The Marlies had their season opener on Saturday evening, playing a team named after the second-most annoying bird on Earth, the San Diego Gulls; the most annoying bird being that one that starts loudly chirping at 4:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning in the summer right outside your bedroom window.

It's a new team this season with some new faces, some old ones, and some unexpected ones. Here were the lines for opening night.

Abruzzese - Shaw - Nylander
Hirvonen - Blandisi - Steeves
Grebenkin - Paré - Tverberg
Mastrosimone - Quillan - Solow

Rifai - Miller
Kokkonen - Mattinen
Webber - Niemelä

Murray
Akhtyamov

The obvious major new addition is Alex Nylander who is replacing Kieffer Bellows' spot on that top line. Bellows signed a one year deal with the Nashville Predators and then passed through waivers so he will play in the AHL for the Milwaukee Admirals for now. Nylander has some big shoes to fill in with Bellows scoring 27 goals last season in only 52 games played.

I was expecting to see Denis Hildeby get the start for game #1, but circumstances had him called up to the Leafs for his NHL debut and so the Marlies had Matt Murray in net, there to prove that he has recovered from injury and is capable of an NHL job. He can't accomplish that in only one game, but this win is a start on that path. The Marlies also have Vyacheslav Peksa as a third goalie who was a scratch Saturday but will likely get in at some point.

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Game Highlights

The Gulls are the affiliates of the Anaheim Ducks, and they had Oscar Dansk in net. Dansk was the third goalie selected in the 2012 NHL Draft at #31 overall. Dansk has only appeared in six NHL games in the 12 years since then. For the record, the fourth goalie selected in that draft was Anthony Stolarz, who started for the Leafs last night, picked at #45 overall. Also of note was the tenth goalie selected in that draft at #83 overall: Matt Murray.

This game actually started out with the Marlies looking rough around the edges often like they weren't clear what they should be doing next or what was expected of them, and this was a part of the Gulls scoring the first goal, only about one minute into the game.

It was definitely a moment where you are questioning "can Matt Murray really pull off this comeback?" But in the second period things changed, and the Marlies scored three straight goals on Dansk.

#1: Jacob Quillan gets his first professional hockey goal. Also a great effort by the fourth line to start to turn the game in the favour of the Marlies.

#2: Marshall Rifai gets this hilarious goal exiting the penalty box with the puck passed up in anticipation of that from Nylander.

#3: Roni Hirvonen patiently stays at the net, left relatively uncovered by the Gulls defender Hinds, and he buries a loose puck on the power play.

The Gulls did make a comeback in the third period, scoring twice to tie it up again, including this one where a lot goes wrong for the Marlies:

But Nick Abruzzese becomes the hero of the game and shows the top line back to their usual form, sealing the deal and putting the Marlies up 4-3 to win the game.

Post-Game

Alex Nylander looked good at times, especially at the start of an offensive rush or at the start of defensive situations, but then occasionally out of sorts on next steps, something very much like he's still adjusting to his new role and new linemates. Abruzzese said they only need some time until it clicks. "We just gotta keep building each day, try and get better and try and get acclimated with each other and just hope we continue to get better."

Coach John Gruden agreed and added "their game will grow as they get more comfortable with one another and they are where they expect each other to be, and that takes time, so I expect them to grow as a line as time moves forward here."

Gruden said last season the team's strength was the ability to run four lines and spread out the ice time among all four and he says that continues to be the case this season. He noted "Quillan, Mastrosimone, Solow [are] the fourth line, but they had a lot to do with getting us going there in the second period and they had a lot of good shifts," then confirmed that's how he intends to run things again this season. "I would still like to play the four. I want that to be our identity."

Here is the post game highlights pack.

The Marlies play the Gulls again today at 4:00 p.m. at the Coliseum. Oh and definitely add extra time to get there whether you are taking the TTC or driving as the traffic in the area is a mess right now, even more of a mess than the normal one.

Toronto Marlies