The Marlies were busy last weekend playing three games in three days, Friday night in Rochester, Saturday afternoon at the Scotiabank arena, and finally on Sunday at the Coliseum. The team came out with two solid wins with 17 goals scored over those three games.
The four standings points accumulated last weekend against other teams from the North Division were a boost to the their rank in the standings as the competition for better playoff berths in the division is fierce. The end of the season is now in sight, about 30 days away, and the team has very little margin left for slip-ups.
Here are the North Division standings as of this morning:
There’s enough games left that no team is yet a lock or eliminated, but at this point Cleveland (Columbus Blue Jackets affiliates) and Syracuse (Tampa Bay Lightning affiliates) would have to go on a really big losing streak to not make it into the playoffs, though interestingly those two teams do not have any more games against each other this season, so there is no scenario where one of them has to beat the other and one walks away with the standings points.
The real contest is for that third place spot which lets a team bypass the dreaded play-in round for teams at fourth and fifth place; a quick best-of-three tournament that you would want to skip if you can and instead have home-ice advantage for the “real” start of the playoffs to play the winner of those two teams.
Tonight, the Marlies start another tough three-in-three weekend again and when it’s over their playoff picture will be much more clear. They will face some of the same teams they saw last weekend with one rare visitor to Toronto; the schedule is as follows:
Friday: Marlies @ Rochester Americans 7:00 p.m. in Rochester
Saturday: Marlies vs. Hartford Wolf Pack 4:00 p.m. at the Coliseum
Sunday: Marlies vs. Laval Rocket, 4:00 p.m. at the Coliseum
The three-in-three is always tough, especially when one is an away game as that drive to and from Rochester on the QEW is always longer than you expect and for good measure there’s a snow storm right on time for their trip back to Toronto.
Logan Shaw said he was thankful that there’s limited three-in-three weekends this season where there are far less than he has played in past seasons or for other AHL teams in his long career adding “it doesn’t get easier as you get older, for sure,” while noting the team was fortunate with “how well we get treated here [in Toronto],” helping to dull the physical impact it has on you.
Marlies coach John Gruden had several players in all three games, while others appeared in only two or one. He said “we try to have a plan, and try not to deviate from it regardless the outcome [of games],” noting defenceman Topi Nimelä scratched on Saturday was a planned day-off, and further added this approach would continue through the next month, saying “we’re going to have to do the same things as we move forward to the playoffs so guys can get in some rest as we lead up to that time.”
One final note about the upcoming games is on Saturday the Marlies face the Wolf Pack and they will have our old friend Nic Petan on their roster, freshly traded to the Rangers organisation from the Wild.
About The Author
Leave a Reply