The American Hockey League All-Star break has arrived and all is not well with the Syracuse Crunch.

The Crunch have gone from two wins away from winning the Calder Cup a season ago to sitting in last place in their division and near the basement of the entire AHL.

The Crunch enter the break on a 1-9 skid with an overall record of 18-21-3-5, which has earned them just 44 points and a last place spot in the East Division. The team they are looking up at in the East Division, the Norfolk Admirals, have 58 points.

The Crunch are 13th in the Eastern Conference and 26th overall in the American Hockey League. Only Portland (43), Utica (43), and Hartford (41) have less points than the Crunch right now (Lake Erie also has 44).

Why the big drop off for the Crunch from last season's record-setting success to this season's sorrow?

Call ups have certainly been an issue.

Names like Radko Gudas, Tyler Johnson, Mark Barberio, and Ondrej Palat, who were at the heart of Syracuse's success a season ago, earned a promotion to Tampa Bay to play in the NHL and haven't looked back since. Richark Panik was recently sent down to Syracuse after not earning much ice time with the Lightning.

Injuries in Tampa Bay this season have also put prospects like J.T. Brown and Nikita Kucherov into the NHL ahead of schedule.

The goalie situation in Syracuse has been a mess as well. Riku Helenius and the Lightning organization have been at odds. A number of factors led to 46-year old John Parks, an assistant coach at CBA high school, to be the Crunch's backup goalie for the day.

The Crunch are set to get some temporary relief at goalie with Cedrick Desjardins expected to be sent down from Tampa Bay during the Olympic break, but the brakes have been pumped on that transaction for now.

I asked Crunch owner Howard Dolgon what went wrong for the Crunch in the first half of the season:

"You don't want to lay the blame on injuries on our end and injuries and call ups with the parent club (Tampa Bay), but we had an inordinate number of players called up in the first half of the year," Dolgon said.

"That can't help, especially when you are a young team and full of young players that played a lot more minutes than they would have. That's not an excuse, but that is the way the league works. When you couple with the fact that we had so many players from last year's team playing now in Tampa. You never get that many players on a roster not only going to an NHL team, but being major factors on the NHL team. That combination didn't bode well for our success in the first half."

Does Dolgon believe the Crunch can rally in the second half and make a run at the postseason?

"Knowing first hand the character of the leadership we have, specifically Angelidis, Cote, and Neilson, and having players on the team that have won before and know what it takes, there is a greater indifference to losing, Dolgon said. "If any group can turn it around in a short period of time, this group can."

"For two reasons, Dolgon added. "One, this team was put together based a lot on character. Two, the leadership and experiences that these leaders have had will hopefully get through and create a sense of urgency I think they have."

I also asked syracuse.com Crunch beat reporter Lindsay Kramer to give me his take on why the Crunch struggled in the first half of the year.

We have heard from Dolgon and from Kramer, now we want to hear from Crunch fans.

Do you agree with Dolgon that this team has the character and leadership to rally in the second half of the season?

What do you think has been the biggest problem with the Crunch so far?

Drop below in the comments section or contact me at the info below to give us your take.

Brent Axe

baxe@syracuse.com

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