Americans Win, Babies on the Way & Other Stuff

Aaron Dell With a Shutout - Photo by chlphotos.com

Aaron Dell stopped 26 shots on the way to his second shut out of the season as the Americans defeated the Brahmas 4-0 before what I would call another disappointing crowd of 3818. The conventional wisdom has been that once football season was over and the weather cooled down the attendance would pick up but that has not been the case. The average attendance is down fractionally this year (200 per game) but when you consider the publicity the team has received from the former Dallas Stars minority owners and the NHL lockout an average attendance of 4134 has to be disappointing. With  three Tuesday night games included in the remaining seven home games don't look for the average attendance to go up over the rest of the season.

No press conference after the game last night so wanted to share some miscellaneous "stuff" that you might find interesting.
 

- Wasn't it nice to see Bill McDonald back on the bench last night. He is such an iconic coach and I know how much he enjoys coaching. Also good to see Ed Belfour on the bench helping out Richard Matvichuk.

- While some are pushing for a season long suspension for Alex Penner the more likely outcome is a 5-10 game suspension. With no Penner, no Grantham & no Brennan is the search on for another enforcer?

- March is going to be "baby month" at the Americans with Darryl Bootland, Erik Adams and equipment manager Kacee Coberly all becoming fathers in March. First up are Darryl & Sarah Bootland who will have their bundle of joy next week.

- If you see Erik Adams at the game on Tuesday make sure to wish him a happy birthday. Being a leap year baby (2/29/80) he jokes he is only eight years old. We are not buying that so he will celebrate his 33 birthday on Thursday the 28th.

- Aaron Dell has relinquished the best GAA in the league to Danny Battochio of Rapid City (2.26 to 2.31) but he still has the best save percentage in the league at 92.1%.

- Had to have a last name that starts with "D" to be a star in the game last night as the three stars were #1 Dell, #2 Deitsch, & #3 Doyle.

- Don't mean to beat this into the ground but I saw in some of the media notes how our power play is ranked number two in the league at 21.27%. While it is true it masks the recent struggles. In the last eight games the power play is successful 8.3% of the time and if you go back to when Brett Skinner was called up it is at 10.9%. The worst power play in the league this year is Arizona at 12.68%. We have had the worst power play in the league over the last month.

- At the game last night I had the chance to meet and talk to the famous "rowdybellringer" aka Bruce Hadley who is a great Brahmas fan and active participant on chlforum and Twitter. I know there is no love lost between these two teams and some of our fans have had  bad experiences at Nytex Centre over the years but Bruce is a class act who happens to be a avid, passionate supporter of his team.

- I was asked a couple of times at the game yesterday about a rumor that Marco Cousineau was about to sign with the Americans. I have not heard this rumor myself even though the Americans were interested in signing Marco in the off season before he went to Fort Wayne. I also noticed he was put on the 21 day injured reserve on February 19th. Marco has appeared in 11 games for the Komets this year and is 3-7 with a 3.55 GAA and a .886 save percentage. I don't see this happening based on these facts.

- Chris Whitley and his Cardiff  Devils continue to struggle as they lost yesterday to the Belfast Giants 5-3. His record since arriving in Cardiff (end of January) is 2-7 with two of the seven losses shoot out losses. His GAA is 3.04 and his save percentage is .896.

- Scott Howes still isn't playing for Springfield but Brett Skinner continues to play and score. He had a goal and an assist on Sunday as Grand Rapids defeated San Antonio. He has seven points in the ten games he has played since being called up and is a plus six.

- Colton Yellow Horn continues his great play for the Manchester Monarchs as he added another goal on Sunday in a losing cause. He has now scored in seven out of the eight games he has played for Manchester and has three goals and six assists to go along with a plus five.

- Finally, after that fiasco on Saturday wasn't it nice to see a well played game between two good teams, fans from Ft. Worth being welcomed at AEC and oh yes a 4-0 victory which gives us a three point lead with a game in hand. Should be another great game on Tuesday