The American Hockey League released the full 2012-2013 schedule today so now it’s time to start planning some road trips and schedules around the upcoming season.  The schedule still stinks and again there’s little variety, the Amerks play the same set of teams as last year.  Someday the board of governors will recognize that fans want to see more of a variety to the schedule and see different teams.  The biggest change is that Friday night home games have moved from a 7:35pm start to 7:05pm.

That start time seems to be the only lowlight of the schedule.  The Amerks have played games on Friday nights at 7:35 for a very long time.  Rob Kopaz told Kevin Oklobzija the following about the change:

1) Consistency to the schedule. Fans don’t need to try to remember if it’s 7:05 or 7:35.

2) It’s more family friendly. “If you want younger kids to come to games, starting earlier is better,” he said.

3) The team gets on the bus sooner and, thus, gets more rest before the Saturday road game. There will be 14 times the Amerks are home Friday and on the road Saturday (most are game-day bus trips to Syracuse, [...]Read More

The American Hockey League has placed all of their magnets on the wall boards and worked around the NBA schedule to complete the 2012-2013 AHL schedule and it’s scheduled to be released at 3pm pending approval by the board of governors.  Is there any reason they wouldn’t approve it?  Not that I can think of.

So, what can be expected?  I haven’t seen the schedule or been given any inside information on it but it’s probably safe to assume that not much has changed from previous seasons.  There’ll be a lot of games against a number of familiar teams and a lack of games against teams that they haven’t played against in years.  Teams have usually announced a list of opponents by now but they did not do that this season.

The Amerks are still in the Western Conference and the only change is that the Grand Rapids Griffins are no longer in the North Division and in their place is the Abbotsford Heat.  The North Division has Rochester, Cleveland, Hamilton, Toronto and Abbotsford which is just under 3,000 miles away.  There’s a lot of people that would love to see the Amerks move into the Eastern Conference but that’s [...]Read More

The American Hockey League released the full schedule for all 30 teams this afternoon, Rochester Americans included.  The first date noticed is the home opener on October 13, 2011 against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.  Another date that quickly sticks out is March 24, 2012 when they play in Syracuse which is the potential date for the Syracuse Crunch game at the Carrier Dome.

Lindsay Kramer wrote a tweet that the Crunch owner has given Labor Day as a date they’ll know if that game is definitely happening.  They are currently trying to secure a title sponsor and once that’s done the game will likely be 100% confirmed.  There’s no reason to doubt the game won’t happen though.

The longest stretch of home games is five from November 6th through November 18th.  11/6 Syracuse, 11/11 Binghamton, 11/12 Grand Rapids, 11/16 Syracuse and 11/18 Toronto.

The longest road trip is five games from December 10 through December 18.  12/10 Adirondack, 12/11 Hamilton, 12/16 San Antonio, 12/16 Texas and 12/18 Houston.  It’s really almost like seven games though.  The Amerks will return home for one game on 12/21 versus Lake Erie before travelling again to play Oklahoma City on December 27 and 28.

It’s been a long summer and with the change in weather this weekend everyone is getting the feeling that the hockey season is finally upon us. With that, I’ve created the Amerks 2010-2011 regular season schedule in a way that you can import it into your phones calendar (or desktop calendar if you’re old school).  If you have an iPhone, Blackberry or Android device this should be pretty simple for you. Anything else and get in touch and I’ll do my best to help you out.

The calendar events are simple and only contains the teams playing, arena name (click on and get easy GPS directions), a link to this web site and the Amerks phone number to buy tickets for home games.

Here’s some steps to get you started:

Schedule in iCal format – Copy and paste this link or download and import into whatever application you have that supports the iCal format.  If you have a Google / Gmail account:  Login and click on Calendar.  On the left hand side look for Other Calendars and then click on Add underneath that.  Click on Add by URL and then copy and paste this link: http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/letsgoamerks.com_53r973l4269c9ngftg92oh2pi8%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Android devices - [...]Read More

The Rochester Americans released the schedule format for the 2010-2011 and it’s just what was expected, see the same teams yet again.  The league has expanded to 30 teams but most teams, like the Amerks, will only play against about 13 of them.

One bright spot is that the Amerks will play twice against the Worcester Sharks, once at home and once on the road.  At least there’s one different team on the schedule.

There are no games against Western Division teams at all.  The only team in the Atlantic Division the Amerks will play is the Sharks.

The biggest obstacle in place is obviously travel expenses, teams want to minimize the costs by having to fly as little as possible.  But at the same time, how does it make any sense that a team plays one team 10 times and another 8 times and neither team is in the same division?

Yes, it can add to a rivalry with some teams but it gets tiring after a while.  I’ve heard from a lot of average fans (only a few games a season), “anytime I decide to go to a game it’s always against the same team.”  The American Hockey League prides itself on being the development league [...]Read More

I’m looking forward to reading about the Craig Charron bar tending event at Murphy’s Law on Monday night, I had a family event (sons last ball game of the season) and couldn’t make it.  So, any news this time of the year is better than no news.  The Amerks announced six guaranteed dates for the upcoming season along with group pricing.  No word yet on the opponent, but mark your calendars.

Here’s the press release:

For Immediate Release
June 21, 2010

AMERKS ANNOUNCE GROUP PRICING ALONG WITH SIX DATES

Hershey to visit for home opener on October 10th

(Rochester, NY)… Rochester Americans fans that want to enjoy a hockey game with their friends can take advantage of the team’s affordable group ticket pricing for the 2010-11 American Hockey league season.

The Amerks ticket packages for groups of 10 or more start as low as $12. The team also offers discounts for groups of 30-49, 50-99 and 100-plus fans. Group leaders can enjoy special benefits for booking a group with one of the most storied franchises in the AHL. The benefits can include two tickets to Group Leader Appreciation Night, an Autographed Program, Group Leader T-shirt, two suite tickets to [...]Read More

(Rochester, NY)… The Rochester Americans announced today a game time th change for their Saturday, February 13 th home game against the Lake Erie Monsters. The game has been pushed back a half-hour to a 7:35 p.m. start at The Blue Cross Arena Arena.

Prior to the Amerks’ American Hockey League contest that night, the Rochester Knighthawks host the Boston Blazers in a 2:05 p.m. afternoon contest at The Blue Cross Arena.

“The change was made primarily due to logistical reasons with the double- header we have scheduled for that day,” said Amerks President Lewis Staats. “We wanted to make sure there was enough time between the lacrosse game and hockey game, not only from a building a standpoint, but also to allow the players enough time to arrive to the arena for their respective games.” to arrive to the arena for their respective games.”