The Marlies regular season is over, and it goes down in history as one of, if not the most, successful seasons by a Toronto Maple Leafs AHL team.
The Marlies:
- Finished first with a win percentage of .737
- Have the best road record with a road win percentage of .829
- Are eight points ahead of their nearest rival
- Have eight more ROW than the second place team
- Have the lowest goals against in the league (by three over Tucson, who played 8 fewer games)
- Have the third highest goals for in the league
- Have the most power play opportunities and the third highest power play goals scored
- Have the fewest power play goals against on the third lowest penalty minutes taken
- Have the top goalie by Save percentage in Garret Sparks
- Have one skater in the top 20 by points/
Wait, what?
That’s right, the Marlies are not a star-driven team. They have one regular player at one point per game (Andreas Johnsson) and seven at over .7 points per game.
The structure of the team has allowed Travis Dermott, Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen to leave and have them be easily replaced by Andreas Borgman, Carl Grundstrom, Pierre Engvall and a long list of mostly successful players on ATOs.
The Marlies finished the regular season with an 8-0-1-1 record.
Now it’s playoff time, and the first round opponent is the Utica Comets, affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks and all-around good AHL club. They usually aren’t elite, but they seldom are truly bad.
The first round is a best of five series and it begins on Saturday. The Marlies will have home ice advantage in every round.
- Game one is Saturday, April 21 at 4 p.m. - Home game
- Game two is Sunday, April 22 at 4 p.m. - Home game
- Game three is Wednesday, April 25 at 7 p.m. - Utica
- Game four is Friday, April 27 at 7 p.m. - Utica
- Game five is Sunday, April 29 at 4 p.m. - Home game/
The other division series pits the Syracuse Crunch against the Rochester Americans.
Tickets are available now and they range in price from $21 to $51 each.
The official playoff roster was also released:
2018 Toronto Marlies Playoff Roster
| Name | Number | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Aaltonen, Miro | 45 | F |
| Baun, Kyle | 12 | F |
| Borgman, Andreas | 55 | D |
| Bracco, Jeremy | 27 | F |
| Brooks, Adam | 14 | F |
| Clune, Rich | 17 | F |
| Engvall, Pierre | 47 | F |
| Gauthier, Frederik | 33 | F |
| Greening, Colin | 38 | F |
| Grundstrom, Carl | 27 | F |
| Holl, Justin | 4 | D |
| Liljegren, Timothy | 7 | D |
| Lindgren, Jesper | 42 | D |
| LoVerde, Vincent | 5 | D |
| Marchment, Mason | 20 | F |
| Marincin, Martin | 52 | D |
| Moore, Trevor | 9 | F |
| Mueller, Chris | 19 | F |
| Nielsen, Andrew | 6 | F |
| Pickard, Calvin | 31 | G |
| Rosen, Calle | 48 | D |
| Smith, Ben | 18 | F |
| Sparks, Garret | 40 | G |
| Timashov, Dmytro | 41 | F |
Both of the Leafs drafted players on ATOs have been added (Pierre Engvall and Jesper Lindgren), but none of the other ATO or PTO players are on the roster. Carl Grundstrom is a regular roster player now, assigned by the Leafs since he is under an NHL contract this season.
It is possible to add eligible players to the roster as the playoffs roll on. Those eligible on the Leafs roster are: Kasperi Kapanen, Travis Dermott and Andreas Johnsson.
The rest of the AHL-contracted players not on this roster (Jeff King, Kristian Pospisil, Joshua Winquist) as well as the ATOs and PTOs remain as a group working with Scott Pellerin and the development staff of the team.
Go Marlies Go!
