Makowski Suspended, Halloween Specialty Jersey, Whose From My Hometown, Americans Website

If there is one thing you learn when covering a hockey team it is the roster can go from feast to famine in what seems like a flash. It was only about a week ago the Allen Americans had a full roster of 22 players and finding ice time for everyone was the issue. As of this morning the team will be playing shorthanded this weekend in Tulsa. How does that happen so quickly? Two players to 21 day injured reserve (Mathieu Aubin & Miles Liberati), two players sent to San Jose (Bryan Moore & Olivier Archambault), Riley Gill injured and then what I am sure is a big surprise to many fans, David Makowski getting suspended four games yesterday.


- Here is the press release issued by the ECHL that covers several suspensions including the four games given to Makowski. https://www.echl.com/echl-announces-fines-suspensions-70

The rule cited in the press release (Rule 28) says in part, The Commissioner may at his discretion, investigate any incident that occurs in a game and assess additional fines and/or suspensions whether or not such offense has been penalized by the referee. If an investigation is requested by a club/team it must be initiated by 12:00 pm local time on the day following the completion of the game in which the incident occurred.

So apparently Orlando submitted a request to the league to have a play reviewed, that was not called a penalty in the game, and the Commissioner made the decision a suspension was appropriate.

Late last night I had a chance to ask Allen coach Steve Martinson about the Makowski suspension and he said, "I don't agree with the suspension and I am awaiting an explanation. Not only did the Orlando player change direction, he also lowered his head prior to contact. Makowski never changed direction. The Orlando player skated right into Makowski's shoulder. In my opinion it is a non-suspendable collision.


- The Allen Americans will be wearing a Halloween specialty jersey on Sunday and the jerseys will be auctioned in a new and exciting way. No more live auctions, the auction will be electronic and you don't have to be at the game to participate. Details coming soon from the Allen Americans.

 


- The ECHL released the schedule for their new initiative called ECHL.TV Showcase where you can watch 14 games on select Friday nights free on Facebook. All 27 ECHL teams will be seen in action through this platform. Allen has already had its turn as they were the first ever on Facebook Live from Rapid City on October 13. Check out the schedule because this is an opportunity to see your favorite former Allen player on their new team, take a look at some teams in the Eastern Conference that you never get to see in Allen or just watch some great match ups between top teams. Here are the details with the complete schedule. https://www.echl.com/schedule-announced-echl-tv-showcase-game-facebook-live


- I hear from fans all of the time about what they are doing to help the team sell more tickets from posting on social media to inviting friends and family to join them at a game to inviting groups they belong to to come to a game to donating tickets to vets and talking to those they meet in the community about the team. Another way you can help the team is visiting the team's website (allenamericans.com) for news and information and encourage others to do the same. Increased traffic to the website creates more value to to the sponsors that support the Allen Americans website. I visit several times each day when writing the blog to see the latest news releases, check for roster updates, look at the schedule, read about upcoming promotions and much more.


- The amount of information contained in hockey data bases like HockeyDB and Elite Prospects is enormous. One of the things you can do in Elite Prospects is search information by hometown. After practice yesterday I asked some of the players what they consider their hometown (often different than where they were born) so I could look at the hockey player history of their hometown. Information provided includes an alphabetic list of every player in the data base from that location, the players drafted by the NHL, those that played in the NHL and the most clicked players being the most researched players. Here are a few of examples.

Miles Liberati - Miles is from small community named Cheswick about 15 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. The population in just over 1700. There are only eight players listed in the data base born in Cheswick. Of those eight players two were drafted by the NHL, Miles in the seventh round in 2013 and a guy by the name of Chuck Chiatto who was drafted in the 12th round in 1983. Chiatto never played pro hockey. Who is the most clicked player from Cheswick. It is no contest as Miles is #1 with 14,104 clicks, the player with the second most clicks has 552.


Spencer Asuchak & Casey Pierro-Zabotel - Spencer and Casey hail from Kamloops, British Columbia and grew up in the same part of town. The population is just over 90,000. There are 428 players from Kamloops in the data base. There are 20 that were drafted by the NHL including Casey who was drafted by Pittsburgh in the third round in 2007. There have been 11 players from Kamloops play in the NHL the most famous being Mark Recchi who played 22 years and had 1652 NHL games. Casey has the edge in the number of clicks with 43,328 compared to 19,564 for Spencer.


Vincent Arseneau - Sometimes one man stands alone and that is the case with Arseneau. He was born in Les Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec. Known in English as the Magdalen Islands, a group of islands that form an archipelago in the gulf of Saint Lawrence. With a small population and a five hours ferry ride or airplane flight to get anywhere it is difficult for a young hockey player. Vincent left home and stayed with a billet family to play hockey when he was only 12 years old. Arseneau is the only player in the data base that lists Les Iles-De-La-Madeleine as their birthplace.


DID YOU KNOW: There are 225 players in the elite prospects data base born in Minnetonka, Minnesota, where Stave Martinson was born. Only three of the 225 made it to the NHL. It addition to Martinson the other two are Jack Hillen (New York Islanders & Washington Capitals from 2007-2015) and Dave Snuggerud (Buffalo Sabres, San Jose Sharks, Philadelphia Flyers from 1989-1993).