The Allen Americans are back home in Allen after splitting two road games over the weekend. Playing .500 hockey early in the season may be acceptable for some teams but not for the culture that has been established with the Americans. It is easy to make excuses from no preseason games to just a couple of players attended NHL/AHL training camps to several players coming off injuries to the fact that just two of the top 18 players in scoring from last season returned for the 2021-22 season, with most of them opting to play in Europe. To Steve Martinson those are just excuses and the current team has the talent to win each and every game. With that said I would expect the team will be working hard on and off the ice this week as they prepare for three games this weekend.
- With just two home games in the month of November (this Saturday and Sunday) practice time this week will be valuable. In talking to coach Martinson the plan for Monday and Tuesday includes on ice practice, video sessions and the team hitting the gym together. Martinson will be working on everything from systems issues to defense to special teams to conditioning.
- It was quite a week for goalie Antoine Bibeau. He was assigned to Allen on Tuesday from Charlotte (AHL). Left with the team on the bus trip to Wichita on Thursday. Played his first ECHL game Friday night winning 3-1 with a save percentage of .952. Took the bus to Kansas City with the team arriving Saturday morning (2:00 am) and after being recalled caught a very early flight a few hours later from Kansas City to Charlotte. Saturday night he was the backup goalie as the Checkers beat Lehigh Valley 7-3. Charlotte played again early on Sunday (noon Allen time) and Bibeau started in goal. He stopped seven of eight first period shots but wasn't feeling right so came out of the game for the final two periods. My reporting is Bibeau was not injured and will be fine going forward. His stay in Charlotte is expected to be short term. Charlotte had a goalie recalled to the Florida Panthers (NHL) which necessitated Bibeau heading back to Charlotte. The injured Florida goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky, is listed as day to day with a status of "expected to be out until at least November 8" on the Panthers injury report. Once Bobrovsky returns the dominoes will reverse themselves and Bibeau will return to Allen (barring any other injuries).
With nothing else new to report here is a list of what I will call "wow stats" which are some good and bad statistics for Allen and other ECHL teams that stand out to me.
- I included this yesterday but it is worth repeating because it speaks to where Allen needs to improve. The Americans are ranked #27 in average shots allowed (38.17), #25 in average goals allowed (4.50) and #27 in shorthanded goals allowed.
- The first year Trois-Rivieres Lions have the best penalty kill percentage in the ECHL (95.7%) and the worst power play percentage (8.7%).
- The first year Iowa Heartlanders have the worst record in the ECHL with a points percentage of .188. The all-time ECHL record for the lowest points percentage for a full season was set in 1992-93 by the Roanoke Valley Rampage at .227.
- Toledo leads the ECHL with a +17 goal differential, Iowa is #27 with a goal differential of -22.
- Four ECHL teams have more than 115 penalty minutes, all are in the Western Conference. 57% (4 of 7) of Mountain Division teams have 100+ PIMS. The percentage in the other divisions is 28% in the Central, 17% in the North and 14% in the South.
- The Newfoundland Growlers have the lowest average attendance in the ECHL (1168) but have had three sold out standing room only crowds because they are playing in an alternate facility.
- Talk about some wow stats, rookie goalie Keith Petruzzelli (Newfoundland) leads the ECHL in wins (4), GAA (0.75) and save percentage .976.
- In a game on Saturday, Reading was out shot 18-1 in the first period but scored the first goal of the game. On Sunday, Idaho was out shot 32-20 and had just one shot on goal in the third period but beat Tulsa 2-1.
- Newfoundland has scored five shorthanded goals in seven games, a pace that would equal a ridiculous 52 shorthanded goals over a full season,. The ECHL record for shorthanded goals in a season is 24 set in 1998-99 by the Louisiana IceGators. FYI, the record for fewest shorthanded goals in a season is one, set in 1999-2000 by the Arkansas RiverBlades.
- Here is a potential turnaround story. Norfolk opted out and didn't play last season and in 2019-20 it was the worst team in the shortened ECHL season with with a points percentage of .300. In the last full ECHL season in 2018-19 Norfolk was ranked #25 of 27 teams with a winning percentage of .438. It is still early but this season Norfolk is ranked #6 in the ECHL in points percentage at .714.
- Allen stats, Branden Troock is second in the ECHL in shots (34) and is tied for 132nd in goals (1). Ryan Lohin is tied for 46th in shots (18) and tied for second in goals (6).
- The top two players in the league in plus/minus are both defensemen from Utah. Charle-Edouard D'Astous leads at +12 and Luke Martin is +11. D'Astous also leads all ECHL defensemen in points (10) and goals (6).
- Kansas City is averaging 30.17 penalty minutes per game, a pace that would equal 2172 PIMS over a full season. Since Allen joined the ECHL in 2014-15 it averaged over 20 PIMS per game twice but nothing close to 30 PIMS per game. In 2014-15 Allen led the ECHL with 1644 PIMS (22.83 average). The Americans also led the league in 2018-19 with 1691 PIMS (23.49 average). No ECHL team has averaged 20 PIMS per game since 2018-19. It is clearly a new style of play for Kansas City who averaged between 11.19-13.79 PIMS per game over the last four seasons.
- On current ECHL rosters there are 301 players from Canada and 295 from the United States. Trois-Rivieres has no players from the US, Newfoundland has nine. The Allen Americans have 13 players from Canada and seven from the US.
DID YOU KNOW: The highest playoff winning percentages, all-time. Playoff record in parenthesis:
.696 - Newfoundland Growlers (16-7)
.662 - Alaska Aces (98-50)
.608 - Allen Americans (45-29)
.585 - Hampton Roads Admirals (55-39)
.581 - Greensboro Monarchs (36-25)
Marty and Allen have high expectations. They will get it resolved, but glad they are doing film study.
ReplyDeleteCan't change slow and the speed on defense is an issue.
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