You don't see a Condor in Toronto very often, probably not ever, but you can this weekend. The Edmonton Oilers' AHL affiliates that play in Bakersfield, California are in town to play two games against the Toronto Marlies on Saturday and Sunday, both games are at 4:00 p.m..

The Condors are the latest and last of the California-based AHL teams to make a rare cross-conference visit to Toronto this year, and the Marlies will return the favour in-kind by travelling to California for a road trip in late January when the annual International Boat Show takes over the Coliseum and convention centre in January. It's interesting to note the Leafs will be in Ontario/Quebec for that whole trip, so any call-ups from the Marlies will get a little complicated.

The Condors visit comes on the heels of the Marlies comeback victory against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Tuesday, the Philadelphia Flyers affiliates, and noted Pokémon fans based on their logo.

Artur Akhtyamov was in net for the Marlies, and his ability at both acrobatics and to not be frazzled by a first period deficit were critical in the 6-3 win. Another big helper on the win was Mikko Kokkonen, who went double chocolate.

Post-game, Kokkonen said as far as he could recall this was his first ever pro-game where he scored two goals.

I won't share all the other highlights, but here's another fun one:

Alex Steeves had a milestone day on Tuesday, turning 25 years-old. It was right after he had topped the team's all-time record for points. Marlies coach John Gruden had high praise for his work ethic, saying "He put in the work. He did what he needed to in the summer. He works extremely hard in the gym, and he's a student of the game. With that, when you have that type of work ethic and that type of desire to want get better, he did exactly what he needed to do."

That still leaves the team still with some big changes to its roster in the past week. Alex Nylander and Nikita Grebenkin were returned to the team after playing for the Maple Leafs, though Grebenkin has now been recalled to the Leafs again. Dakota Mermis' brief time with the Leafs and Marlies ended with the Utah Hockey Club reclaiming him off waivers. Finally, Dennis Hildeby has moved up to the Leafs again with the potential injury to Anthony Stolarz, though Craig Berube has now implied it is not severe, so Hildeby will probably be back on the Marlies sooner rather than later, but for now that leaves Matt Murray and Artur Akhtyamov to run the show in net.

Either way, both the Leafs and Marlies have back-to-back games today and Sunday. We'll have our preview of the Leafs vs. Red Wings out around noon when the morning skate news comes out. The Toronto Sceptres have the weekend off, playing again on Wednesday in New York.

There's not much other news for today, there was only one single game on the NHL schedule yesterday and it was the Senators against the Hurricanes, and the SNES won it 3-0. Speaking of the Senators, Josh Norris is now officially a Level 2 diver.

Enjoy your weekend!

From The BranchesToronto Marlies