Another impressive win by the Americans last night. After giving up a power play goal early in the first period the Americans scored five unanswered goals on the way to a 6-2 victory over the Tulsa Oilers. Lots of great performances including Drew Daniels first professional goal, a rare 5 on 3 shorthanded goal by Jason Deitsch in his 500th game as a professional and Jarret Lukin's first fight in memory. However, special recognition goes to Jamie Schaafsma for keeping the streak alive of having great games after doing a "player profile" interview with this blog. Jamie had 2 goals and an assist and was +2 for the night. Our congrats to him and if you haven't had a chance to read his player profile take a look as he has an interesting story.
A great post game press conference with Coach Martinson. If you haven't had the opportunity to hear him speak I would encourage you to do so. He is open, honest, humorous, analytical, and introspective. Here is some of what he had to say after the game:
- The games have been a little more entertaining lately with all of the goals, fights and good hits.
- Our penalty kill was great (1-7) as the Oilers have great scorers on the penalty play unit even though their power play percentage is low (14%)
- Silverthorn had some good saves and when they got it by him the post was there.
- Daniels goal was a good example of the type of hockey Martinson likes. McMillin and Grantham used their body strength to work the puck down low, were patient, fought it out, and weren't in a hurry to center the puck to someone that wasn't there. Daniels was also patient when he got the puck and waited for the opening to shoot.
- Skinner was great in his first game back. His first goal was typical Skinner as he sees the play and takes it. He has only been skating a week since the injury so he still is not all the way back.
- Good things happen when we have guys in front of the net. Think about it, our two best guys at being in front of the net are Howes and Bootland and they have the most goals.
- Garrett Clarke will be out on Saturday with an automatic one game suspension for the fighting instigator penalty he took late in the third period.
- Clarke and Daniels can both play forward and did a good job in the game. Clarke needs to shoot the puck and not always try to make one more play. We are working on having him get the puck on the net and go for rebounds and screens.
- With Clarke out of the lineup on Saturday the team will be playing short a player.
- On the disallowed score when Deitsch was in the goal Coach explained he was talking to the referee about the fact that Jason was pushed into the goal. The referee explained Deitsch did not make an effort to get out of the goal. Even though Coach told the referee he was wrong he admits the ref "might have made the right call." He will review the tape and if he sees Deitsch was slow in getting out of the net he will go back to the referee and acknowledge the call was correct.
- There is a new center coming in on Monday, Kale Kerbashian, who was a 82 point guy one year as a junior and played in the ECHL (Greenville) last year. He should play a little bit like Maiani, help provide more offensive play and creativity without disrupting anything. He is 6' and 200 pounds, gritty, with good speed.
- Coach is concerned about loosing players when the lock out ends. He is working the phones and trying to be prepared. We have several defensemen that have AHL experience that we might loose and the coach knows of two AHL teams that are about to loose their heavyweights. So be ready for some changes, not in the style of play but there will be guys moving in and out. Coach didn't mention any names but sounds like Brennan maybe moving up.
- If the NHL locks out the players for the entire year we might have some more NHL guys that want to play. Coach kidded that the NHL players are willing to play for less money than he is paying some of the other players but then again that is easy to do when you are a millionaire.
- There will be a trade announced tomorrow. Coach asked that we not share the name until it is formally announced at noon on Saturday. The trade will give the player the opportunity to do what he does best.
- When asked about the Lukin fight Coach said he was going to tease him as he is in the gym all of the time and has a good build but is more concerned about how he looks than how strong he is. However, Jarret plays hard and hits. "I would rather have a player the hits and doesn't fight than a player that fights and doesn't hit."
Other comments:
- Great video package on the game last night. Check it out. http://fb.me/2HFf87QLg
- Heard something from Tommy Daniels on the radio broadcast last night that I thought was interesting. Owner Doug Miller has a standing offer for the team. For every game the Americans score seven goals or more they get dinner at Bob's Chop House which is one of the best steak houses in the Metroplex.
Thanks to Tommy Daniels for inviting me up to the broadcast booth last night and to Maurice Fitzgerald for the between periods interview so I could talk about the blog.
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