The Toronto Marlies 2016-17 schedule has finally arrived. In keeping with the four previous seasons, the Maple Leafs affiliate will begin their season on home ice.
A pair of games against the Utica Comets on opening weekend will kick off five of six games at Ricoh Coliseum to start the season.
The Marlies will then board the bus, with the Royal Winter Fair taking residence at Ricoh. Toronto will play six times on the road during the span of October 29 to November 12. That’s tied for their longest road-trip of the season, with the second coming in January when the Boat Show is hosted inside the confines of the Ricoh.
It will be a heavy road schedule leading up to the end of January, as the Marlies will have played seven more games away from Toronto than at home by that juncture of the schedule. February flips somewhat, with nine home games in the month before a further eight opportunities for the fans to catch the Marlies in March.
The schedule has been shortened in terms of opposition, with Toronto facing just fourteen different opponents and just one out of conference. That one out-of-conference team is the Manitoba Moose, who they’ll face on eight occasions.
Toronto won’t play Milwaukee, Chicago, Rockford, old rivals Grand Rapids, nor the current Calder Cup Champion Cleveland Monsters at all during the regular season. That’s a real shame, as these are some of the better teams in the American Hockey League and have provided some memorable encounters in recent history.
The Marlies will face the new Springfield Thunderbirds team twice, visiting Florida’s new affiliate on January 22 before hosting them back at Ricoh on March 25.
A welcome change is a reduction of the “three in three” game sets, with Toronto having to face this test just six times throughout 2016-17, two fewer than last season.
The Marlies will play four home games at the Air Canada Centre, with three of those preceding Toronto Maple Leafs home games:
- November 26 (1:30 p.m.)
- December 17 (1:30 p.m.)
- February 20 (3 p.m.)
- March 18 (1:30 p.m.)
Absent from the above list: The Boxing Day Classic will return to Ricoh Coliseum having been held at the ACC in four of the five previous years. St. John’s will again provide the opposition.
I wasn’t sure it was possible to place greater importance on divisional games within an AHL schedule, but this year’s certainly manages to do that. Toronto will face off against St. John’s and Rochester the most frequently of any opponent — twelve and ten times respectively.
The Marlies will take on Albany, Utica and Syracuse eight times apiece and battle Binghamton six times in 2016-17. That’s 52 of 76 total games against divisional opponents.
All seven Atlantic teams will be faced twice with the exception of Hartford (NYR affiliate), who for some reason will play the Marlies four times.
Two thirds of Toronto’s home games will come on weekends, with fifteen taking place on Saturday’s throughout the season.
Toronto’s last two games will be played on the road in St. John’s — a fitting way for the Ice Caps to finish what is likely to be the final season of professional hockey on the rock, as the Montreal Canadiens will relocate their affiliate to Quebec next year with no clear plans for a replacement professional hockey team on the East Coast.
The Toronto Marlies regular season will be preceded by a training camp in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the team will compete in the second annual Colemans Cup exhibition series. St. John’s will provide the opposition for games on October, 6, 7 and 9 at Stephenville Dome, Corner Brook Civic Centre, and Gander Community Centre respectively.
