\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSep 25, 2026<\/p>\n
By Ashley Rubin\/SanDiegoGulls.com\u00a0<\/p>\n
The San Diego Gulls will close out training camp tonight as they face the Ontario Reign in a preseason game at Toyota Arena (7 p.m. PDT).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tonight\u2019s game marks the Gulls\u2019 one and only preseason match before the regular season starts. It will be the first time the team\u2019s new talent and coaching staff put their chemistry to the test outside of practice. While the game will not affect the team\u2019s season record, it gives them a chance to improve and practice in a new setting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We’re just building towards Oct. 3, and getting used to each other, and building on a few things that the coaching staff feel is important,”\u00a0head coach Dave Manson said. “Then always you enjoy those tune-ups in the exhibition season, to see your games up and implement and pound fundamentals.”<\/p>\n
Manson and assistant coaches Kelly Buchberger and Steve McCarthy will make their debut as a coaching trio tonight. This will mark Manson\u2019s first career game as a head coach while Buchberger and McCarthy will expand on their assistant coaching careers. Despite being in a new position, Manson is a familiar face for the returning players on the Gulls roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Obviously it’s really nice because we have a relationship from last year,” Roman Kinal said. “All the guys know him. He was a big part of the locker room too and just getting to know everyone. And this year, I think it’s going to be pretty seamless with him as a head coach. We all know what to expect. He’s really clear on his message today, and it’s going to be promising on how this year is going to go.”<\/p>\n
San Diego will skate with a primarily young roster, and some guys will even see their first AHL ice time tonight. The game marks an opportunity for players to continue their fight for a roster spot and expand their professional experience.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tonight\u2019s game will be the first played by San Diego since their first-round exit from the Calder Cup playoffs last season. That exit has influenced the Gulls and their motivation going into tonight and the 2026-27 season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It was frustrating,”\u00a0Kinal said. “We put a lot of work into it going into the playoffs. Even at the end of the year last year, we were kind of really finding our stride as a team, and so there were a lot of expectations that we felt like we put on ourselves to win. Obviously, we were cut short, and it was frustrating but it\u2019s just more motivation going into this year.”<\/p>\n
Following tonight, San Diego will open the 2026-27 regular season with a set of back-to-back games against the San Jose Barracuda at Tech CU Arena with the season opener set for Oct. 3 with a 3 p.m. PDT puck drop.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sep 25, 2026 By Ashley Rubin\/SanDiegoGulls.com\u00a0 The San Diego Gulls will close out training camp tonight as they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-475463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}