2018-2019 Amerks Schedule Released

Two months after announcing each team’s list of opponents, the AHL has released the full schedule for the upcoming season.

Highlights

• October 5, 2018 - Home - Home Opener vs Charlotte Checkers
• October 10, 2018 - Home - First game against Syracuse since the Amerks were on the wrong end of a Round 1 sweep in last year’s Calder Cup playoffs.
• October 19, 2018 - Home - First game vs the reigning Calder Cup champion Toronto Marlies.
• November 7, 2018 - “Home” - Annual game in Buffalo at Key Bank Center vs the Cleveland Monsters
• April 12, 2018 - Home - Final regular season home game & Fan Appreciation Night
• No road trips longer than 3 games.
• A fair 6 games verses Toronto, and perhaps more importantly, only 4 games against what should be a vastly improved Laval Rocket team (though that might not last long depending on the quality of their NHL parents in Montreal).

Lowlights

• Patrick Williams reports on twitter that the league made an effort to reduce the number of 3-in-3 games each team will play...

• ...but the league did Rochester no favors in scheduling the team for five sets of 3-in-3. Four of those sets, 12 games, will be played over the final 27 games of the year - including the final weekend, on which they’ll have to play a game in Syracuse on Saturday night and make a very quick trip to Belleville where they’ll finish the season with a 2pm Sunday game.
• Depending on the health of the Amerks roster, or if the Sabres decide to give prospects significant NHL try outs in the spring (assuming the Sabres will struggle to make the playoffs), the team is in for a tough end to their season. Logical thinking will see them try to get as many points as possible early in the season to help guard against a possible stumble in the spring - much like they did in 2017-2018.
• For better or worse, the schedule features a whopping 12 games against their intrastate rivals from Syracuse; that includes three separate home-and-home series’ late in the season.
• They’ll also get a full 10 games against a Utica Comets squad that made them work for every point and nearly caught them for 3rd place in the North Division last season.

The Amerks are looking to build off of what was clearly an excellent year for the team, despite its disappointing and premature ending. I’ll cover some of the team’s additions and subtractions in a future article.

I’ll leave you with a quick poll. We’ll revisit this question after training camp when the roster is solidified, and probably a few times during the season.