Sea Dogs return to play Friday

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs will return to game action on Friday at TD Station.

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League unveiled this weekend's schedule on Sunday afternoon. The Sea Dogs will host the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada on Friday at 7 p.m. before taking on the Rimouski Oceanic on Sunday at 3 p.m. at TD Station.

The new schedule for this weekend is only slightly different than the original. The original 2021-22 season schedule had the Sea Dogs hosting the Armada on Saturday night instead on Friday.

The Armada will visit all three New Brunswick teams on this trip while the Oceanic will play in Moncton and Saint John.

New Brunswick is currently the only QMJHL jurisdiction that will allow up to 50% capacity. The Quebec clubs will play home games in empty arenas this weekend (up to 500 fans will be able to attend games beginning Feb. 7) while the Nova Scotia clubs and Charlottetown Islanders are expected to return to action with an extended stretch of road games.

The QMJHL has not played a game since Dec. 18. The league still plans on playing its full 68-game schedule, which will run now until May 1.

"The Commissioner’s office will continue to work on the regular season schedule in the upcoming days," the QMJHL's news release stated. "The rescheduled games will be communicated to media and fans as soon as possible."

The Sea Dogs and their revamped roster left the province and practiced in Riviere-du-Loup last week and will have another few days of practice before Friday's game.

Saint John had 15 games postponed during the pause. They have a total of 38 games remaining.

The Sea Dogs sit 11th overall in the QMJHL standings with a 15-12-0-3 record for 33 points. With the first two rounds of the President Cup playoffs potentially being best-of-five, there won't be as much room for error come post-season time. The Sea Dogs would be wise to work their way up the standings to get more favourable matchups.