ALLEN, Texas – With the start of a new season only days away, the Allen Americans are midway through their second week of training camp in preparation for the 2010-11 Central Hockey League campaign. The past several days have seen a lot of activity as coaches Dwight Mullins and Bill McDonald take a final look at their prospects before deciding upon the final roster, due on Thursday.
The Americans took on their cross-town rivals, the Texas Brahmas, in a pair of pre-season contests this past weekend and showed a slightly different look than last season. Despite losing both games, the Americans, who are entering their sophomore year, have rounded out their physical play with more speed and better offensive chops than they started out with last year.
Although the team has had a limited time to gel, the Americans are showing the genesis of some good chemistry amongst the different lines. The key now will be unlocking the secrets of the precise line combinations and head coach Dwight Mullins appears to have plenty of ammunition to secure a decisive offensive punch – new additions to the team, including Judd Blackwater, Dave Bonk, Bobby Bolt, Alexandr Quesnel, Dustin Donaghy and David Nimmo have all looked solid on the ice for the Americans thus far.
During the pre-season contests, the most notable difference was how well the Americans moved the puck on special teams. Last season, the Americans finished sixth in the league at 16.91% on the power play, registering 58 goals with a static power play setup. The Americans exhibited a more dynamic flow on the power play in the pre-season, cycling the puck low and opening seams in the slot, utilizing traffic and confusion to create opportunities to score. While not yielding any goals in two pre-season games, this attack-minded setup should be very effective for the Americans this season.
Chris Whitley
Steady backliners Erik Adams and Brandon Straub have returned from last years’ squad and will be joined by strong players like David Simoes, Iain Mcphee and Justin Dacosta on the blue line.
On Tuesday, the Americans announced that Straub had been signed to a professional tryout with the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins.
“We’re very excited for Brandon, and obviously it’s another great opportunity for our organization to see a guy like (straub) get the opportunity to get called up,” Head Coach Dwight Mullins said. “He’s going to get a legitimate opportunity there, and we’ll see what happens for him over the next 10 days.”
Straub has previously enjoyed stints in the AHL, first with the Lake Erie Monsters in 2007-08, where he skated in nine games, in 2008-09 with the Quad City Flames (four games), and last season with the Houston Aeros (two games). Exhibiting their prowess for attracting high-end talent, the Americans set a CHL record this past month, sending 14 players to American Hockey League training camps. In addition, Allen defenseman Jordie Benn spent the off-season being developed by the Dallas Stars (NHL) organization, attending their prospect and training camps. He’ll play with the Texas Stars, Dallas’ AHL affiliate, this season.
Looking at the team that coaches Mullin and McDonald have assembled this summer, there are clear indications that Allen has once again put together the necessary talent to make another run for the Finals in the spring.
The Americans will open the regular season with back-to-back home games against the Texas Brahmas on Friday and Saturday night at the Allen Event Center.
Contact the author at maurice.fitzgerald@prohockeynews.com
Contact the photographer at robert.keith@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.