Dylan Duke

Syracuse getting goals from Brendan Furry and Ethan Gauthier.

Lucas Mercury and Dylan Duke both had two assists.

The Crunch will travel to Lehigh Valley to play the Phantoms tonight.

Orlando Solar Bears are back in action as they host the South Carolina Stingrays tonight.

But the exciting thing is, like you said, there are still a lot of young players here getting tons of playing time, working through some of the ups and downs of pro hockey, whether it's the rookie campaign for Sam O'Reilly, who I know a lot of Lightning fans are excited about, or Tomasz Kraljevic.

Those young players jumping in at this level for the first time, or whether it's Dylan Duke is around for his third year, Lucas Mercury in his second season.

So I think as a group, the team has not quite gotten off to the start that I, again, I think they were kind of expecting with the, that returning group of players, but at the same time, they're hanging in there, they're working through it.

They're working hard to practice when they have time to practice, which is pretty frequently early in the year with kind of a lighter schedule.

It's been a difficult pill to swallow.

Their seasons have ended in overtime in the last few years, which has been a little difficult.

Lucas, who else should Lightning fans be keeping an eye on down in Syracuse? I know we've had a couple people message about how's Dylan Duke looking and some of the other guys that are high on the Lightning's depth right there.

Yeah, I think, I mean, Dylan Duke is definitely a guy high on the list.

That would be the final score.

Syracuse also getting goals from Dylan Duke, Jacob Pelletier, and Mateo Petriano.

Goaltender Olivier Rodrigues stopped 30 of 33 shots to earn his first Crunch win.

The Crunch will travel to Laval on Wednesday to take on the Rocket.

And is it Gonsalves, right? 'Cause he was in the, he was in the press box.

Or Do you look at the AHL? Do you look at Sam O'Reilly? Do you look at Dylan Duke? And maybe they're not on that top six-

This is-

But maybe I...

So I'm not saying, again, this may be a very poor example, but it's one, let's run with it.

If you think Dylan Duke is going to be a guy who can play on a fourth line, at some point it may make not sense to sign a 32-year-old to a five-year contract worth $25 million who's going to do similar things when you have to sign other players of higher status to contracts.

I think that's

a fair point.

No, funniest part about it to me was Alex Belzio, man.

First, originally when it happened, it was this Duke guy, this, God, I forget his name, Dylan Duke, I think, bumped into David Reinbacker, kind of had a little scuffle.

Vincent Arsenault was on the ice, and he got in there pretty quick to, you know, diffuse the situation.

But when the linesman got a hold of Arsenault, then all of a sudden, Ah, hell breaks loose because Rhinebecker's into it with that Mercury kid.

Sam O'Reilly recorded a point in his first pro game.

Dylan Duke, Jacob Pelletier also earned assists.

Mad Sogard turned aside all 27 shots he faced in his Crunch debut.

The Crunch will face off against the Rocket again this afternoon.

On Thursday, they name Steven Santini as the captain.

Clark Bishop, Dylan Duke, Jacob Peltier, and Jared Tenorti will wear the A's this season.

Thank you for listening to The Daily Strike for Friday, October 2nd, 2026.

I'm Steve Burstyn for Everyday.