With no Allen Americans hockey until Friday and the guys enjoying today off I will cover a bunch of miscellaneous items today and each day this week. If you like the "This N' That" blogs, this week is for you. Not sure where to start and end each day but here we go.
- Greenville punched its ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals last night, beating Indy 3-2 to win the series 3-1. The Swamp Rabbits now await the winner of the South Carolina vs Florida series which the Everblades lead 2-1. Game four of the series is tonight. Greenville was under the radar much of the regular season but came on strong late. The Swamp Rabbits record since the beginning of May is 16-3-1-0. I know many assume Florida will win the East as the Brabham Cup champs but don't sleep on Greenville.
- Allen won't know until Monday who it will play in the second round. Wichita beat Fort Wayne 4-2 on the road last night to force a game five. Even though Wichita is the higher seed, game five will be played in Fort Wayne because of arena availability.
- Preparation for the second round of the playoffs will be quite different for Steve Martinson and the coaching staff depending on the opponent. Allen played Wichita 11 times in the regular season (7-3-1-0) and the teams are very familiar with each other. Even though Fort Wayne is in the Western Conference, Allen did not play the Komets in the regular season. There will be a lot more video review if the second round opponent is Fort Wayne.
AWARDS
- Predicting who will win the ECHL individual awards each season is not very difficult. I hedged on the Goalie of the Year but nailed all of the others. Most of the voters (coaches, broadcasters, media relations directors and media members) go by stats because for the most part they don't see the players other than those in their division/conference. In most years all you have to do is look at the top of the stats for the category and you have the winner. Here were my predictions with the eventual winner and top five in voting in each category:
Prediction: Rookie of the Year - This award usually goes to the highest scoring rookie so look for Matthew Boucher from Utah to win.
Winners:
1. Matthew Boucher, Utah
2. Dean Stewart, Wichita
3. *Evan Weninger, Wichita
4. *Joe Garreffa, Orlando
5. Jay Dickman, Wichita
Prediction: Coach of the Year - This award usually goes to the coach that has improved his team a lot from the prior season. Wichita had a points percentage of .452 last season and is at .643 today under coach Bruce Ramsay. Greenville has improved from .492 last season to .632 this season under first year coach Andrew Lord and was the hottest team in the league around voting time. I am pretty sure Steve Martinson has never been Coach of the Year though he has won 10 championships. Everyone expects him to be good each year. Unless there is an East-West bias Ramsay should be the winner over Lord.
Winners:
1. Bruce Ramsay, Wichita
2. Andrew Lord, Greenville
3. Ben Boudreau, Fort Wayne
4. Brad Ralph, Florida
5. Steve Martinson, Allen
Prediction: Defenseman of the Year - This should probably be the most lopsided vote of all with Les Lancaster having twice as many goals (26) as his nearest competitor. You have to go back 20 years to find a defenseman with with as many goals. Lancaster has a 10 point lead (62-52) over his teammate Matt Register for most points by a defenseman.
Winners:
1. *Les Lancaster, Allen
2. *Samuel Jardine, Greenville
3. *Matt Register, Allen
4. Dean Stewart, Wichita
5. Willie Raskob, Indy
Prediction: Goalie of the Year - This vote could be close. The top two goalies in save percentage are both from Wichita (Evan Buitenhuis - .931 and Evan Wenininger - .925). The top two goalies in GAA are Buitenhuis (2.29) and Roman Durny of Tulsa (.2.31). The top two goalies in wins are Jake Hildebrand of Florida (23) and Clint Windsor of Orlando (23). The goalie with the most shutouts is Ryan Bednard of Greenville (3). Pick your poison on this one.
Winners:
1. *Jake Hildebrand, Florida
2. Evan Buitenhuis, Wichita
3. *Evan Weninger, Wichita
4. Roman Durny, Tulsa
5. Ryan Bednard, Greenville
Prediction: MVP - The voters almost always pick the leading scorer as the MVP. This one is a little tricky because the leading scorer right now is Orlando's Aaron Luchuk with 74 points. However, when votes were being cast the leading scorer was Anthony Beauregard from Wichita who has been stuck on 71 points since being injured on May 21. Luchak has scored 10 points while Beauregard has been out of the lineup. Based on my theory that voters, who don't see many of the players, tend to go by the stats and the stats at the time of the vote had Beauregard in first place, he gets the MVP award. Call it a homer call but when a defenseman finishes top five overall in points and top seven in goals and has the best season by a defensemen in 20 years he should be the MVP of the league. Throw in the fact Les Lancaster never missed a game all season, the only player on his team to do so, and you have a season for the ages.
Winners:
1. Anthony Beauregard, Wichita
2. *Les Lancaster, Allen
3. John McCarron, Florida
4. Aaron Luchuk, Orlando
5. Evan Buitenhuis, Wichita
*Those players with an asterisk have a connection to Allen, either current or former players or in the case of Samuel Jardine a player who was acquired and moved on by Allen without ever playing for the Americans.
- I have had a couple of questions about the number of skaters allowed in the playoffs. In my playoff preview I had mentioned the number of skaters for each game would go back to 18 from 17. The season started with 18 skaters allowed but was reduced to 17 part way through the season. While increasing the number of skaters to 18 for the playoffs was discussed it was never approved. Sorry for the confusion.
- The ECHL has a long playoff history dating back to the 1988-89 season. Most individual playoff records for a playoff game, series or season are held by players from the 1990's in the heyday of scoring in hockey. Chad Costello is an exception as he is at or near the top in several categories. Chad is the all-time leader in two categories, both set in 2016. Chad is #1 all-time in assists in one playoff year with 29. Second place has 26 assists. Chad is also the all-time leader in assists in a final series with 10. If you remember, when Chad set this record in the finals, in 2016, Allen defeated Wheeling in six games.
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