Seven Players Not Playing in Wichita Today, Dyson Stevenson Interview, AHL New CBA, Barracuda Lose

- After going at each other all week in practice the Allen Americans are itching to play against another team and will get that chance this afternoon when they travel to Wichita for their one and only preseason game. You can be assured nobody is looking forward to the bus ride which is a same day up and back trip to Wichita and over 650 miles on the bus but at least they have a 4:05 p.m. start so they will get back on the road to Allen after the game at a reasonable hour. Tommy Daniels is not making the trip so there will be no radio coverage of the game by the Americans or the Thunder. Social media will the only way to track the game if you are interested.

- Not playing in Wichita today are Chad Costello, Greger Hanson, Danny Federico, Aaron Gens, Trevor Ludwig, Kevin Young, and Riley Gill. This will give the younger players on the team plenty of ice time to show how they perform in game conditions. In addition, forward Max Cook has been released from his try out contract.

 - This season the plan is to use more video clips in the blog and this is the first of what hopefully will be many video interviews. I have created a YouTube channel with the title "Allen Americans Blog" so you can go directly to the channel to view the videos however most will be posted here as well. In this interview Dyson Stevenson talks about training camp and bringing the Kelly Cup to his home town, Shaunavon, Saskatchewan.

OTHER ITEMS

-  The American Hockey League (AHL) and the Professional Hockey Players Association (PHPA) announced yesterday the ratification of a new four-year Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Here is what the PHPA included in their press release about the CBA. "The CBA has been modified to include enhancements to the health and welfare plan currently offered to AHL players and their families, and to provide significantly better playoff compensation to players while allowing more flexibility to the AHL in Calder Cup Playoff scheduling and financing. The new Agreement also provides for increases in per-diem and minimum salary as well as modifications to housing and travel provisions."

- The San Jose Barracuda lost their home opener and first ever game in San Jose last night by a score of 4-2 to the Rockford Ice Hogs. There were 6977 fans in attendance to see the historic game. Chris Crane and Vincent Arseneau both played but did not score.

- If you haven't checked out the podcasts that Matt Harding from Team Sin Bin has been posting you need to check them out. Matt does a great job with his interviews and his latest podcast includes an interview with Mike "Doc" Emrick who is the lead announcer for NHL national telecasts on NBC. To find Matt's podcasts go to thesinbin.net and click on the "Into The Sin Bin" link under the "Podcasts" tab.

- Wanted to end the blog post today with a big thank you for all of the support over the last three years. Two milestones were hit in the same day this week when Allen Americans Blog Twitter followers reached 800 and the number of page views for the blog reached 500,000.


DID YOU KNOW: Steve Martinson has been the head coach of two teams during their first year in the ECHL when the were absorbed into the league.  Of course last year he led the Allen Americans to the Kelly Cup in their first year when the Central Hockey League was absorbed into the ECHL. In 2003-2004 Martinson was the coach of the San Diego Gulls when the West Coast Hockey League was absorbed by the ECHL. Martinson's team set two records that year that still stand. The Gulls had 100 points that year which is a record for an expansion team in the ECHL. Even more impressive is they had 30 home wins which is still the most home wins in a season by any ECHL team in the history of the league.