The Marlies already had a back-to-back series this season, but last weekend was the first with both games at home against the same team. The end result was two losses to the Belleville Senators, a team they really need to stay ahead of in the division standings, one straight up on Saturday and then on Sunday in a shootout.

This was followed by a close loss to the division leading Syracuse Crunch on Wednesday, leaving the Marlies with a record of three wins and four losses (one in a shootout).

Needless to say, it's not the start to the season this team wanted.

Highlights

On Saturday the Marlies lost to the Senators 4-2 The two Marlies goals were by the Nylander with the highest points-per-game rate in Toronto as of today, Alex (1.4 PPG vs. 1.33 for Willy)!

Here's his first.

The second goal was a battle to get it in the net.

However, that was not enough offence to make up for the lack of defence and Belleville scoring four goals on Artur Akhtyamov, including three in a row before Nylander got his first. In this game the Marlies were outworked each period.

Marlies coach John Gruden said "I thought it was pretty even as far as o-zone time, but we had a lot of breakdowns. Our start was better, but at the end of the day, we gave them too much. Too many turnovers, and breaking pucks out, and that gave them some momentum and then they're on you," he added "we weren't able to recover."

On Sunday, the tables appeared to be turned with the Marlies quickly scoring twice in the first period, first by William Villeneuve for his first goal of the season, hitting four points in seven games.

Villeneuve is a play-maker not a big goal scorer. Last season he reached new heights with 40 points in 55 games, though of those 40 points 36 were assists. The Leafs' fourth round pick in 2020, he was ranked at #17 in our summer Top 25 Under 25 and you can read more about him here:

2025 T25U25: William Villeneuve is #17
The top ranked Marlies defender...by default
PPP LeafsHardev

Benoit-Olivier Groulx then scored to put the Marlies up 2-0. He's one of the depth signings the Leafs made on free agency day back in July.

Maple Leafs add to the depth
In addition to Pezzetta, they add Travis Boyd, Benoit-Olivier Groulx and re-up Dakota Mermis.
PPP LeafsCathy Squires

After that Mads Sogaard, who started in goal for the Senators, was smashed into the net by Jacob Quillan, which instigated a fight and sent him to the penalty box while Sogaard had to leave the game and was replaced by Hunter Shepard. All the above happened in the first four minutes of the game.

It looked like it would be an eventful one, but then the building fire alarm went off, and we had to evacuate. I'll have more on that later, but about half an hour later, the game finally resumed.

I don't want to dwell on the highlights of all the goals in this game, but the Marlies did respond well, though a controversial moment was one Senators goal that was allowed but seems to be clearly a high-stick goal that should have been waived off. You can even see Dennis Hildeby in the clip immediately gesturing over his head that the Senators player's stick was over the cross bar on the deflection.

Unfortunately, this isn't reviewable in the AHL. Gruden said it's something that needs to be changed. "There's no reason they can't take a minute. If we can take 25 for the fire alarm, there's no reason you can't take one to try to get the game right," adding "[the officials are] doing the best they can, but they need a little help too."

Ultimately, the game went all the way to a shootout and the Marlies lost.

The Marlies played the Syracuse Crunch on Wednesday night. The Crunch are first in the division, losing only one of their eight games so far as of Friday night. It was a tough matchup from the start but the team did put in a great effort for this one but were outscored by the Crunch's talent, including Conor Geekie, famously a first round pick of the Arizona Coyotes in 2022 who hasn't panned out. I guess those brain wave scans really didn't work.

But guess who got another goal in the game!

We also had a first AHL goal by Chas Sharpe.

And if you don't know who Chas Sharpe is, you didn't read this article from Brian!

Maple Leafs Prospect Report: The Toronto Marlies
Looking at Toronto’s prospects who will be playing this season on the Marlies and what I hope to see from them.
PPP LeafsBrian S

The Marlies fought hard but lost again in this game. Their third loss in a row after winning three in a row. Now the big test beings with the road-trip to play the Central and Atlantic Division teams.

Post-Game Comments

Gruden had something to say about his team taking too many penalties this season after Sunday's game where the Marlies had multiple stick penalty and four tripping calls against them, saying "if we're going to take a penalty, I'm OK with killing it off for the right reasons, but penalties in the offensive zone, reaching and not checking with their feet and getting above guys, then it's an issue. It's something we definitely have to clean up."

Gruden also talked about team culture and the chemistry they've been trying to find with the huge turnover in the roster from last season and how this long road trip can help with that, saying "we have a great group of guys, and we're fortunate as a staff to have this group. I know at the end of the day they'll be there for us, and it's a long season, and again we have work to do, but we should be excited about what's to come."

He added that the chemistry is still a work in progress. "I'm not making excuses for these guys, they want to win as much as all of us to, but when you've got guys coming in the lineup, [like] the veterans, it takes a bit of time. We will get it right, but I like our players, their personalities, and that we're going on the road and we'll hopefully have more chemistry when we come back."

Ephemera

There's that old saying, "just when you think you've seen everything that can happen in a hockey game, you see something new." Well that happened to me last weekend.

Despite the robo-voice saying "the fire alarm has been investigated and it is determined a real emergency exists," there wasn't one. If you live or work in the high-rises of Toronto you are probably familiar with the protocol that when this happens the fire department is notified automatically, and they have to go there to turn off the alarm themselves, the building staff can't do it on their own, probably for many safety and insurance reasons.

It took around an hour before they let people back into the building, though the evacuation was calm and well handled by the local security. The official game time was 3:40 long, over an hour more than normal. When asked about how the game went, John Gruden said "are you talking about the second game, or the first game? It felt like two games."

Next Games

This road trip will see the team play the Chicago Wolves, W-B/Scranton Penguins, Hershey Bears, Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and the Grand Rapids Griffins, though I'm told they will get a brief stopover back in Toronto when returning from Pennsylvania to head to Michigan. They return to play in Belleville after that, but obviously they can bus it from Toronto to Belleville for that game.

The Marlies next home game will be a rare (possibly first ever?) visit to Toronto by the Iowa Wild on Saturday and Sunday, November 22 and 23. The Marlies will return that favour and go visit the Wild for two games in Des Moines, Iowa during the annual Boat Show road trip in January.

Here are the current North Division Standings as of Friday night, and uh, Utica Comets, you have some 'splainin to do.

Toronto Marlies