I attended my first practice session of the season yesterday after spending the month of October in Minnesota and it was quite an eventful practice. I am not sure it was a lot of fun for the players as they had a 45 minute video session before taking to the ice and the practice ended with a bag skate (laps of hard skating around the rink). It was a spirited practice for sure.
- In talking to coach Martinson after practice he mentioned several stats from the weekend that stood out. Blocked shots favored Utah 48-14, shots on goal favored Utah 94-56 and a stat called counters favored Utah 42-24. Counters is an interesting stat because it captures those instances where a team loses possession in the neutral zone which leads to an opportunity/shot for the opponent. Think of it this way, a team has possession of the puck and tries to make a play in neutral ice and turns the puck over rather than get it in deep in the offensive zone. The opponent not only gets possession of the puck, they are better positioned to get a shot on goal. This was the main focus of practice yesterday. It is a fine line between knowing when to carrying the puck into the offensive zone and when to get the puck in deep.
- Eric Roy and Nolan Kneen were practicing in the yellow no contact jersey. Roy is day to day and expected to be ready for the weekend, Kneen is still a ways away from getting back in the lineup.
- Martinson had some good news as goalie Antoine Bibeau has been reassigned to Allen from the Charlotte Checkers (AHL) by the Seattle Kracken. Bibeau was assigned to Allen a couple of weeks ago but as soon as he arrived he was recalled because of an injury. Martinson has called Bibeau the best and most experienced goalie in the ECHL. The stats would back that up. Antoine turned pro in 2014-15 and has spent the last seven seasons in the AHL. He has played in 194 AHL games with a record of 101-64-29, a GAA of 2.72 and save percentage of .908. Bibeau has played in four NHL games with a record of 2-1-0, a GAA of 2.54 and save percentage of .907.
Bibeau is the #4 goalie in the Kracken organization and only available for assignment to the ECHL because Seattle shares and AHL affiliation with Florida. With a normal affiliation, which Seattle will have next season when its AHL team starts competing, the 5th or 6th goalie in the organization is assigned to the ECHL. Here are the Seattle goalies:
#1 - Philipp Grubauer
#2 - Chris Driedger
#3 - Joey Daccord (assigned to Charlotte)
#4 - Antoine Bibeau (assigned to Allen)
The good news in this situation is Allen gets a top notch goalie who has never played at the ECHL level. The risk is Bibeau will be gone anytime one of the other three goalies is injured. That is what happened a couple weeks ago when Bibeau was assigned to Allen. As he was driving from Charlotte to Allen, Chris Driedger was injured, placed on injured reserve, Joey Daccord was recalled to Seattle and Bibeau was recalled to Charlotte. Driedger was activated yesterday so the dominoes reversed themselves. That is the risk reward Allen will be dealing with all season, the Americans have a great goalie who will be recalled anytime one of the other three goalies goes down. That is why having Frank Marotte, who also is an AHL contracted goal, in tandem with Bibeau, is so important.
- You may have seen Chad Butcher, who played with Allen last season and signed in Sweden (HC Vita Hasten) along with Corey Mackin, has left the team and is headed back home. The official statement from the team states, "Chad Butcher leaves White Horse for personal reasons and returns to Canada. Chad played 12 competitive matches and scored two points. Vita Hasten would like to thank Chad for his efforts for the club and wishes him luck in the future."
The obvious question is whether Chad will return to Allen. The short answer to that question is if he wants to continue to play pro hockey, it will most likely be in Allen. Coach Martinson gave Butcher one of the eight qualifying offers he had available in July precisely for this situation, to retain his ECHL rights if he returned to North America. Butcher is only 25 and it is hard to believe he is done with pro hockey. He is a high energy, play making forward who can skate and play both ends of the ice. He was a speed skater when he was younger. In his last season in the WHL, as an overage junior in 2016-17, Chad had 103 points (27G, 76A) in just 68 games. He would be a good addition to the Allen roster.
- Jacob Doty (Ontario Reign) and Vincent Arseneau (Abbotsford Canucks), two very tough former Allen Americans now playing in the AHL, went toe to toe in a game on Saturday. Check out this video. If you have trouble with the video you can find it on YouTube, "Jacob Doty vs Vincent Arseneau Oct. 30, 2021 (https://youtu.be/BKfylWh7EyU)
- Had a chance to meet and talk to Darian Skeoch's dad, Brian, at practice. Hard to believe Darian is the small guy in the family as his dad is 6'10" and didn't play hockey as basketball was his sport. Learned plenty about Darian's youth from moving away from home to play hockey at 15, to living with his sister rather than a billet family, to the fact he was not a big kid growing up, one of those late bloomers physically. Always fun to meet the parents.
DID YOU KNOW: Yesterday I wrote about the ECHL leader in points, Idaho rookie Yauheni Aksiantsiuk who has nine points (4G, 5A) in five games. It got me wondering when the last time a rookie won the ECHL scoring title. Turns out it was in 2011-12 when rookie Dustin Gazley, playing for the Elmira Jackals, scored 85 points to win the scoring title. However, what caught my eye was the players that finished #2, #3 and #4 in scoring in 2011-12, as they all spent time in Allen though they were playing for different teams at the time. Here were the top four in scoring in 2011-12:
85 points - Dustin Gazley, Elmira
84 points - Adam Miller, Las Vegas
78 points - Justin Bowers, Greenville
76 points - Chad Costello, Colorado
The story behind the numbers is Costello was leading Colorado and the ECHL in scoring with 76 points in 47 games (1.62 points per game) before he suffered a season ending knee injury. Despite the injury, Chad finished fourth in league scoring, was selected to the ECHL First All-Star Team and was chosen as the ECHL's MVP. With two more MVP awards in Allen (2016 & 2017), Costello is the only player in ECHL history to win more than one MVP award.
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