Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 31, 1993 TAG: 9310310142
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Roanoke Express left wing is kind and gentle. He smiles a lot.
On the ice, though, Morissette becomes "Moose," a snarling, raging inferno who deals in pain.
"It's almost like I have a split personality or something," Morissette said. "On the ice, fighting and protecting my teammates is my job. If I have to fight, I go fight.
"But off the ice, I'm not a fighter. Guys who first meet me say, `I didn't know you were like this. We thought you were crazy.'
"Hey, I don't go into bars and pick fights or anything. I'm just another nice guy."
Don't tell that to the rest of the East Coast Hockey League. Moose Morissette a nice guy? Yeah, and hockey pucks are square.
Now in his third season in the ECHL - he spent the past two seasons with Hampton Roads before being picked by the Express in the expansion draft - Morissette is firmly entrenched as one of the league's top hit men. His 519 penalty minutes in 101 games the past two seasons rank among the top totals in the league.
Such is the price for playing the role of enforcer in a game where intimidation rules.
"I'm a policeman out there, yeah," Morissette said. "I look after my guys.
"Toughness is what I've got going for me. You have it in your blood or you don't. I've always had it."
The 6-foot-1, 210-pound forward discovered just how valuable his fists were in his first year of junior hockey.
"I started to fight then . . . I don't really know why," Morissette said. "Somebody pushed me and I said, `C'mon,' just to prove to everybody I could fight. The first thing I know, I'm the only one fighting on the team and I have to protect everybody.
"At first, I didn't like it. `Guys just fighting don't make the NHL,' I thought. You have to play hockey, too. But now I realize that being a tough guy is the best thing I've got going for me.
"I don't think anybody or anything scares me. I've come out on top in most fights. Guys ask me tricks on fighting. I tell them, `If you want to learn, go there a few times and get your [butt] kicked and you'll learn.' "
The Roanoke hockey fans, some of whom rate a hockey game by the number of rights and lefts thrown, have adopted the 21-year-old Quebec native. Chants of "Moose! Moose! Moose!" were echoing through the Roanoke Civic Center before the finish of the Express' opener.
"He's a great leader," said Frank Anzalone, the Express coach. "So far, he's taken charge. He's tough and he's got some skills."
Proving that he can do something besides drop his gloves, Morissette scored the first goal in Express history - a textbook 45-foot slap shot on the fly - sparking the team from a three-goal deficit to a 5-4 overtime victory over South Carolina in the franchise opener.
In the Express' second game, Morissette lit up the crowd when he charged after Richmond's Grant Chorney, who seconds earlier had decked Roanoke defenseman Claude Barthe with a vicious cross-check in the back.
"He [Chorney] didn't have to do that," Morissette said. "Fighting is part of the game, but cross-checking a guy in the back is not. So I went after him."
During the next game, in Charleston, S.C., Morissette, in an effort to get the Express in gear, picked a fight with a South Carolina player. An inspired Roanoke team, down 6-2 at the time, rallied before losing 7-6.
"I felt I had to do something to wake the guys up," he said. "I don't like to see the other team winning and skating around with big smiles on their faces. I hate that. I just hate it."
Because he detests losing, Morissette wasn't exactly ecstatic when he learned in June he had been chosen by Roanoke in the ECHL's expansion draft. Suddenly, Morissette was faced with going from the ECHL's penthouse in Hampton Roads to the outhouse in Roanoke. Morissette knew all about Roanoke's inglorious past in the league.
"I remember coming to Roanoke with Hampton," Morissette said. "We looked at it as an automatic two points. It was like, `Hey, guys, we've got the day off today, we're practicing in Roanoke.'
"A reporter called me the day Roanoke picked me. I told him I was going to go there and see what happens. But in my mind I knew I wasn't going to go there. There was no way I was going to play for a losing team."
Express president John Gagnon and general manager Pierre Paiement met with Morissette in Quebec City during the NHL draft and assured their fellow French-Canadian that things would be different playing for the "new" Roanoke.
"The fact that they were French Canadian influenced me somewhat," Morrisette said. "I can talk French with them. They're honest people. Now I want to help those guys get this club going in the right direction."
Morissette said he has been surprised by what has transpired in Roanoke, particularly the Express' 3-2 start.
"We've got a much better team than I thought we'd have," he said. "I first said, `Expansion team, oh, no. What kind of team are we going to have?' "
Morissette has gone from John Brophy's doghouse in Hampton Roads to top dog in Roanoke. He's the captain and undisputed leader of the Express. He's even got his own radio show.
"It's nice here," Morissette said. "I wasn't getting the ice time I wanted in Hampton. Hey, I can play hockey, too. I had been drafted [in the seventh round by Washington in 1991], and it wasn't only because I could fight. I think Broph used me simply to go on the ice and fight."
The Express, unlike past Roanoke teams, won't be riding in the ECHL caboose, says Moose, at season's end.
"It's like a challenge here to prove to everybody that Roanoke won't be easy to beat," Morissette said. "Now they're going to find out it's a lot different when you come into Roanoke and play.
"I hate to lose. I hope all the other players here hate to lose, too. Even if we're losing 6-1, they're gonna get hurt. If I have anything to do with it, they're going to have something before they leave the rink."
by CNB