It's a new week and a new opportunity for the Allen Americans as they prepare to host the Utah Grizzlies on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Americans are in third place in the Western Conference with a points percentage of .622, Utah is in fourth place with a points percentage of .563.
- There has been little practice time the last few weeks so having three straight days to work on system drills and special teams is critical. Nine players at practice today were not with the team at the beginning of the month, four players haven't been with the team for a week and two will be practicing with the Americans for the first time.
- Coach Martinson is always straight and to the point when you ask a question. Here is his quote when I asked him what the team needs to work on after losing two of three games against Rapid City, "We need to decide if we want to play as a smart team or a dumb team. Right now we are making too many dumb decisions."
- It easy to forget how young the Allen Americans are this season. There are 11 rookies on the roster right now including three goalies. In total, 19 rookies have played in Allen this season. The average age of the current roster is 25.25 which makes Allen the second youngest team in the ECHL. Adding two collegiate players today will make the team even younger.
- Allen has missed the on ice leadership of the three experienced players sidelined with injuries. Dyson Stevenson, Jake Paterson, and Jesse Mychan have missed a combined total of 21 games in the last two weeks. Paterson has started skating so is closest to returning to the lineup. Stevenson's injury is typically a four to six week recovery and he was injured two weeks ago. Mychan's return date is opened ended at this point.
- Allen has a better record against Utah than any of its other conference opponents. Here is the list:
6-2-0-0: Utah
5-2-1-0: Tulsa
5-3-0-0: Rapid City
3-2-1-0: Wichita
2-2-0-0: Kansas City
OTHER COMMENTS
- If you have followed the blog for a while you have read stories I have written about Riley Gill that talked about the fact that in addition to his Hall of Fame hockey credentials he was the best golfer on the Allen Americans and the best fisherman on the Allen Americans. In high school Riley was one of the top ranked golfers in the state of Minnesota. I have witnessed his fishing prowess first hand. Yesterday Riley was in a huge bass fishing tournament on Lake Fork. There were 1700 fishermen in the tournament with prize money of $20,000 being paid out for the 10 biggest fish being weighed in every hour. That's right, $20,000 per hour for seven hours. Riley won first place for the 1:00 pm weigh in with a 9.37 pound bass. For his big catch (on a super fluke for you bass fishermen) Riley earned $15,000. Now that is a good day fishing!
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| Riley Gill's 9.37 pound bass wins 1st place in Mega Bass Tournamnet |
DID YOU KNOW: Some interesting stats on hardest shots by league:
Way to go GILLER!!! You still da MAN!!
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