It's a big weekend to end the Toronto Marlies regular season with two back-to-back games here in Toronto at the Coliseum against the Laval Rocket, the top team in the AHL North Division. While the Marlies have clinched a playoff spot, they are presently fourth place in the division and ideally need to win both games so they avoid the dreaded play-in tournament which is where they were knocked out last season.

The Marlies are chasing the Cleveland Monsters for that third place spot, and unfortunately the Monsters won last night putting them three standings points ahead of the Marlies, but the Marlies have two games left to Cleveland's one, and the Marlies will own the first tie breaker, so it's possible to get up to third place with only a win and an overtime loss, however that still depends on the Monsters losing their final game, but that final game for the Monsters is against the Grand Rapids Griffins which are the blow-out best team in the whole AHL this season with a record of 51 wins in 71 games, so there is still hope the Marlies can do it.

The Rocket love to be antagonists though, and they have nothing to lose as they have already locked down first in the division, so expect the likes of Florian Xhekaj being as big a jerk as possible on the ice.

But, again, even if the Marlies don't win, they are in. Playoff schedule details to be determined after this weekend.

Where the Sceptres will land is still unknown. They still have three regular season games left and the first of those is on Sunday against the reigning PWHL champions the Minnesota Frost. They sit at sixth in the league, so they haven't been eliminated yet, but it is scary how close they are cutting it.

The Maple Leafs had their season ending interviews yesterday and you can watch them here:

But here's something more interesting to watch this weekend, as it's free of cliches, non-answers, and dumb questions that are only for attempting to craft a narrative about WHY LEAFS BAD?? It's a live stream of two baby owls in a box.

Note there are key shutdowns of GO Transit train service this weekend. Both the Barrie and Kitchener lines will operate only for a part of their routes; the Kitchener line won't go west of Bramalea and the Barrie line won't go south of Downsview.

On top of that there's a gigantic blob of rain heading this way which will hit Southern Ontario this Saturday morning.

Oh, and there's also that whole NHL playoffs thing that starts today. Not sure what that's about, but apparently it begins with the Senators @ Hurricanes at 3:00 p.m.

Have a good one, kittens.

From The Branches