Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 5, 1993 TAG: 9312050028
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"With no hockey, I would probably be a salesman," Szabo said. "I could sell anyone anything.
"Yeah, I'd be a traveling salesman, international travel man. It's that persuasion thing, you know."
The Roanoke Express and its fans know one thing: They're sold on the hustling little guy with the big shot.
"I just love watching Tony Szabo on the ice," said Pierre Paiement, the Express' general manager. "He's a little guy, but he makes up for it by outworking the others. Just think if he were 6-2 or 6-3 and working that hard. He'd be a terror. He wouldn't be here. He'd be in the NHL somewhere."
At 5 feet 9, 170 pounds, Szabo is one of the smallest players toiling in the East Coast Hockey League. He's living proof that dynamite does indeed come in small packages.
"My size, yeah, that's been the story of my life," Szabo said. "They say, "He's only 5-8 or 5-9, that's why he's not in the NHL or something.'
"I just don't let that bother me. I just go out and, if a guy is bigger than me, I'll work twice as hard to beat him.
"Sure, sometimes I think about being 6-3. But I try to stay away from it. I am who I am, can't change that. I just try to make do with what I have."
The feisty player's tool box contains a lot of desire and hustle. It also has a big-time shot, a whistler that can be launched on a millisecond's notice.
"Great shot, great release," said Frank Anzalone, Roanoke's coach. "He's a great little player. But he'll never be as great until he scores. He's a goal-scorer."
Szabo's first six weeks in the ECHL have been full of shots off the posts and crossbars. Szabo has yet to get a bounce, hence, he has six goals on a team-high 87 shots in the Express' first 19 games.
"I've been talking to the Big Guy upstairs, you know," Szabo said. "He said I'm due and it's going to come in bunches.
"I'm sort of in my own personal tunnel. I've got to come out of it. I'm getting the chances. I just think I'm thinking too much and putting pressure on myself. I ought to just go out and play, work hard and play hard and let things fall where they fall."
The 25-year-old Flint, Mich., native of Hungarian ancestry always has been able to bury a puck in a net.
Szabo's 64 goals in 1989 remain a British Columbia Junior Hockey League record.
He had 60 goals in his two years at Northern Michigan, where he played on the 1991 NCAA Division I championship team. In what many call the greatest NCAA final ever played, Northern Michigan outlasted Boston University 8-7 in triple overtime.
"You can't explain how high the emotion is in a game like that," Szabo said. "It's a game where you're playing for a national title and you have to go into the third OT playing until 1 o'clock in the morning. I don't think anybody involved thought the game would ever end."
Szabo's hockey career didn't end. He jumped at a chance last season to lug his gear to Europe, where he scored 35 goals in 32 games for Asiago of the Italian Elite league.
"Now that was a real experience," Szabo said. "You think playing on the road in this league is tough? Well, it doesn't compare to playing a game in Yugoslavia.
"We played a game in Yugoslavia one night and the crowd was lighting actually like quarter sticks of dynamite and throwing it over our bench. They'd throw coins and lighters. That's the way the fans showed their appreciation for the game."
The appreciation shown Szabo in Roanoke is much more civil. Teammates, management and fans all seem to adore the little guy with the upbeat attitude.
"You just want to hug the guy," said Dave "Moose" Morissette, the Express captain who is known for mugging, not hugging, fellow skaters. "Tony is a funny guy. He's always joking and stuff, keeping the guys loose. He's always running his mouth about something. He's a good kind of guy to have on a team."
Despite the fact he's one of the few married players in the ECHL, Szabo said he's still one of the boys.
"My feeling is that to play on the ice, you've got to be focused and mentally ready," Szabo said. "Off the ice, you joke around with the guys and come together as a family. That's a key to success in any sport.
"I get out with the guys every once in awhile, not like the old college days, though. My wife and kid are great. The guys come over all the time to joke and play with my 13-month-old son. It's just great."
Szabo still hasn't given up on playing in the NHL.
"Everyone here dreams of the NHL," he said. "You just never know who you're going to convince up above. The thing is to never get down, just stay positive and work hard.
"If you do your best, then you're satisfied. If you don't do your best, then when you quit hockey and you're done, then you think, `Wow, I should have given 110 [percent]. At least you proved to yourself that you gave it your all. And that's the best that you or anyone can do."
Tony Szabo is right. He is a salesman.
by CNB