Allen vs Utah Preview, Roster Update, ECHL Points Per Game Leaders, Comment Questions Answered, Active Rosters Reduce to 20 on Sunday and More

With an early start tomorrow (10:30 am) for the School Day game against Utah I am doing the game/series preview a day early. Hopefully the morning game tomorrow will turn out better than Allen's other morning game this season. On opening day in Tulsa, early morning was not kind to the Americans as they were defeated by the Oilers 8-2.

- The good news for fans is the last time the Americans played Utah (10 days ago) it was on the road and Allen came away with a 6-4 victory. That was the game Allen was 2-3 on the power play and Easton Brodzinski had a hat trick. 

- Despite being shutout 4-0 by Tulsa on Saturday and still looking for its first home win of the season the Americans have won two of their last three games while Utah has lost two of its last three games. Here is a stats comparison between Allen and Utah:

• Goals scored average: 2.13 Allen - 4.00 Utah
• Goals allowed average: 5.13 Allen - 4.14 Utah
• Shots for average: 24.00 Allen - 34.17 Utah
• Shots against average: 42.15 Allen - 32.29 Utah
• Power play percentage: 12.0% Allen - 18.2% Utah
• Penalty kill percentage: 75.7%% Allen - 60.0% Utah

 

- What stands out from the stats above?

• The game should be a high scoring affair even though Allen has been shut out in three of its four home games this season. The reason there should be a lot of goals is the games pits the #29 ranked team (Allen) and the #28 ranked team (Utah) in the ECHL is goals allowed.
• Allen's power play has struggled (ranked #24), but two of its three power play goals all season were against Utah which has the worst penalty kill percentage in the league by 15%. 
• Allen's shot differential (shots for minus shots against) is -18.2 compared to Utah's +1.9 The Americans can't expect to win if the get outshot by 20 shots against Utah.

 - Allen has been outshot in all seven of its games this season, the only team in the league that has been outshot in every game. Utah, on the other hand, has different results. The Grizzlies are 3-1 when outshooting opponents and 1-2 when getting outshot. Shot totals will be a deciding factor in this series. 

- Good starts and playing with the lead is always important, but even more so with these teams. Utah hasn't lost a game when leading after the first or second period and hasn't won a game when losing after the first or second period. Almost the same for the Americans who are 2-0-1-0 when leading after the first period, 2-0-0-0 when leading after the second period, 0-5-0-0 when trailing after the first period and 0-5-0-0 when trailing after the second period. It is clear Allen doesn't want to be playing from behind.

 

- If you are looking for players to watch in this morning game was well as in this three game series, the player for Utah is #24 Gianni Fairbrother. He scored a goal in both games against Allen and totaled four points (3G, 1A). Utah's leading scorer, Neil Shea, who had a goal in the five games he played with the Grizzlies, including the two against Allen, is no longer with the team having been recalled to Colorado (AHL). For Allen the leading scorers in the two games against Utah were Brodzinski (3G, 0A) and Watts (1G, 2A). 

 

- There could be changes when transactions come out this afternoon but here is an update on the Allen roster:

Goalies 

• #33 Marco Costantini - Reserve
  
• #35 Anson Thornton*
  
• #39 Dylan Wells*

Defensemen

• #91 Ayo Adeniye - 14-day IR
  
• #3 Ryan Gagnon 
• #66 Artyum Kulakov 
• #55 Andrew Nielsen 
• #44 Nolan Orzeck 
• #21 Mike Van Unen 
• #2 Quinn Warmuth 
• #5 Hudson Wilson
  

Forwards

• #26 Spencer Asuchak
• #42 Robbie Baillergeon
  
• #24 Harrison Blaisdell
  
• #22 Easton Brodzinski 
• #16 Kyle Crnkovic*
• #8 Mark Duarte 
• #10Will Gavin* - 14-day IR
  
• #17 Riley Ginnell 
• #84 Liam Gorman 
• #14 Brayden Guy
• #86 James Hardie
• #70 Dakota Seamen - Reserve
  
• #11 Rylan Van Unen - 3-day IR
  
• #92 Brayden Watts 

*NHL/AHL contracted players

 

OTHER COMMENTS

 - Here are some news, notes and stats in the Allen Americans Weekly issued by the team: https://allenamericans.com/news/2024/11/americans-weekly-update-11-11-2024

 

- The next couple of weeks before Thanksgiving will be key for ECHL teams that have been struggling. History shows teams more than five points out of a playoff spot at Thanksgiving rarely make the playoffs. Right now there are three teams more than five points out of a playoff spot. Cincinnati in the Central Division plus Allen and Rapid City in the Mountain Division. Allen will play six games before Thanksgiving; three at home against Utah, a home and home against Tulsa and a game in Rapid City in an effort to close the gap for the fourth playoff spot.  

 

 - There are three games on the ECHL schedule tonight. Kalamazoo is at Cincinnati, Fort Wayne at Wheeling and Iowa at Kansas City. Here are the previews: https://echl.com/news/2024/11/echl-today-nov-12  

- There are 18 ECHL players with 10 or more points this season. Of the18 players there are six averaging 1.40 or more points per game. Notice they all come from the Western Conference and four of the six are from the Mountain Division.

• 1.70 - Brandon Hawkins (Toledo)
• 1.60 - Hank Crone (Idaho)
• 1.60 - Michal Stinil (Wichita)
• 1.50 - Kyle Mayhew (Fort Wayne)
• 1.44 - Sasha Pastujov (Tulsa)
• 1.40 - Ty Pelton-Byce (Idaho 

- I put this together for ECHL Stats about how teams have done as new franchises. 

Tahoe is off to a great start in the first seven games of its franchise. How does it compare to the first seven games in the history of these recently added franchises?

 

Savannah: 5-1-1-0 (.786)

Tahoe: 4-2-1-0 (.643)

Bloomington: 2-4-0-2 (.429)

Trois Rivières: 3-4-0-0 (.429)

Iowa: 1-5-1-0 (.214)

 

Tahoe is currently third in the Mountain Division (by points percentage) and Bloomington is fifth in the Central Division but it is very early in the season. Will they make the playoffs? 

 

Here is how the others finished in their first season:

- Savannah finished sixth in the South Division and missed the playoffs.

- Iowa finished last in the Central Division and missed the playoffs.

- Trois Rivières finished second in the North Division and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

 

 

Here are a couple of examples of teams that did very well in their first ECHL season, but didn't meet the criteria for the list above.

- The Newfoundland Growlers are no longer an ECHL franchise but when they started in 2018-19 were 4-3-0-0 in the first seven games, won their division and went on to win the Kelly Cup.

- Allen was an existing franchise in another league (CHL) but a new ECHL franchise in 2014-15. The Americans were 4-3-0-0 in the first seven games, won their division and went on to win the Kelly Cup.

 

 

 

QUESTIONS FROM THE COMMENTS

 

Questions continue to arise in the comments section of the blog. While many are ones I would never ask management to answer publicly and no team would ever agree to publicly answer, I picked out some of the questions I thought I could get answered and paid a visit to team president, Jonny Mydra. He wanted me to reiterate if you have any questions (on any topic) to and I quote, "email me and I promise I will respond, and even take phone calls or get lunch at Kelly's if you want." My sense is to continually comment in the blog about your concerns is not a very effective way to effect change. If the team president is willing to talk to you about any concerns you have, give him a chance. My personal experience is he is open, honest, not defensive, listens and is prompt in getting back to you. And to answer one of your questions/comments, the team nor any of the employees have ever asked me to change anything related to the blog. Maybe the fact that I am a volunteer gives me the latitude to run the blog as I see fit. Here are Jonny's answers to my questions:   

 

Q: Does the team have any interest or desire, or have you had any discussions with anyone about relocating this franchise in the immediate or long term future?

A: Relocating the team has never been mentioned to me by Myles, LJ, Zawyer or REV or anyone at the league office. Our lease with the City of Allen ends after the 2026-27 season, but I would project we agree to a new long-term lease extension before that one ends.

 

Q: Is there an out clause in the lease with the City of Allen if you don's achieve a certain number of wins, concession sales or the like?

A: No

 

Q: Are you personally committed to the franchise and its future?

A: My goal, just like the players, is to move up to the NHL one day. I have no interest in leaving Allen or the Americans for another minor league job, even in the AHL. I have  had a few opportunities come up in the NHL, but I don't want to leave unless it is the right position. Ownership is supportive of me going to the NHL if it is a big step forward in my career, but that is really the only reason I would leave.

 

Q: Serious question, why get rid of the Red Kingdom song? That was a great song. I'd think there is room also for the new "Come Together" song. Just a miss if you ask me? Kudos to Hallie Stuekrath who put the Red Kingdom mix together. Was awesome last season, bring it back.

A: Thanks for the shoutout to Hallie. We have heard the feedback about the Red Kingdom song, and she is going to reincorporate it more often. The Come Together video will be the intro video until around early January when we will probably introduce a new one. We like to keep it fresh. 

 

 

- The other question/comment that comes up all of the time relates to the role of  Zawyer and REV Entertainment. Because it is a work in progress a lot of the details and decisions are made each week. I have had a lot of discussions with many different people and there is no clear answers to many of the questions. As everyone knows the goal is to have REV take over from Zawyer. Right now Zawyer is still involved in all aspects of the business and hockey sides of the organization. Some categories are happening faster than others. I have been told the last two categories that Zawyer will have any say over is hockey operations and merchandising, but even they are beginning to fizzle out. What does seem set in stone is by the end of the season Zawyer will have no involvement in the Allen Americans at all.     

 

DID YOU KNOW: For the 1st month of the ECHL season the weekly salary cap is increased from $14,600 to $15,130 and teams can carry an extra player (21 instead of 20) on the active roster. That ends on Sunday (3:00 pm ET). Look for transactions to increase this week as teams meet this deadline. Some teams won’t have an issue because of players on injured reserve, but some teams will have to trade or release a player to get the active roster down to 20.   

What does the mean for Allen? It remains to be seen, but with three players on injured reserve, and two on reserve, the Americans active roster by my count is already at 20 players.