The set-up

It’s finally here … Belleville Senators hockey.

More than a year after the team was announced, the Sens will hit the ice for Game 1 of a two-game preseason schedule with the Laval Rocket, one of the AHL’s other two new teams for the 2017-18 season.

The two teams will become familiar with one another as they’ll square off 12 times over the course of the season, including next Friday’s regular season opener.

Pre-game thoughts

Head coach Kurt Kleinendorst:

“It will be good to play Laval. Practice is practice and games are games. We’ve heard a lot of nice things about Laval. They’re going to have a good team and they will be a good challenge for us. We still have some guys we’re trying to evaluate so I’m very much looking forward to it.”

Roster notes

With a few players not making the trip to Laval — Jack Rodewald, Chris Driedger and Brendan Woods — Kleinendorst will have a squad of 24 for the two preseason tilts with Laval, including three goaltenders in Danny Taylor, Andrew Hammond and Marcus Hogberg.

“That’s a conversation we still need to have,” Kleinendorst said regarding playing time. “I’m not going to commit to anything and we’ll see how she goes but we don’t have a lot of extra bodies right now so the guys we had at practice on Friday will find their way into the line-up.”

Previous history

We’ll have something here for Sunday’s primer!

Where to watch

Saturday’s game starts at 3pm from Place Bell in Laval and can be seen live on www.theahl.com through their AHL LIVE application (subscription required).

The radio broadcast on CJBQ 800 begins at 2:45pm with Jack Miller on the call.