It is finally here, the home opener for the Allen Americans has finally arrived and the long drought between games at home is over. You are not alone if it seems like forever since the last Allen home game. To be precise it has been 176 days since the Americans played a game at the CUTX Event Center, a consequence of the second round loss to Idaho in the playoffs last season. A big contrast to the Kelly Cup years when days between home games were 124 (2015) and 128 (2016).
- It is home opener number 15 and you can sense the anticipation no matter where you look. The new ownership group has created renewed energy. Coach Chad Costello is putting the team through the paces each day at practice building on the split in Idaho last weekend. The sales and marketing staff and CUTX Event Center staff have been working overtime to fill the rink. The two new Zambonis (they are actually Olympia Brand) are being polished and readied. Tommy Daniels is getting his broadcast booth ready (in the rafters) as well as the visitor's broadcast area in the press box. The team store is stocked and ready and the game operations staff is fine tuning the game day presentation. The bottom line is a lot of work has been put in by a lot of people preparing for opening night. It should be great hockey and great entertainment.
- A lot of tickets have been sold for the game tonight and tomorrow but you wonder how many fans will opt to stay home. The new ownership group stated when they bought the Allen Americans their desire to be in a top 10 media market. They got that wish as DFW is ranked as the #5 media market in the country. The other three teams owned and managed by Zawyer Sports and Entertainment are Jacksonville (#41) Savannah (#87) and Lake Tahoe (#102). The downside to being in a top five media market is all the competition for the sports dollar you don't have in the smaller markets. Not sure this is a complete list but it will give you an idea of the competition. DFW has three pro baseball teams, three pro football teams, three pro basketball teams, three pro soccer teams, two pro hockey teams plus professional cricket, lacrosse, and rugby. Add Indy Car and NASCAR racing and horse racing to the mix. By my count there are over 40 colleges in the DFW metroplex, most of which have some type of athletic programs. Don't forget high school football with stadiums like McKinney ($70,000,000 - 12,000 capacity) and Allen ($60,000,000 - 18,000 capacity). The bottom line is it won't be easy to apply the small market strategies to DFW, however, the new ownership group has a history of success they can rely on going forward.
- It couldn't be much worse for Allen than tonight and tomorrow. The Texas Rangers won in dramatic fashion in game one of the World Series last night. Game two is tonight (7:03 pm CDT), just seven minutes before the scheduled puck drop for the Americans. Tomorrow the Dallas Cowboys kickoff is at noon while the Americans play at 2:10 pm. The game will be on television (CW33) so you wonder how many fans will stay home and watch the Cowboys and Americans on TV.
- Enough about the logistics, let's talk hockey. Allen's all time franchise record on home openers is 7-7-0-0. Last season it was a 2-1 overtime win over Wichita with Jack Combs scoring the game winner. Probably the most anticipated home opener was the first one in 2009-10. Allen played its first seven games on the road because the Allen Event Center wasn't completed.
- Allen will go into the game tonight against Atlanta thin on defense. Ryan Gagnon was injured in the first game in Idaho last weekend. If you see him at the game tonight you will see his hand in a cast. He has been placed on injured reserve and will be out for several weeks. Donovan Sebrango met the team in Idaho after being assigned by Belleville, played one game, scored Allen's first goal of the season, aggravated an injury and was recalled by Belleville for treatment.
- Being down to five healthy defensemen, Coach Costello was scrambling this week to bolster the blue line. He was able to make a trade with Wichita after the Thunder got two defensemen from their AHL affiliate (San Jose). Wichita ended up with too many defensemen. Allen acquired Matthew Sredl for future considerations (cash). Sredl was driving to Allen yesterday so did not practice with the team, but will be in the lineup tonight.
- In another surprise, Tommy Daniels took Leevi Meriläinen to the airport at 4:30 am this morning as the NHL contracted goalie was recalled by Ottawa and assigned to Belleville. Goalie Kevin Mandolese was injured which precipitated the movement. It is a familiar refrain with injuries at Ottawa/Belleville limiting the number of players assigned to Allen. The two players assigned to Allen now (Sinclair & Daoust) is the fewest of any team in the ECHL.
- Here is a recap of the transactions this week:
- signed forward Easton Brodzinski (brother of former Allen player Mike Brodzinski)
- released forward Andrew Durham
- activated forward Spencer Asuchak from reserve (he will be in the lineup tonight)
- activating forward Colton Hargrove from reserve (he will be in the lineup tonight)
- placed goalie Chase Perry on reserve on Thursday will be activated today
- placed forward Jordan-Ty Fournier on injured reserve
- Goalie Leevi Meriläinen reassigned to Belleville
- With all of the roster changes here is an updated roster including jersey numbers for the new players. A minimum of one player will have to be a health scratch tonight:
GOALIES
- #31 Mark Sinclair
- #35 Chase Perry
DEFENSEMEN
- #2 Ty Farmer (injured reserve)
- #3 Ryan Gagnon (injured reserve)
- #4 Kris Myllari
- #5 Stanislav Demin
- #20 Eric Williams
- #22 Matthew Sredl
- #23 Matt Brassard
- #24 Dalton Skelly (injured reserve)
- #52 Dalton Gally
FORWARDS
- #7 Colton Hargrove
- #9 Chad Butcher
- #10 Philippe Doust
- #11 Brandon Yeamans
- #14 Jordan Ty-Fournier (injured reserve)
- #15 Liam Finlay
- #18 Easton Brodzinski
- #19 Brandon Puricelli
- #21 Matt Marcinew
- #26 Spencer Asuchak
- #29 Colby McAuley
- #32 Mikael Robidoux
- #77 Grant Hebert
- Atlanta arrives in Allen as one of two teams (Adirondack the other) that have only played one game thus far. The Gladiators beat Savannah 4-2 in its home opener last Saturday. Atlanta has an interesting active roster. As of last week the Gladiators had 13 rookies (4 NHL/AHL assigned) and two veterans on its 21 player active roster.
- A couple of observations from watching practice this week. Things can always change but look for Colton Hargrove to move to left wing on the first line after playing mostly center last season. Matt Marcinew will center that line with Liam Finlay the other forward. The second line in practice was Colby McAuley-Spencer Asuchak-Philippe Daoust.
- The stats will tell the story but one area you can look for improvement this season is in faceoffs. Spencer Asuchak has long been outstanding on faceoffs and Matt Marcinew is also outstanding. The Americans struggled last season on faceoffs.
- After the two games in Idaho the Americans power play percentage is 22.2% (2-9) and the penalty kill percentage is 91.7% (1-12). The two power play units both looked good in practice this week so look for both to get equal time until one unit proves to standout. The penalty killers outscored the Idaho power play 3-1 last week as three different players scored shorthanded goals (Philippe Daoust, Grant Hebert, Liam Finlay). Allen's penalty kill unit looks to be a strength this season.
- Allen must improve at the defensive end of the ice to win against Atlanta. The Americans are ranked #28 in shots allowed at 44 per game. Allen won a game in Idaho while being out shot 45-19 because of the play of goalie Meriläinen and he is headed to Belleville. The Americans can't expect the goalies to keep them in the game with shot differentials like that.
- Allen has plenty of offensive fire power having averaged five goals per game in Idaho and they will add Colton Hargrove, the second leading ECHL goal scorer (39 goals) last season, for the games against Atlanta. The Americans may need to score five goals against the Gladiators to win.
OTHER COMMENTS
- I had a chance to meet Myles Jack at practice on Tuesday. He sat through the entire practice on Tuesday and Wednesday and addressed the team after practice on Wednesday. All of the feedback I heard was very positive. You rarely find an owner that was a professional athlete that is the same age as the players. He made it clear his role is to support the players in any way he can to make them successful on and off the ice. Here is an interview Myles Jack did on a podcast that covers his approach to ownership. His support of the players comes through loud and clear. If you haven't listened to this it is well worth your time: https://thehockeynews.com/podcast/thn-on-the-e-former-nfler-myles-jack-discusses-his-approach-to-owning-echl-team
- There are two great young coaches facing each other tonight that were heroes as players for the team they are coaching. Atlanta coach Derek Nesbitt is the team's all-time leader in points (424), goals (166), assists (258) and games played (512). He won a Kelly Cup with Idaho in 2007. Chad Costello is a two time Kelly Cup champion, three time scoring leader and two time ECHL MVP in Allen (3 MVP's overall). Chad played only four seasons in Allen (282 games) but is the all-time leader in points (422) and assists (298). He averaged 1.50 points per games in his Allen Americans career. Two guys that came directly out of the locker room into the coach's office for their team. Nesbitt spent one year as the assistant coach before being named the head coach this season.
- Here is a great video about the preparation for the 2023-24 season but together by Allen's social media manager, Jeffery Fink. If you haven't seen it take a look, very humorous: https://allenamericans.com/news/2023/10/inside-the-red-kingdom-training-camp
- There are 11 games on the ECHL schedule today. Here is the ECHL Today with the previews: https://echl.com/news/2023/10/echl-today-oct-28
Memphis Dave - at the Chicago Wolves game tonight. Hoping to see Hank play. Will be following the Americans on my phone. Last comments on Tommy. The guy was as nice as he could be to me over all the years. I asked my wife to marry me on the ice between periods in 2017. The whole organization including Tommy made that weekend as amazing as it could have been. We visited him at several games in Ft Wayne and Toledo and we actually sat with him during those games - Don't give a fly rat's ass what you think of the guy - but don't come on here spewing your unsubstantiated goat flavored cum opinion as fact. LOL - that's for you Bobby. Let's go ALLEN!!!!
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