridgeport, 7 p.m.
Thu. 4, at Bridgeport, 11 a.m.
Sat. 6, Springfield, 7 p.m.
Sun. 7, Manchester, 3 p.m.
Fri. 12, Norfolk, 7:30 p.m.
Sat. 13, Norfolk, 7 p.m.
Sun. 14, at Manchester, 3 p.m.
Wed. 17, Springfield, 7 p.m.
Fri. 19, at W-B/Scranton, 7:05 p.m.
Sat. 20, at Syracuse, 7:30 p.m.