It's boating season! (looks out window) Or, well not really, but it is boat show season, so the Marlies have hit the road while their arena is temporarily turned into a lake.

Technically, the "road trip" started with a visit to the Senators in Belleville on Saturday the 10th, but they of course only bused it there and came back to Toronto that same night. The real travel began with a trip to Iowa to play the Wild last week where they won both games, including a comeback win where the power play really clicked.

That was the easy part of this extended road trip. The Wild sat at last place in the Central Division, having won only 10 of 36 games, though interestingly two of those ten wins were against the Marlies when they came here back in November, one of which was a 7-2 rout.

Now the Marlies face a gruelling schedule travelling through the Atlantic Division where they will face the Thunderbirds, Wolf Pack, and Bruins, all three games in three straight days; seriously the most challenging time of this season's schedule. The turnaround time between playing the Wolf Pack in Hartford on Saturday to playing the Bruins in Providence on Sunday is only about 18 hours. Nut that's life in the AHL.

Also on the road because of the boat show are the Toronto Sceptres, and if you stayed up late to watch them play last night in Vancouver you are probably reevaluating your life choices this morning. The Sceptres lost to the Goldeneyes 5-0, and of course two of those goals were by an ex-Sceptre.

Finally, we come to the Leafs, who will be playing the Vegas Golden Knights this evening, a team that has many familiar player names on it, including one in particular that we all know will be talked about non-stop all night long, so I will spare you reading about it here as we will have a preview of tonight's game out after the morning skate.

Until then, enjoy your day, and watch Crosby dunking on the LOLOILERS last night where the Penguins won 6-2.

y

From The Branches