The longest road trip of the season is done, but the schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Condors as the Las Vegas Wranglers, the best team in the ECHL National Conference, will be making Bakersfield their home away from home for the next several days.
The Condors ended their nine game road trip with bookend victories — one in Phoenix to start and one in Elmira to finish — but in between they went 0-5-1.
Now they get a two-week stay at home, but face the Wranglers (7-2) three times over the next five days, beginning on Tuesday with a special 10:30 a.m. game.
At 4-6-2 the Condors aren’t that far behind other Pacific Division foes (other than Las Vegas) and have 60 games of hockey left to play. Only two games have been blowouts —  a 6-2 over Elmira and 7-4 loss to victoria — and nine of Bakersfield’s 12 games have been decided by a goal. Unfortunately for the Condors, they are 3-4-2 in those games.
Are the Condors better than the record indicates and just a bit snakebitten? Or are they not as good as the close games might suggest and in need of some sort of overhaul?
The next three games will certainly be a test and should be an indication of how close, or how far, this team is from being among the best in the conference.