Practice Update, Roster Update, Off Ice Officials Stories, The Tiebreakers and Some Surprising PIMS Numbers

The Allen Americans had a light practice yesterday after a day off on Monday. The Americans had four days of practice before their win against Wichita on Sunday and with four days before the next game on Friday against Utah, coach Martinson decided seven practice days before and after one game played was counter productive. Practice yesterday was comprised of just two drills and then everyone threw their sticks in a pile, teams were selected and the rest of practice was a half ice scrimmage. Practice will get back to normal today.


- There will not be a lot of video preparation time for the remaining six games, three against Wichita and three against Utah. These are teams Allen is very familiar with and have played well against. Here are the records:

4-4-0-0  -  Utah
7-2-0-2  -  Wichita


- Here is a reminder of the players out of lineup and their status:

Non-injured
Curt Gogol - last game played March 12. Curt will be back on Friday after serving a one game suspension.

Riley Bourbonnais - last game played for Allen was February 24. Riley is on loan to Iowa. He played in the first four games in Iowa and has sat out the last four games. He has not scored a point, has one shot and is -1.

Alex Breton - last game played for Allen was February 24. Alex is on loan to the Springfield Thunderbirds. He has played in five of nine games since being loaned including three of the last four. In the five games played, Alex has no points, has six shots and is +2.


Injuries
C. J. Motte - last game played was March 3. Has been practicing and should return this weekend.
Mitch Maloney - last game played was March 9. Still not practicing.
Kevin Sundher - last game played was December 31. Is practicing and listed as day to day.
Chase Lang - last game played was February 17. Still not practicing.
Josh Thrower - last game played March 12. Has not been practicing.
Casey Pierro-Zabotel - last game played was November 2. Season ending surgery.
Thomas Frazee - last game played was November 27. Season ending surgery.
Mike Gunn - last game played was January 4. Season ending surgery.


- There have been at least 20 players who have missed games this season because of injuries. With six games remaining in the season the minimum number of games missed will be 390 and when all is said and done will likely exceed 400 games.


- There were two games in the ECHL last night both with teams from the Mountain Division. Idaho beat Orlando 7-2 in Orlando. This was the third game of the series between two playoff bound teams. When Orlando won the first game 6-2 it made you wonder if the South Division was better than the Mountain Division this season. Idaho put that thought to rest winning game two 4-1 and last night winning 7-2.


- In the other game last night Kansas City was in South Carolina and lost to the Stingrays 4-2. The Mavericks are securely in fourth place in the division with a seven point lead and three games in hand over the surging Rapid City Rush. The magic number to clinch the final playoff spot for Kansas City is seven points either gained by the Mavericks or lost by the Rush. It will be a tough 12 days for the Mavericks with a lot of games and a lot of travel. They have seven straight road games with one game stops to play Greenville, South Carolina, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Toledo, Fort Wayne and Indy. It won't be easy.


- Here is a story written by Mark Monroe of the Toledo Blade about the off ice officials that work the Walleye games. A great story that helps you understand the role of the off ice officials.  https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/walleye/2019/03/19/off-ice-officials-play-vital-role-record-history-at-walleye-games/stories/20190319087


- Back in 2016 I wrote a story about the off ice officials that work for the Allen Americans. The story was an attempt to help fans understand who the off ice officials are and what they do. They are an unheralded and underappreciated group who play a vital role for the Americans. Here is that story from 2016, some of the group has changed but most are still around: https://allenamericansblog.blogspot.com/2016/03/off-ice-officials-what-do-and-who-they.html


- The ECHL season is down to 10 or fewer games for most teams and only four have qualified for the playoffs (Florida, Cincinnati, Idaho, Tulsa). More importantly only two teams (Allen & Greenville) have been eliminated from playoff contention. If you are an ECHL fan it is now crunch time.


- I usually get questions at this time of year about tiebreakers as the tight playoff races come to an end. The ECHL actually has eight tiebreakers with number eight being a coin toss. Here are the tiebreakers:

1. Wins, regular season (excluding shootout wins)
2. Goal differential
3. Points, head to head
4. Winning percentage, division
5. Winning percentage, conference
6. Goals for, regular season
7. Goals against, regular season
8. Coin toss


- Since goal differential is the second tiebreaker here are the top five:

+102    Cincinnati
+83      Florida
+47      Newfoundland
+37      Idaho
+27      Tulsa   






DID YOU KNOW: I posted the top six players with the most combined penalty minutes in the last five years on my ECHL Stats (@EchlStats) Twitter Account this morning. I noticed while doing the research that 14 of the top 34 in PIMS since 2014-15 have spent time in Allen. Another way of saying this is 41% of the top 34 ECHL players in combined penalty minutes over the last five seasons have played for the Allen Americans at some point in their career. Here are the 14 players. The number is where they rank in the top 34 in PIMS since 2014-15.

3. Darryl Bootland     835 minutes
6. Emerson Clark       736
10. Garrett Clarke      642
11. Dyson Stevenson  627
14. Bryan Moore        603
16. Curt Gogol           601
22. David Makowski  510
23. Garrett Klotz        476
28. Vincent Arseneau 414
30. Dalton Thrower    398
31. Ben Wilson           397
32. Derek Mathers      395
33. Corbin Baldwin    385
34. Alexandre Carrier 385


In case you are wondering the top two are:

1. Garet Hunt    1254 minutes
2. Teigan Zahn  1063