I had a great conversation with Tommy Daniels yesterday, just chatting about the Allen Americans. It seemed as if there wasn't any part of the team that we didn't cover. I typically head over to the Allen Event Center a couple of times a week during the off season to get caught up on the goings on, talking to coach Martinson and the front office. Not the case now as I am staying close to home and the Americans staff is working from home. The conversation with Tommy did inspire me to sit down this morning and write a blog. For those of you that follow every social media post and press release from the ECHL and the Allen Americans there may not be much news but here is an update.
- Steve Martinson won the ECHL General Manager of the Year Award yesterday. This is a fairly new award that was first given in 2016 and acknowledges the role of a GM which is different than a head coach. One of the big differences in this award from the other individual awards is only the ECHL coaches get to vote for General Manager of the Year.
If there is a single stat that describes what General Manager Martinson accomplished this season it is the number of games lost by players he signed for Allen spending time in the AHL. That total is just shy of 300 games. That is the equivalent of five top players missing from Allen's lineup every night of the season.
Here is a story written by Mark Monroe of the Toledo Blade about Martinson being named GM of the year. Martinson played in Toldeo in his first pro season (1981-82): http://www4.toledoblade.com/sports/walleye/2020/04/13/Former-Goaldigger-Martinson-named-ECHL-GM-of-the-year/stories/20200413097
- Here is an interview Martinson did with Tommy Daniel's on his GM of the Year Award:
- It has been a great week for individual recognition for the Allen Americans hockey team:
Steve Martinson - In addition to winning the GM of the Year award, Martinson finished second in the Coach of the Year voting.
Tyler Sheehy - Tyler was selected to the All-Rookie Team, All ECHL first team, won the Rookie of the Year award and finished second in the MVP voting.
Alex Breton - Alex was selected to the All ECHL first team and won the Defenseman of the Year award.
- If you haven't seen them here are Tommy Daniel's interviews with Tyler Sheehy after he was named Rookie of the Year and Alex Breton after he was named Defenseman of the Year:
- While it would be great to see Breton and Sheehy back in Allen next season it is hard for me to see that happening. They are both young players looking to move up after having outstanding seasons. They were both under contract with Iowa but were not given a chance to show what they could do at the AHL level. I assume they will both be looking for one way AHL contracts for the 2020-21 season. In my opinion there will be AHL teams willing to give them such a contract. From everything I have heard both publicly and privately Breton is also looking at playing in Europe.
- Another player that will not return is Stepan Falkovsky who is back home in Belarus and will not return to North America next season. When you consider Breton was #1 (55 points) in the ECHL in defensemen scoring and Falkovsky was #4 (41 points), losing these two players will leave a big offensive hole that will have to be filled. When you consider 96 of Allen's 216 points from defensemen this season, which is 44.4%, came from Breton and Falkovsky, they will be a big loss.
- Falkovsky led all ECHL defensemen in goals (15), power play goals (8), shorthanded goals (2) and shooting percentage (17%).
- One thing coach Martinson has been very clear about as he starts the recruiting process for next season is he wants a team with more toughness. Players with skill and toughness are hard to come by but that is an area of focus. Allen finished 18th in the league in average penalty minutes per game, 15th in major penalties, 14th in 10 minute misconducts and 23rd in game misconducts. Despite their great record in 2019-20 there were too many times when a player needed to step up and nobody did.
- I periodically get asked about the length of Steve Martinson's contract. He has one year left on his current contract. It is hard for me to believe an owner would not want to extend Martinson's contract after a season where is was voted by his peers as the general manager of the year and finished second in the coach of the year voting.
- Matt Harding from The Sin Bin interviewed ECHL Commissioner Ryan Crelin recently on a variety of topics centered around the cancelled season. Toward the end of the interview they cover topics like the new overtime and replay rules, the schedule of 2020-21, changing the date to sign players for next season, etc. Take a listen: https://thesinbin.net/hockey-talk-podcast-episode-15-echl-commissioner-ryan-crelin/
- Every season there is talk about who will win the Brabham Cup as the ECHL's regular season champion. Here is the story behind the name which is also a history of the ECHL. A great read: https://www.echl.com/en/news/2020/4/remembering-henry-brabham
DID YOU KNOW: Five years ago today Allen was playing Tulsa in the opening round of the Kelly Cup playoffs at home. They were up 1-0 in the series and this is what happened in game two, which could have been a critical game in the series. Allen went on to win the series and their first Kelly Cup. Here is that game recap and a couple of great photos from Lauren Lyssy and Kimberly Sauer. I am sure many of you will remember this game.
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| It was a great "celly" to finish a great comeback OT win - photo by Lauren Lyssy |
How
dramatic was the win? Other than the come from behind overtime win in
the seventh game of the 2012-2013 championship game the comeback last
night was the best ever. There were many lessons learned last night for
the players and the fans. Here is a list:
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Don't ever give up on this very skilled team. With the score 3-0 after
the first period some of the Allen faithful were having doubts with
comments like the penalties cost us this game and this is too big of a
hole to dig out of. After Tulsa made the score 4-0 midway through the
second period the text messages started rolling in with comments like
we are done, they don't have the jump like last night and I think they
thought this series was going to be easy.
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This team has so much offensive fire power they never give up on
themselves. When Spencer Asuchak finally got the first goal for Allen
with less than five minutes left in the second period it was game on
from that point. When Konrad Abeltshauser cut the lead to 4-2 less than
two minutes later on a power play goal it was obvious Allen would be
flying in the third period.
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The third period and overtime were as dominating a performance as you
will see. Goals were 3-0 Allen only because Tulsa goalie Kevin Carr made
some outstanding saves. Shots on goal were 29-7 in third period and
overtime and for the entire game were 56-30.
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What is going make Allen tough to play against in the playoffs is
depth. Scoring can come from all three lines and all of the defensive
pairings.
- The Americans came
back to win the game but that won't happen every night with a 4-0
deficit. There were a lot of mistakes by the veteran players on the team
that allowed Tulsa to take the big lead. This will have to be cleaned
up going forward.
- There is
nothing in sport more exciting than watching a hockey game like the one
last night. It was not a huge crowd but there was plenty of noise and
the AEC kept getting louder and louder with each comeback goal. Even the
fans that are always quiet and reserved were going nuts by the end of
that game.
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| Abeltshauser to Stevenson to Hanson for the game winner - photo by scenebykimberly.com |
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