Sea Dogs' 2021-22 schedule released

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs are set to begin the 2021-22 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League regular season on Oct. 2 at TD Station.

The QMJHL released its full schedule for the upcoming season on Thursday, providing us all with some normalcy and optimism ahead of another - and hopefully last - COVID summer. While things could obviously change between now and October, the schedule is back to its usual 68 games and includes crossover play between the Maritime-based teams and the Quebec clubs.

The Sea Dogs begin the regular season with a home-and-home against the Charlottetown Islanders on Oct. 1-2 with the first match being played at TD Station.

The following weekend the Sea Dogs play a home-and-home against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan before travelling to Charlottetown for an extremely rare Thanksgiving Monday afternoon game. The Sea Dogs have never played on a Thanksgiving Monday.

Some more takeaways from Saint John's schedule:

• Saint John's first trip to Quebec since February 2020 will be from Nov. 4-6 when they visit Quebec City, Shawinigan and Drummondville.
• The Sea Dogs will travel to Quebec four times this season with each trip featuring three games.
• The Sea Dogs will host the Halifax Mooseheads on Halloween, which falls on a Sunday this year. Game time is the usual 3 p.m.
• Saint John will play at the new Slush Puppie Centre in Gatineau for the first time on Nov. 17.
• The final game before the holiday break will be on Dec. 18. Play resumes Dec. 28.
• The Sea Dogs will host the Titan at 2 p.m. on New Year's Eve (which is a Friday).
• Saint John's first trip to Moncton won't be until Jan. 2 and their first visit to Halifax won't be until Jan. 4. Their last regular season game in Halifax was on Nov. 7, 2020.
• Joshua Roy and the Sherbrooke Phoenix visit Saint John on Jan. 8.
• It's early, but this could be a big weekend for the Sea Dogs: they host the Quebec Remparts on Jan. 20 and the Gatineau Olympiques the night after. Both teams could be quite good this season.
• Saint John ends the regular season as they have many times in the past: with back-to-back road games in Sydney. The regular season concludes on April 2.

According to the Sea Dogs, of the team's 34 home games, "28 will be played on weekends while Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays will feature two games each."

These are still pandemic times so anything could happen - but there are certainly reasons to be optimistic that TD Station will be open to full capacity come October. To help ensure we're all watching the Sea Dogs on Oct. 1, get the vaccine.