Marvel Comics

Minor League Monday: Roadrunners Setting Pace, Thunder Cracking in ECHL, Trask Getting Mayhem Going

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AHL

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-Unlike their parent affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners have been utterly successful this season, getting off to a 5-1-1 start to the young season. Seventeen of the 24 players who have played a game this year have a goal on the season, while Dylan Strome leads the team with 10 points (1g, 9a). Three of the top-five in team scoring are rookies with Strome, Nick Merkley, and Kyle Capobianco. While Adin Hill and Marek Langhamer have played well, rookie Hunter Miska definitely is dealing with the pro learning curve, posting a 3-0-0 record, but a dismal 4.02 GAA and .884 Sv%.

-In his third full pro season, Lehigh Valley Phantom Danick Martel is priming himself for a breakout year. In only 10 games so far, Martel has 10 goals (half of his total all of last year) and is second in league scoring with 13 points. With the help of rookie Mike Vecchione, as well a veterans Phil Varone and Greg Carey, the Phantoms are off to their best start (7-2-0-1) since 2007-08 when they started 8-1-1. Both Alex Lyon and Dustin Tokarski have played well in their appearance, though Lyon seems to be the horse leading the way for Lehigh Valley.

ECHL

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-The first Marvel game happened this weekend and the jerseys were nothing sure of spectacular. The Worcester Railers, as the Incredible Hulk, defeated the Utah Grizzlies, as Thor, 4-1 in the first game of the branded era. The win gave the Railers their third on the season in five games, placing them third in the North Division. The loss put the Grizzlies at 3-5-0 on the season, putting them next to last in the difficult Mountain Division.

-Speaking of the Mountain Division, break up the Wichita Thunder. A team that last year was dead last in the Central Division and next to last in the league has become one of the last unbeaten teams in the league (along with the Reading Royals). After a difficult time in the AHL, Kyle Platzer has found his scoring touch with the Thunder, potting five goals and six assists for the Thunder. In net, both Joel Rumpel and Shane Starrett have three wins while being in the top-5 in the league in GAA and save percentage.

SPHL

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-Jake Trask helped the Macon Mayhem get their first win and first points of the season this weekend thanks to his four goals and two assists Friday and Saturday. Trask’s hat-trick on Friday helped the Mayhem get an overtime loss against the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs; while on Saturday, Trask got the first goal to help Macon get their first win of the season. Trask now leads the league in goals and points with four and seven respectively.

-There’s no wonder why the Peoria Rivermen are atop the SPHL. They not only have the most goals in the league, they have distributed the points, as well. 16 of the 18 rostered skaters have a point on the year, with Michael Economos not having a point because he hasn’t played a game year. However, while the offense is good, the fact they only have a plus-4 goal differential is a bit of a concern. Eric Levine and Michael Santaguida have had a lot of goal support, but will need to steal some wins if the deep forward crew has a dry run.

ECHL, Marvel Team Up in Branding Venture…For Real

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Does this mean we’ll get an ECHL Guardian Project??

Probably not, but one can always dream, right?? I pose this question after the announcement that the ECHL has teamed up with Marvel Comics in a branding collaboration in Super Hero Nights for each of the teams, as well as merchandise and other in-game promotions.

Now, this may come as a little of a surprise, but it’s a smart move. The fact is most of these teams have a marked night for some kind of superhero night, but now with the backing of Marvel, the money won’t have to come directly out of their budgets entirely and maybe a little help will come with the merchandising sales from in-game and perhaps afar depending on how the merchandise is promoted.

Of course, the biggest thing is how they will follow through on this whole thing. Of course, I brought up the Guardian Project at the start— mostly because it was such a disaster for the NHL and Marvel on the hope that a Stan Lee project would spurn some kind of new fans to the NHL because of super heroes?? I don’t know how the NHL thinks, and at times– I’m sure their marketing people are tilting their heads.

It’s a good synergy and it helped that the announcement came at the Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash store in Red Bank, New Jersey. Not just because the ECHL’s headquarters are an hour away, but because Kevin Smith is an avid hockey fan. Doubtful that he’ll be inter-mingling with these games at all, but it’s not a bad name to have on your side. They did mention that people from AMC’s Comic Book Men were in attendance, but I think they’ll be like Smith and just an observer of it all.

What it seems like is less Guardian Project, more Muppet Project that the NHL got into back in the day where the Muppets were intertwined with the logos of the NHL team.  To have something like this is nice and who knows what it could lead to in the future. Don’t expect something big and glamorous, mostly because the AHL tried their hand at some kind of comic book and it….well, I don’t know what it turned out because very few copies exist and not many images are to be had about it.

Good on the ECHL to step up their corporate marketing, especially if it can save some money for teams when it comes to licensing and coming up with designs.