Welcome to opening night in the ECHL when every team has reason for optimism. Everyone has had a great off season recruiting an even better team than last season, the time when even the worst teams have a couple of weeks to claim there is plenty of time to turns things around. It is a fun time when "impressive rosters" abound for all 27 teams.
- The Allen Americans kickoff the season tonight (8:05 pm Allen time) against the Rapid City Rush. You could call the game the rookie vs the veteran or the student vs the teacher. Daniel Tetrault, who won his only professional championship playing for Steve Martinson, will be coaching his first game as head coach after being hired in June. It has been quite a rise for Tetrault who was suiting up for Rapid City just two years ago and spent last season as the Rush assistant coach. Daniel was a popular player in Allen and was born to be a head hockey coach. I am sure everyone in Allen wishes him the best of luck, except when the Rush play the Americans.
- On one bench tonight will be Daniel Tetrault coaching game #1. On the other bench will be Steve Martinson coaching game #1484 to go along with 10 championships. The team with the best players will win but the coaching match up provides for an interesting dynamic.
- I am not in the prediction game but based on what both coaches have said leading up to opening night you can expect a hard fought game both figuratively and literally. Martinson has said this team will be the toughest team to play against since he has been in Allen. Tetrault has made it clear his team will play with more speed and grit than in the past and will not back down from anyone. It all makes for an exciting opening night in Rapid City with plenty of hitting and some roughing and fighting penalties thrown in for good measure.
- With the player turnover each season it is hard to look at past results and predict how the game will go tonight but for the record Allen was 3-2-1-0 against Rapid City last season. Since joining the ECHL in 2014, Allen has a record in Rapid City of 8-3-0-0.
- Again, not very relevant to the upcoming season but here are the 2016-17 end of season stats comparing Allen and Rapid City:
ALLEN RAPID CITY
Team Record 49-17-4-2 (104 points) 26-38-8-0 (60 points)
Division Ranking 1st - Mountain 7th -Mountain
Conference Ranking 2nd - Western 12th - Western
League Ranking 2nd 23rd
Goals For 294 215
Goals Against 203 256
Power Play 24.4% 15.4%
Penalty Kill 84.4% 83.3%
Penalty Minutes 1432 917
- Allen starts the season with with a roster of 22 players including 12 forwards, eight defensemen and two goalies. The four veterans (over 260 games) on the team are Joel Chouinard, Casey Pierro-Zabotel, Peter MacArthur and Mathieu Aubin. Josh Thrower is the only rookie on the team. Five players, Spencer Asuchak, David Makowski, Bryan Moore, Alex Schoenborn and Stephon Williams are under contract with San Jose and assigned to Allen. Three players, Vincent Arseneau, Jonathan Lessard and Casey Pierro-Zabotel return to Allen after playing elsewhere. Speed, skill, toughness, grit and experienced have been words used to describe this team during training camp. Now it is time to see if this excellence on paper transfers to the ice.
- The official opening day roster was submitted to the league on Wednesday and that roster had 20 players active and two (Joel Chouinard & Peter MacArthur) on reserve. Rosters can be changed each day after the offical roster is submitted and that is exactly what coach Martinson did on Thursday. Joel Chouinard was activated from reserve, Peter MacArthur was placed on family leave, Vincent Arseneau and Jaynen Rissling were placed on reserve. What does it all mean? MacArthur, Arseneau and Rissling will not play tonight. That leaves 19 players on the active roster so there will be one healthy scratch since only 18 dress for the game.
- Coach Martinson hasn't announced who will get the start in goal so don't be surprised if he goes with Stephon Williams, the San Jose contracted goalie that was recently assigned to Allen.
- Coach Martinson has forewarned the players to expect a lot of changes in the line combinations early in the season. If you watch the game tonight that is something to look for. By the way, if you are on Facebook you can watch the game live for free. The ECHL is going to show all 27 teams on Facebook Live at some point in the season. Just so happens the first game will be the Allen vs Rapid City game tonight. All you have to do is visit the ECHL Facebook page (7:05 MT, 8:05 CT) and you can watch the game live for free.
- The officials scheduled for the game are referee Jonathan Sitarski (#23) and linesmen Erik Contino (#89) and Micheal Miggans (#46).
OTHER COMMENTS
- Looking through the ECHL opening day rosters I found many former Allen Americans. There are 29 players on 18 different ECHL teams. Here is the list.
Reggie Traccito - Brampton
Matt Register - Colorado
Jake Marchment - Colorado
Jamie Schaafsma - Fort Wayne
Corbin Baldwin - Idaho
Reid Halabi - Idaho
Nolan Descoteaux - Indy
Garrett Clarke - Indy
Ben Wilson - Kalamazoo
Bryce Aneloski - Kansas City
Tony Turgeon - Manchester
Jamie Murray - Norfolk
Rick Pinkston - Norfolk
Chris Crane - Orlando
Darryl Bootland - Orlando
Kyle Follmer - Quad City
Garrett Klotz - Quad City
Tristan King - Quad City
Alex Guptill - Rapid City
Alex Krushelnyski - Reading
Matt Willows - Reading
Danny Federico - South Carolina
Tyler Barnes - Toledo
Jake Hildebrand - Tulsa
Steven Kaunisto - Tulsa
Greger Hanson - Utah
Joel Rumpel - Wichita
Travis Brown - Wichita
Dyson Stevenson - Wichita
- Check out this video of the Wichita Thunder media day as the local television station interviews Thunder captain Dyson Stevenson who has a message for his former Allen teammates. Since Allen plays Wichita 12 times this season it will be interesting to see if Dyson's prediction is correct. http://ksn.com/2017/10/11/wichita-thunder-host-media-day/
DID YOU KNOW: A regular reader of the blog, Kevin, asked recently what brand of skates do the Allen Americans wear and do the players have a choice of brand. The Americans equipment manger, Tim Abbott provided the answer. Yes, the players can choose the brand of skates they wear. The vast majority of the players wear Bauer with only a few (two or three) opting for CCM and VH. If you have a question about the Americans send it to me and if I don't know the answer I will track it down.
Barry - For me your preseason blogs this year have been the most informative ever. Your explanations of the rules and strategies behind them give us readers an inside look at the game that most fans in other markets never come to appreciate. Thanks for sharing with us and for your dedication and hard work in getting this information
ReplyDeleteThey have indeed been fantastic. It has really heightened my excitement for the season to start! Thanks for all your work Barry!
DeleteGood information. I am going to watch it on Facebook tonight! Also have Notre Dame vs Denver to watch on my other computer. Hockey night!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see our boys start the season tonight! I hate that it is on the road and not at home but I will be watching on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteBarry, have you heard which, if any, local merchants are planning on showing the regular season away games on ECHL TV?
After becoming a good friend of Daniel T and knowing his feelings for Coach - this will be a real interesting weekend. The water bottle throw in the Quad City series was classic - let's get ready to rumble!!!!
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