Playoff Preparation, NHL/AHL Contracted Games Played Comparison, Regular Season Schedules Compared, Playoff Opening Round Historical Results and More

 

While some ECHL teams had two days to prepare for the Kelly Cup playoffs the Allen Americans have seven days, the longest playoff prep time ever. After two days of full speed practices the team will take a day off the ice today and devote time to video review. The coaching staff has spent an inordinate amount of time going through every aspect of a hockey game looking at video from Allen's recent games, Idaho's recent games and the head-to-head games this season. The result of all of that work will be shared with the team in a video review session today followed by a team dinner tonight. Then there will be two more full speed practices before the team leaves for Idaho on Sunday.

 

- Watching practice the last two days you could see the intensity ramp up from day one to day two. Lack of preparation will not be an issue in this series. The week off always raises concerns about rust but there are certainly advantages for the Americans. A lot of players were dinged up to the point of missing games. A week without contact means the entire roster will be ready to go for ths series.

 

- Another advantage of the week off relates to help from Belleville. The Senators won last night 2-1 in a shootout. The win gives Belleville a four point lead for the final playoff spot with two games remaining. Five of seven teams in the North Division make the playoffs. Belleville is in fifth place with 78 points and Laval is in sixth place with 74 points. As fate would have it the last two games of the season for these teams is a home and home against each other on Friday and Saturday. Belleville needs one point from the two games to clinch a playoff spot. If Laval gets all four points the teams will be tied, but Laval owns the tiebreaker so will make the playoffs. If Belleville misses the playoffs you could see Leevi Meriläinen and Tarun Fizer assigned to Allen before the start of the series with Idaho. It is a long shot, but certainly possible.

 

- I will have an in-depth Allen vs Idaho series preview later in the week but today want to share some miscellaneous stats and information I dug up this week. 

 

- Of the 23 players on Allen's opening day roster just 10 are on the playoff roster. Here are the players used during the regular season by the four Mountain Division playoff teams. The number of NHL/AHL contracted players each team used is in parenthesis:

• 50 - Tulsa  (9)
  
• 48 - Allen (9)
  
• 47 - Idaho (6)
  
• 36 - Kansas City (11)  

- If you notice the number of NHL/AHL contracted players used by each playoff team was relatively close so I decided to look deeper at how many ECHL games did the NHL/AHL contracted players play for each team. 

• 420 games - Kansas City
• 293 games - Tulsa
• 230 games - Idaho
• 193 games - Allen  
  

 

- Of  the 193 games played by NHL/AHL contracted players in Allen this season just 61 games were players from the Americans' affiliate Ottawa/ Belleville. 132 games were played by Hank Crone, 40 games (Chicago - AHL), Blake Murray 49 games (Carolina - NHL) and Bennett MacArthur 43 games (Tampa Bay - NHL). If Chad Costello hadn't recruited Murray and MacArthur from other NHL organizations, I doubt the Americans would be in the playoffs.

 

- Another stat I researched yesterday was how frequently there were upsets in the first round of the playoffs. Data across all four division for the last four playoffs is in the DID YOU KNOW section below. If you look at the Mountain Division, since Allen joined the ECHL in 2014-15 there has never been a first round upset. Over seven season (2020 no playoffs, 2021 short playoffs) here are the series records:

• #1 seeds vs #4 seeds: #1 seeds were 7-0 (3 of the 7 series did go 7 games)
• #2 seeds vs #3 seeds: #2 seeds were 7-0 (3 of the 7 series did go 7 games)
  

 

- The Mountain Division playoffs got underway last night with #1 seed Kansas City defeating #4 seed Tulsa 4-2. Tulsa took a 1-0 lead 40 seconds after the opening puck drop, led 2-0 at the midpoint of the game and took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission. The Mavericks were the most prolific goal scoring team in the third period, by far, during the regular season with a goal differential of  +60. It was not a surprise that Kansas City outscored Tulsa 3-0 in the third period to win the game 4-2  

- Two teams in the Mountain Division playoffs had a losing record during the regular season (Allen & Tulsa) and that is very rare. Just one other playoff team (Atlanta, 2017-18) has entered the playoffs with a losing record since Allen joined the ECHL in 2014-15. When you consider the Mountain Division has the #1 team (.792) Kansas City and #3 team (.694) Idaho in the ECHL it makes sense the other teams in the division will have lower points percentages. The Mountain Division schedule is heavily inter-divisional, but even within the division some teams played Kansas City and Idaho more than others. Kansas City and Idaho had a combined record of of 87-25-6-2 (.765) against the other five teams in the division. Here is how many times the five division teams played Kansas City and Idaho combined:

• 26 times - Allen (11 home, 15 away)
  
• 23 times - Rapid City (12 home, 11 away)
  
• 23 times - Utah (10 home, 13 away)
  
• 18 times - Wichita (7 home, 11 away)
  
• 17 times - Tulsa (13 home, 4 away)

 

- It is pretty clear Allen had the toughest schedule with the most games against Kansas City and Idaho (26) and the most road games (15). Add to the division games Allen's schedule outside the division and it is even more telling.

 

Atlanta - When the Americans played Atlanta early in the season the Gladiators were the best team in the league in the midst of what would become the second longest winning streak from the start of the season (8 games) in the history of the ECHL.

 

Adirondack - Adirondack arrived in Allen late in the season as the #1 team in the North Division and maintained that position and is the #1 seed in the division playoffs. 

 

Kalamazoo - Allen's third opponent outside the division is also a playoff team. Kalamazoo is the #4 seed in the Central Division and had a .556 points percentage in the regular season. 

Bottom line is Allen had the toughest schedule in the division and needed a seven game point streak with six wins to make the playoffs. For the second season Allen played its best hockey at the end of the season and finished #2 (2022-23) and #3 in the division. FYI, only three division teams (Allen, Idaho, Kansas City) have made the playoffs in each of the last two seasons. 

DID YOU KNOW: How frequently are there upsets in the opening round of the Kelly Cup playoffs? The answer is very rare for the #1 seeds and rare for the #2 seeds. Here are the series records in the first round of the last four ECHL seven game playoffs (2023, 2022, 2019, 2018). There were no playoffs in 2020 and the playoffs were best of five series in 2021.

 

 #1 vs #4 seeds: #1 seeds were 15-1. The only #4 seed to win a first round series was in the South Division. In 2023, #4 Florida beat #1 South Carolina 4-2 on the way to its second straight Kelly Cup.

 

 #2 vs #3 seeds: #2 seeds were 12-4. The #3 seeds to win first round series were:

 

2022

#3 Jacksonville beat #2 Atlanta 4-0

#3 Wheeling beat #2 Fort Wayne 4-3

 

2019

#3 Manchester beat #2 Adirondack 4-1

 

2018

#3 Orlando defeated #2 South Carolina 4-0

 

 

- In the Mountain Division the #1 and #2 seeds were a perfect 8-0 in the first round in 2023, 2022, 2019, 2018.

 

 

-The 2024 Kelly Cup playoffs got underway last night with two games, the higher seeds won both.

#1 seed Kansas City beat #4 seed Tulsa 4-2 in the Mountain Division.

#2 seed Norfolk beat #3 seed Trois Rivières 4-2 in the North Division.