| 18 August 2011
The P-Bruins announced their 2011-2012 season schedule today, which will kick off at home on October 7th against the new St. John's Ice Caps club. The P-Bruins will play 38 of their 76 games at home, 22 on Fridays and 16 on Sundays - once again, Providence College's Mens Basketball makes Saturday home games an impossibility. Luckily, travel in the AHL in the Northeast is negligible. The second weekend of the season sees the P-Bruins' first 3-in-3 of the season, with Friday and Sunday home games against Manchester and Portland, and a quick 2-hour jaunt to Springfield on Saturday to face off against the Falcons.
Dave Warsofsky and the P-Bruins will be back on October 7th to kick off their next Calder Cup quest.
Due to travel limitations, the P-Bruins' 36-game schedule against their division rivals is a bit wonky. The season series with the Worcester Sharks, AHL affiliate of - you guessed it - the San Jose Sharks, spans a third of these divisional games, with six games at home and six games at Worcester's DCU Center. They will face off against the Portland Pirates (Phoenix's affiliate) and the Manchester Monarchs (Kings' affiliate) 10 times apiece, and St. John's merely four times. St. John's is a 24 hour bus ride or a four-hour plane ride, so it makes sense to spread the AHL travel to their city outside the division.
After the jump, further breakdown of the Baby B's schedule...
The P-Bruins top the league for the second year in a row in 3-in-3's, or three games in three nights, with 17 over the course of the season. However, unlike last year where, on occasion, 10-hour bus trips were thrown into the 3-in-3 mix, this year the farthest the P-Bruins will have to travel is Albany. During all 17 3-in-3s, the Friday and Sunday games are at home at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. Imagine playing a game, then sleeping on an overnight bus before playing ANOTHER game, then having to do the same before hitting the ice early in the afternoon on the third day. No more, and props to the AHL schedulers for avoiding that.
In the newly formed Northeast Division, the P-Bruins face their former Atlantic Division opponents Connecticut Whale (Rangers) and Bridgeport Sound Tigers (Islanders) eight times, as well as the Springfield Falcons (Blue Jackets) 10 times. The P-Bruins play the team formerly known as the Lowell Devils (aka Albany) twice, and the Adirondack Phantoms (Flyers' affiliate) twice as well. The P-Bruins have never faced the Phantoms in this iteration before. The perennially tough Hershey Bears (Capitals) and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (Pittsburgh) have two games apiece against Providence, and for the first time since February 2009, the P-Bruins will play the Norfolk Admirals this season, with the first game on October 28th at the Dunk.
The complete schedule can be viewed here.
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