It was a Friday night, October 9, 2015. The Bakersfield Condors win their first game of the season 1-0 on a goal by Andrew Miller. The boxscore is here. Among the top prospects dressed for the Oilers top farm team that night were Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse, Tyler Pitlick, Jujhar Khaira, Jordan Oesterle, Iiro Pakarinen and Laurent Brossoit. That’s a fantastic amount of talent for one AHL opening night, and of course Draisaitl and Nurse were quickly jetting to the NHL and have been there since.

It was a Tuesday night, October 18, 2016 and it was Winnipeg. Bakersfield’s opening game of the 2016-17 was a ringing success, 4-1 for the Condors courtesy two goals from Jujhar Khaira. Among the top prospects (aside from Khaira) opening night a year ago were Matt Benning, Griffin Reinhart, Oesterle again and Nick Ellis. That’s probably a more typical opening night collection of prospect talent.

Bakersfield plays in Stockton tonight, that’s a 3.5 hour drive north toward San Fransisco. The Condors lines and pairings have been posted via the Condors excellent twitter account.

How many names playing in Stockton tonight will find their way to Edmonton and the NHL this winter? I’ll guess Jesse Puljujarvi, Anton Slepyshev and Dillon Simpson. You?

Post-Game Story: The Condors had a fantastic first period, outshooting the Stockton Heat 20-4. However, Heat goalie Jon Gillies stopped all 20 shots and gave his team time to get into the game. Sound familiar? Bakersfield didn’t score first, Stockton did. Ethan Bear tied it up with assists to Jesse Puljujarvi and Caleb Jones. Goal is here.

The Heat scored four goals in different ways: one at evens, one on the power play, one on the penalty kill and another into an empty net. 4-1 final, Condors outshoot Stockton 42-23.

Joey Laleggia and Anton Slepyshev had six shots on goal, Jesse Puljujarvi and Brad Malone five each. Boxscore is here.