Today, as the rest of the AHL has begun their season, the Canadian Division has a partial schedule. The games begin on February 12, with the Marlies starting on February 15.
Note: these are times local to the arena, so the Marlies start in the Central and Mountain time zones.
As you can see the two Ontario teams begin play on the road with no home games this month. The Marlies play a western run through Manitoba (the Moose play in the Jets arena in Winnipeg) and Calgary (the Stockton Heat are playing out of the Flames arena for this season only).
The hope is that the two Ontario teams will get permission to play home games once this preliminary run has ended.
This is a whole new world of scheduling with the Marlies playing a four-in-five in Winnipeg followed by a four-in-six in Calgary. They will really work their goalies.
As we’ve covered in a few reports, the Marlies have been adding players over the last few days, and Kalle Kossila has also re-joined the team after a few games in Europe. We expect a formal announcement of the Marlies roster in the coming days.
There is no expectation that any real playoffs will result from this season, as it’s mostly about getting some games in for players who haven’t seen the ice in almost a full year.
There are players currently on the NHL roster and Taxi Squad who could join the Marlies, but it seems like the roster is full of defenders without Rasmus Sandin.
It’s been a long time, but let’s go Marlies!