Single game tickets made available

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs became the latest Maritimes Division team to announce that some tickets to 2020-21 home games will be available for purchase by the general public.

Tickets packages "are available for a total of $100 per game for a group of four, or $150 for six people. There are less than 15 of these bubbles available for each game," the Sea Dogs stated in a release. Tickets can only be purchased in packages of four or six tickets.

Seating locations will be determined by the box office. The news release said seating locations are all in the upper bowl starting at rows 21 and above.

More information is available on the Sea Dogs website. Suite rentals are also available.

The Sea Dogs, Acadie-Bathurst Titan, Moncton Wildcats and Halifax Mooseheads have begun selling what few seats they have available to non-season ticket holders. The Cape Breton Eagles and Charlottetown Islanders have yet to release information on single game tickets (if any are made available).

Quebec teams will not be permitting fans in buildings.

Masks must be worn at all times - unless consuming food or drink - in Charlottetown, Halifax and Cape Breton. In the three New Brunswick rinks, masks can be removed once in an assigned seat.

Below is a breakdown of the ticketing setup in Bathurst, Halifax and Moncton.

Sea Dogs games returning to radio

The Saint John Sea Dogs are returning to the radio dial.

All 60 Sea Dogs games will be broadcast live on CFBC 930 AM beginning with Friday's season opener in Bathurst. The broadcasts can also be heard on the station's website.

TD will be the presenting sponsor of the broadcasts.

“We’re so grateful for TD wanting to champion this program for the upcoming season,” said Sea Dogs president and general manager Trevor Georgie in a news release. “We anticipate thousands of fans will not be able to experience Sea Dogs hockey live at TD Station so TD’s investment to make our games easier to follow during the pandemic is deeply appreciated. They are a tremendous partner.”

"93 CFBC" is currently a country radio station. It's operated by MBS Radio, the company that also runs Kool 98 and K100. CFBC once carried Saint John Flames games way back in the day. 

UPDATE: CFBC carried the Sea Dogs during the 2005-06 inaugural season as well.

According to the news release, John Moore, Bruce Smith, Mike Sanderson and Kyle Moore will share broadcasting duties. All four have been involved with the team's online-only audio broadcasts over the past couple seasons.

Moore, it seems, will have the call of Friday's game.

It's official. @SJSeaDogs have a new radio partner, 93 CFBC. @TD_Canada is title sponsor for all 60 regular season broadcasts. Join me from KC Irving Centre for season opener tomorrow night. #QMJHL

— John Moore (@rinkrant) October 1, 2020

This is the first time since the 2017-18 season that Sea Dogs games will be heard on radio. The team has been producing "Sea Dogs Radio Live" online for the past couple seasons - but not all Quebec road games were covered. Obviously, that won't be an issue this season due to travel restrictions.

Sea Dogs games aired on CFBC in 2005-06 and then News 88.9 from 2006-07 to 2013-14. 96.1 NewSong FM carried games from 2014-15 to 2017-18.

Rogers TV to air 27 Sea Dogs games

The Saint John Sea Dogs will once again be shown on Rogers TV in New Brunswick.

Rogers TV released its Quebec Major Junior Hockey League broadcast schedule for New Brunswick on Wednesday. In total, 60 games will be broadcast with each featuring at least one of the Sea Dogs, Moncton Wildcats and/or Acadie-Bathurst Titan.

27 Sea Dogs games will be aired, 18 of which will be from TD Station. The first Sea Dogs game to be broadcast will be this Friday's 7 p.m. season opener in Bathurst.

The broadcasts will no doubt be getting some added attention this season due to the attendance limitations. For those new to the broadcast/streaming game, these Rogers TV feeds are typically plugged into the league's webcasts.

Below is the full slate of Sea Dogs games scheduled to be broadcast.

Joseph, Lightning win Stanley Cup

Embed from Getty Images

Mathieu Joseph is a Stanley Cup champion.

Joseph became the first Saint John Sea Dogs alumnus to lift the trophy when his Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Dallas Stars 2-0 on Monday night in Edmonton, winning the series 4-2.

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/YzCfLFAJFR

— Puck Brasil (@PuckBrasil1) September 29, 2020

The 23-year-old did not appear in a single playoff game this year, but did practice with the team during their stay in the bubble and took pre-game warmup a number of times. He was the only Lightning player in the bubble to not appear in a game.

So, is Joseph technically considered a Stanley Cup champion? The answer, it appears, is yes, since he played in 37 of the club's 70 regular season games. If that's not the case, the Lightning can petition for his name to be included on the trophy which, according to NHL people on Twitter, would likely be approved by the NHL.

Pour ceux qui se posent la question. Mathieu Joseph n'a joué aucun match de la finale (ni même des séries). Toutefois, il a joué plus de la moitié des matchs du Lightning en saison régulière (37 sur 70). Son nom sera donc sur la coupe Stanley advenant un gain du Lightning.

— Jonathan Bernier (@JBernierJDM) September 29, 2020

Joseph split this past season with Tampa Bay and AHL Syracuse. He spent all of the previous season with the Lightning.

The Laval native spent parts of four seasons with the Sea Dogs, which included a President Cup championship in 2017. Joseph has also won silver medals with Canada at the world junior and world championship.

A look back at the pre-season

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

With the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League pre-season officially over, here's a look at some Saint John Sea Dogs stats that may or may not be significant. It is the pre-season, so...

• The Sea Dogs finished exhibition play with a 3-2-1-1 record, which included going 1-1-1-0 at home. The seven games they played was the most in the league.
• Saint John scored a league high 28 goals... but allowed the second most goals with 26 (Bathurst allowed 35). That's similar to last season's splits (Saint John was sixth in GF and allowed the most GA). This is something that has to improve, and hopefully things will straighten out when the games start to actually matter.
• Goaltender Noah Patenaude played the third most minutes of any netminder in the league. He posted strong numbers (2.31 GAA and a .902 SV%) which will hopefully carry over into the regular season. While Creed Jones will likely be labelled Saint John's No. 1 goaltender, Patenaude should see a lot of - if not equal - playing time.
• Alex Drover led Saint John in scoring with eight points. He also had a team high six assists. That's great to see for a guy who has slipped down Saint John's depth chart.
• Charlie DesRoches and Cam MacDonald led the team in goals with four each. MacDonald's four goals placed him a tie for the QMJHL rookie league.
• MacDonald and Peter Reynolds came as advertised. Reynolds had three goals and two assists in seven games while MacDonald had four goals in five games. Again, pre-season numbers often don't  translate into what we'll see in the regular season, but this is a promising sign.
• DesRoches led all QMJHL defensemen in goals with four.
• Riley Bezeau's 14 penalty minutes was the third most in the league.
• Dawson Stairs' penalty shot against the Halifax Mooseheads a couple weeks ago was the only penalty shot awarded in the pre-season.
• Saint John's power play operated at 25%, good for fifth in the league. The team used four forwards quite frequently.
• One of the more concerning stats of the pre-season was Saint John's penalty kill, which was the third worst in the league with a rating of 75.8%. Like many other pre-season stats, let's hope this was just the team trying to figure things out and putting some players in situations they may not find themselves in during the regular season.
• Saint John outscored opponents 12-5 in first periods; were outscored 8-4 in seconds; and then evened things out in thirds at 11-11. Oddly, the Dogs recorded more shots in second periods than any other period.
• The Sea Dogs averaged 36.87 shots per game, which led the league.

The Sea Dogs begin regular season play on Friday night in Bathurst.

Recap: Sea Dogs lose 3-2 (OT)

FINAL: Moncton 3, Saint John 2 (OT)

Photo: Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - The pre-season did not end well for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

The Sea Dogs looked sloppy and unorganized in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Moncton Wildcats at TD Station on Friday night. It was the final exhibition game for both clubs with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League regular season scheduled to begin next Friday.

This was Saint John's worst performance of the pre-season - which is definitely not how you want to end things. The Sea Dogs couldn't keep things together on the backend, committing a lot of turnovers. On offense, Saint John was unable to generate any of the sustained pressure we've seen at times throughout the past month.

The only real positive may have been in net. Creed Jones, fresh off his two-week quarantine, looked very good, putting in the best overall goaltending performance of any Dogs netminder so far.

The rebuilding Wildcats, who did not dress Gabriel Fortier, outshot the Sea Dogs 39-23, including 20-10 in the second period. It was not a good night for Saint John.

Domenic Leblanc scored two goals for Moncton while Jacob Hudson netted the overtime winner. Dakota Lund-Cornish made 21 stops in the win.

Jeremie Poirier and Brady Burns scored for Saint John. Jones made 36 stops in the loss.