Every once in a while I have a day that makes me think about a children's book we had in our house when our kids were young back in the 1980's. The name of the book was "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Nothing goes right for young Alexander from the time he wakes up in the morning with gum in his hair. At breakfast his brothers find prizes in their cereal while Alexander does not. He doesn't get to sit by the window in the carpool on the way to school. At school his teacher disapproves of his picture of an invisible castle (a blank sheet of paper), at recess his best friend replaces him with another friend and his mother neglects to put dessert in his lunch box. After school he goes to the dentist and of course has a cavity and afterwards he goes to the shoe store and he is made to buy plain white sneakers. Things don't get better in the evening with lima beans for dinner, a scene of kissing on television, bath time, his brother takes his pillow, his Mickey Mouse night light burns out, he bites his tongue and when he goes to sleep the family cat opts to sleep with his brother.
- I can't say my day yesterday was as bad as Alexander's but it was close. I over slept so got a late start on the blog. When I did get the blog posted I had not one, not two, but three big errors which you, the readers, let me know about. I appreciate knowing about my errors so I can make corrections. For the record (to confess by guilt/mistakes) I had Andrew Jarvis not traveling with the team because he is on reserve. What a surprise to see him in a nice suit behind the bench helping the coaches last night, oops.
- Later in the blog I wrote with confidence the only Mountain Division teams in action last night were Allen at Rapid City and Idaho at Utah, wrong! How about Iowa at Kansas City where the Mavericks not only won the game but reached the 100 point mark, oops #2.
- Proving bad mistakes come in threes, I posted the lineup for the game which read "Allen Americans lineup tonight against Kansas City." I hadn't forgotten Kansas City after all, just had them playing Allen. This was a case of make sure you change the team when you cut and paste from a previous lineup, oops #3.
- I won't bore you all the details of my non hockey problems. I was dealing with numerous issues from having our roof replaced from hail damage. Then there was my neighbor putting a port-a-potty between his house and ours because of a six week out door remodeling project. He kindly told me I could use it if need be. Then painters and furniture delivery guys showed up at the exact same time and the driveway was blocked because the neighbor's project was pouring cement. At that point I was wishing I could talk to Alexander.
- My dinner was fine except my lovely wife forgot to tell me she had adjusted the toaster dial which meant the bread I use for toast was burnt to a crisp. Luckily the smoke alarm only chirped once. Oh, there was that piece of lead shot I found in my pheasant/venison chili.
- Little did I know my terrible, horrible, no good very bad day was going to get worse after dinner. I should have known better when I heard Tommy Daniels say not once but twice that Rapid City is playing out the season and the players are playing for jobs for next season.
- To say the Allen Americans performance last night was disappointing is an understatement. With their playoff life on the line, playing the last place team in the division, the Americans lost 5-2 in a game that was not as close as the score. Here are the stats that tell the story:
- Rapid City scored the first goal of the game. Allen is 7-26-1-0 (.221) when giving up the 1st goal.
- Rapid City led 1-0 after the 1st period. Allen is 4-16-0-0 (.200) when trailing after the 1st period.
- Rapid City led 4-0 after the 2nd period. Allen is 3-26-1-0 (.117) when trailing after the 2nd period.
- Rapid City out shot Allen 30-13 over the first two periods .
- Rapid City had seven power play opportunities to just three for Allen.
- Allen did mange two goals in the third period to cut the score to 4-2 but the game was never in doubt. Easton Brodzinski scored his 22 goal of the season and James Hardie scored his third goal and fifth point in three games since being acquired from Rapid City last week. The Rush regained their three goal lead late in the period to make the final score 5-2.
- Allen has now lost eight of the last 10 games and in those eight losses has scored more than two goals just once. In the eight losses Allen averaged just 1.6 goals per game. Allen doesn't deserve to make the playoffs if it can't generate more offense. The only thing keeping the Americans in the playoff hunt is the mediocrity of the Mountain Division. Other than the top two teams who could be the top two teams in the league the rest of the division struggles. Allen has 57 points with nine games remaining. If the Americans were in any other division they would already be out of the playoff race. Allen's 57 points would have them in last place in the North Division, last place in the Central Division and sixth place in the South Division.
- There are 10 ECHL teams with a losing record (points percentage below .500). Of the 10 teams, five of them are in the Mountain Division. No other division has more than two.
- With all of the losing the Americans are still in the thick of the race for the fourth playoff spot. Allen trails Utah by just four points with two games in hand. Utah has just seven games remaining, but all are against Kansas City and Idaho. Utah is 2-8-0-0 against Idaho and 2-4-0-0 against Kansas City. Allen needs to get back on the winning track this weekend in Rapid City.
- The final reality check of the night was looking at the standings and seeing the team that is playing out the season and for jobs next year (Rapid City) is now two points behind Allen with a chance to tie the Americans with a win tomorrow night. Allen is now closer to last place in the division (3 points) than to fourth place (4 points). I hope Allen can win the next two games in Rapid City and Tommy Daniels doesn't have to eat crow like I am so fond of doing. On the other hand if Rapid City sweeps Allen I know some good places to hunt crows to help Tommy out.
OTHER COMMENTS
- To continue my Debbie Downer blog here is a story with the details about the possibility of Trois Riviéres and Newfoundland ceasing operations. The two franchises are majority owned by the same ownership group. The group also owned the Iowa Heartlanders franchise but sold it prior to the 2023-24 season. https://www.prohockeyrumors.com/2024/03/echl-newfoundland-trois-rivieres-may-not-finish-season.html
- Here is Allen's record and points percentage by month. There are two more games left in March and even if the Americans win on Friday and Saturday in Rapid City they will finish the month with a losing record, something they haven't done since September.
- October: 1-3-0-0 (.250)
- November: 4-7-1-0 (.375)
- December: 7-7-0-0 (.500)
- January: 6-4-1-1 (.583)
- February: 4-4-0-0 (.500)
- March: 5-8-0-0 (.385)
DID YOU KNOW: I swear my theme for the blog today (terrible, horrible, bad day) came to me after I had already decided what the ECHL post would be, however, it is fitting:
It can only go up from here! Here's to a much better day!
ReplyDeleteThe "want" just isn't in this team.
ReplyDelete