Allen Loses Preseason Opener to KC, Rematch Tonight, Must Read Mike Heika Story, The Bus & More

The Allen Americans lost their first preseason game to the Kansas City Mavericks last night by a score of 3-1. As predicted the players on both teams were ready to hit someone after a week of practice. After the smoke had settled there were 26 penalties called in the game for a total of 110 minutes (Allen 49, Missouri 61). A fracas at the end of the second period resulted in three fighting majors for each team and two game misconducts for each team. Bryan Moore, Mike Gunn and Jonathan Lessard were the players involved for Allen with Gunn and Lessard given game misconducts for secondary altercations.

- Here is the game recap issued by the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/americans-drop-preseason-opener/


- Here is the press release from the Missouri Mavericks: http://kcmavericks.com/news/?article_id=921


- Three of the four goals in the game came on the power play (two by the Mavericks) and each team had a five-on-three power play goal. Allen is always at or near the top of the ECHL in special teams ratings but have spent just one practice on special teams. Coach Steve Martinson said after the game he liked a lot more of what he saw in the game than what he didn't like and the penalty kill was something he indicated as an area that needs improvement. He also mentioned the speed of the team as a strength and talked specifically about Olivier Archambault and Zach Pochiro.


- Something to keep in mind is a lot of players that will be counted on during the season were not in the game. Coach Martinson wants to get everyone some game action but also needs to make roster decisions so that factors into who gets the most ice time.


- If you add Riley Gill, David Makowski, Joel Chouinard, Vincent Arseneau, Casey Pierro-Zabotel and Spencer Asuchak to the lineup (none of them played last night) you are adding a lot of firepower. If all goes as planned you could see all six of these players in the opening night lineup.


- Another comment coach Martinson mentioned after the game was how good Goalie Stephon Williams looked giving up just one goal in 40 minutes of play, stopping 26 of 27 shots including 15 in the first period when Allen was out shot 15-9.


- After the game coach Martinson released the three tryout players that were in training camp, (Max Cook, Charlie Finn & Matt Zenzola). They will head back to their SPHL teams. It is certainly possible you might see one or more of these players back in Allen if the team is shorthanded during the season because of injuries and call ups. The roster is now at 21 players. With San Jose assigning forward Alex Schoenborn to Allen (just announced) and Spencer Asuchak on his way the roster will grow to 23 players.


- You can expect to see some of the players that didn't play last night in the line up tonight. I would expect with only two goalies now in camp and the fact Stephon Williams played 40 minutes last night you will see Riley Gill get most of the playing time tonight. The team is a little short on forwards so you might see one of the defenseman move up to play forward and it is likely one defensman will not play. There are eight defensemen in camp and based on past seasons I would expect coach Martinson to carry eight defensemen when the opening day roster is finalized. Incidentally,  the roster is due to the ECHL office next Wednesday (October 11) at 3:00 pm EDT.




OTHER COMMENTS

- If you didn't read this article that was written by Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning news it is a must read for a couple of reasons. The article is about Stars coach, Ken Hitchcock and his approach to coaching. As I read the story I couldn't help but notice the similarities, not all but some, with coach Martinson. It is hard to play for coaches like Hitchcock and Martinson but the results speak for themselves. Coach Martinson has talked in the past about the difference in coaching in the NHL where players have multi year contracts versus in the ECHL where all players are on one year contracts and the contracts are not guaranteed. By the way, Mike Heika has been a big supporter of this blog. He retweets the blog to his Twitter followers virtually every day. It is hard to get publicity for the Allen Americans and to have Mike share the blog each day with his over 22,000 followers who you know are all hockey fans is both noticed and appreciated. Here is Mike's story, "With Shades of Bill Belichick and John Wooden, Ken Hitchcock is trying to build the Stars the right way"  https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/dallas-stars/stars/2017/10/05/shades-bill-belichick-john-wooden-ken-hitchcok-trying-build-stars-right-way?f=r


- If you have tickets to pick up today the Americans staff will be at the South Entrance of the Allen Event Center (next to the community rink) starting at 1:00 pm. until 5:00 pm. All season ticket holders can pick up there tickets and if you have tickets for the preseason game tonight you can also pick them up between 1:00 and 5:00.


- I am working on a story about the new bus the Americans will be using this season. It is a fascinating story about the bus, the company that owns the bus and a fond farewell to Big Red. I plan to post the story on Monday. The only thing missing is a name for the new bus. Any suggestions would be appreciated. With the new bus being leased and used for many other purposes there will be no Allen Americans identifier on the bus and the bus is white in color. So all of you creative folks, and I know there are plenty of Allen fans that are creative, give me some suggestions for a name I can use in the blog.   




DID YOU KNOW: If you read the Mike Heika story above about Ken Hitchcock you noticed at the end of the story an all-time NHL coaching wins list on which Ken Hitchcock is #4 with 781 wins. Scotty Bowman is #1 (1244 wins), Joel Queneville is #2 (851 wins) and Al Arbour is #3 (782 wins). Did you know Steve Martinson has spent his entire coaching career in AA hockey winning 10 championships in 21 seasons. In those 21 seasons he has won 943 regular season games.