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| Congrats to Gary Steffes who is headed to San Jose |
Congratulations to Americans co-captain Gary Steffes who has been promoted to the San Jose Barracuda (AHL). Gary is headed to San Jose where the Barracuda have home games on Saturday against the San Diego Gulls and Sunday against the Bakersfield Condors. The Saturday game starts at 1:15 pm local time and marks the first of 13 San Jose Barracuda and San Jose Sharks doubleheaders at the SAP Center this season. The Sharks host the Anaheim Ducks in the evening. Always great to see the hardest working guy on the team get a chance at the next level and Gary is certainly one of, if not the hardest working guy on the team.
With the Allen Americans spending most of the day on the bus making their way to Rapid City for games on Friday and Saturday, thought it would be a good day to share some information I am asked about all the time. Let's call it a reference guide for the ECHL fan that can never get enough information. It is not an all encompassing list but rather those that I refer to all of the time when writing the blog. Also want to include the Twitter accounts of the Allen players to fulfill a promise made to a reader some time ago.
Just a couple of items before all the reference information.
- Missouri beat Quad City 4-3 in overtime last night to take a three point lead in the Central Division standings which now look like this:
13 points - Missouri
10 points - Allen
8 points - Wichita
8 points - Tulsa
- The Central Division is shaping up to be the most balanced in the league with just five points separating first and last place. Here are the point totals for the last place teams in each division:
8 points - Central Division (Tulsa & Wichita)
6 points - South Division (Greenville)
4 points - East Division (Manchester & Norfolk)
3 points - North Division (Brampton)
3 points - West Division (Colorado)
2 points - Midwest Division (Evansville)
REFERENCE GUIDE FOR ECHL FANS
I am frequently asked where I find all of the information included in the blog. There are numerous places to go for information but the ones below are my primary sources of information. The best way to see all they have to offer is go to the site and surf every tab and drop down menu. You will continually find something new. For you diehard fans there may be little new, but lets hope you find at least one idea, location, or site you find helpful. This is not intended to be all inclusive and you are encouraged to share your "go to" places in the comments section at the end of the post.
- Team web sites are the obvious place to start when trying to find the latest information. Looking at all of the ECHL team sites is a good way to find out what is happening around the ECHL. It is also a good way to see how your team stacks up with others in the ECHL in "quality of web site." For Allen fans the site is allenamericans.com. By the way, Allen won the ECHL award for "Best Web Site" last year.
- echl.com: News and Information, Stats, Standings, & Schedules are on the site but it also includes the complete ECHL rule book, all time records, playoff format, and list of ECHL staff with contact information. If you have never looked at "Daily Report" under the "Stats" tab you are missing out as all the current stats are located here in one place. Definitely stat geek gold!
- phpa.com: This is the site of the Professional Hockey Players Association (PHPA). This site contains an executive summary of the collective bargaining agreements (CBA) for the ECHL as well as the AHL. Want to know about the salary cap, veteran rules, per diem, injured reserve, playoff pool, minimum salary, what equipment the team must provide each player? You can find it all here.
- hockeydb.com: This site has what they call the largest hockey data base on the internet. You can search by player (past or present) or team and get a wealth of information. Want to know the most penalty minutes coach Steve Martinson had in a season as a player? It is easy to find. He had 432 penalty minutes in 1985-1986 playing for the Hershey Bears (AHL).
- eliteprospects.com: This site is similar to hockeydb but does a better job of tracking players playing overseas. The company is actually based in Sweden. You can find out an amazing amount of information about players and teams. It also has some great screens such as the shortest, tallest, lightest, heaviest, oldest & youngest players by league. The more you move around in this site the more information you discover. Elite Prospects aggregates the number of games a player has played by league which is a useful tool to see how many games a player has toward veteran status.
- echlforums.com: This is a site created by fans and for fans. There is a section for each ECHL team and fans can discuss whatever is on their minds. An opportunity to share your views and engage others about your team or other teams in the league. While you have to wade through some posts that don't add much value, some of the most knowledgeable fans from around the ECHL are regular contributors on this forum. Many times you can find out what is happening before any official announcements are made. You need to register to post but can view without registering.
- centralhockeyleague.com/pressroom/guiderecordbook.com: The place to find all of the information about the CHL days on teams and individual players.
- dropyourgloves.com: This site tracks hockey fights and you can search by league, team or player. The data is both past and present so you can find everything from Steve Martinson having over 200 professional fights including 45 fights in the 1985-86 season to the fact Allen has had eight fights this season. Information includes who the opponent was in the fights, height and weight, outcome (win, loss or draw), their are reviews on some of the fights and video of the fight if it is available. The fights are also given a fun/entertaining rating. FYI the site rates the Mike DiPaolo vs Alex Gallant (Utah) fight on October 24th as the best fight in the ECHL this year.
- thesinbin.net: This site is a one stop shop with stories from all over the ECHL as well as the AHL and SPHL. Lots of stories written by Team Sin Bin writers as well as some great podcasts and statistical information. The Allen Americans Blog is a member of Team Sin Bin so all of my blog posts are posted here.
- generalfanager.com: This site compiles the latest news and contract information for all 30 NHL teams and all of their active players. It only includes players under NHL contract but that includes many players that have been or are currently in the ECHL. For example, if you go to the San Jose Sharks on this site it includes information (salary, contract duration etc.) on familiar names to Allen fans: Joel Rumpel, Aaron Dell and Chris Crane.
ahl.com: The best place to go to keep track of players that have been with your ECHL team in the past or have been called up to the AHL.
PLAYER'S TWITTER HANDLES
For those of you on Twitter you should make sure to follow the players as it is a good way to keep up with the team. Sorry it took so long to include this Kimberly (you know who you are). Here are the players on Twitter.
Chad Costello: @ChadCostello_13
Gary Steffes: @gsteffes22
Aaron Gens: @gensy5
Joel Rumpel: @Rumpz91
Casey Pierro-Zabotel: @CZabby19
Ian Schultz: @schlitzy43
Dyson Stevenson: @dysice2
Greger Hanson: @gregerhanson10
Tristan King: @Tking_9
Mike DiPaolo: @DiPaolo9
Jonathan Parker: @JonParker1991
David Makowski: @David_Makowski
Eric Roy: @Royzy07
Here are the official sites for the Allen Americans:
WEB: allenamericans.com
Facebook: Allen Americans
Twitter: @allenamericans
Twitter: @tommydaniels99
Finally the information for this blog. If you are on Facebook please give the page a "Like" and if you are on Twitter please give me a "Follow"
WEB: allenamericansblog.blogspot.com
Facebook: Allen Americans Blog
Twitter: @allenamericans1
DID YOU KNOW: Last year during the regular season there was not a single team in the ECHL Central Division (seven former CHL teams) that won more games at home than they did on the road.
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