Earlier this week, it was the National Basketball League of Canada’s Edge having difficulty getting back to St. John’s for their 2019-20 home-opener.
Then it became the Newfoundland Growlers who were delayed in trying to get out of town.
The ECHL’s Growlers (24-10-0) were supposed to have flown from St. John’s Wednesday afternoon and eventually make their way to Portland, Me,, where they are set to open up a mini road trip against the Maine Mariners (17-14-1) tonight. But weather issues meant that flight was cancelled and attempts to reschedule for Thursday didn’t pan out.
That left the Growlers booking a flight out of St. John’s International Airport early this morning, heading to Toronto where they are to catch a connecting flight to Boston, then bus from there to Portland.
Tonight’s game, originally scheduled for 8:30 p.m. NT, has been moved a half hour later to help accommodate the Newfoundland team on what will be a long and trying day.
It might help if the Growlers could look forward to bit of a rest after tonight’s matchup with the Mariners, but that won’t be the case. What they will be facing is another bus trip, this time to Worcester, Mass., for a game versus the Railers Saturday night. It’s all part of a three-game weekend for Newfoundland, which will head back to Portland to take on the Mariners on Sunday evening.
And the hectic schedule won’t end there. On Monday, the Growlers are set to return to St. john’s, where they will take on the Kansas City Mavericks Tuesday and Wednesday at Mile One Centre. That will make five games in six days, all connected by two sets of double-legged flights and four bus trips.
At least the Growlers can see it as some sort of shared experience with their Mile One cohabiters.
The Edge opened their 2019-20 with a six-game post-Christmas road trip through the Maritimes, with a half dozen separate bus trips, then experienced a two-day weather delay in getting a flight back to St. John’s, only arriving on Tuesday morning, less than nine hours before playing their first home game of the season against the KW Titans.
The Growlers can only hope for a travel-day result like the one the Edge produced; the basketball team defeated the Titans Tuesday night and followed up with another win Wednesday at Mile One.
Melindy activated
Some good roster news for the Growlers in that defenceman and team captain James Melindy has been activated from the injured reserve list and could be in the lineup tonight.
Melindy has missed the last 17 games after suffering an upper-body injury Nov. 23 in Reading against the Royals.
Mind you, Newfoundland has gone 13-4-0 in the interim, but Melindy’s on-ice presence will still be very welcome for the Growlers, who own the third-best record in the ECHL and have a four-point lead over the second-place Brampton Beast (and have a game in hand on the Beast) in the North Division.
With Melindy activated, the Growlers released rearguard Phil Johansson, who played two games for Newfoundland after being brought in from the Southern Professional Hockey League.
It's three in three times five for Growlers
t would be wrong to see this three-in-three weekend as an anomaly for the Newfoundland Growlers. In fact, this is one of five times Newfoundland will play three games in three weekend days this ERCHL season. In all, those five sets of trios make up more than 40 per cent of the Growlers’ 36-game road schedule.
The biggest reason for all the Growlers’ busy weekends: an aversion, especially in American cities, to playing home games on weekdays, when attendance is often significantly lower.
Portland a freequent port of call in first half of season
This weekend will see the Growlers and Maine Mariners meeting for the fifth and six times this season, with all those games at Portland’s Cross Arena.
After this trip, Newfoundland will play Maine five more times, including four straight games at Mile One in mid-February
So far, the Growlers and Mariners have split their first four meetings.
Twitter: @telybrendan