Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 28, 1994 TAG: 9403270046
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Express' first season on ice may have ended Friday with a playoff meltdown in Raleigh, N.C., but the fact remains the first-year ECHL franchise was hotter than anyone could have predicted.
Thirty-seven victories. A fifth-place finish in the ECHL's most competitive division. A playoff berth. Average home attendance of 4,653.
If somebody had guaranteed those numbers in early October, Express president John Gagnon would have taken them in a heartbeat and never dropped a puck.
"I think we far exceeded what anybody thought we'd do - on and off the ice," Gagnon said. "We had a winning hockey team and we put people in the seats. A lot of people said we couldn't do all that the first year. We proved them wrong."
Frank Anzalone proved a lot of people wrong, too. The high-strung head coach who had been hung in earlier stints behind the bench with Nashville (ECHL) and Newmarket (American Hockey League), clotheslined the critics this winter, squeezing everything and more out of a club that wasn't loaded with talent.
"We won 37 games," Anzalone said. "This team won four less games than Raleigh, four less games than Hampton Roads, the top team in the [East] division. That says a lot.
"You don't build a championship team in one season. It just doesn't happen. Look at Raleigh; they made the playoffs their first year and got knocked out the first round. Our guys can look at them and have something to strive for.
"In the end, though, we didn't have enough. We weren't good enough to win in the first round of the playoffs. We'll just have to get better."
Therefore, figure Anzalone for some housecleaning chores before next season. Don't be surprised if only five, possibly six, players off the Express' playoff roster are back in October.
Up front, the club had some talent, with Tony Szabo's rocket shot, Oleg Yashin's nifty moves and Pat Ferschweiler's lunch-pail work ethic. Jeff Jestadt came out of nowhere to score 43 goals.
Roanoke's biggest holes are on the blue line, where Anzalone must find some bigger, more talented defensemen to take the Express to the next level.
"We have maybe five skilled players and 10 mediocre players," Anzalone said last week on his pregame radio show from Huntsville, Ala.
Anzalone figures he will have to do the bulk of his work through summer recruiting. He realizes he can't bank on getting a lot of players through the Express' NHL affiliation with San Jose.
"I don't know if we can be a Raleigh or not, because, obviously, you've got to have pro players [under NHL contract]," Anzalone said. "I like some of the things our team did, but Raleigh hasn't done it with recruiting. Raleigh has done it with [NHL] affiliation [with New Jersey and Hartford] and affiliations that are going to give you the players to stay.
"We got no players [from San Jose] . . . well, one player [goalie Dan Ryder]. And we won 37 games.
"I realize now that it's going to take more than just average players. You can do what we did this year, but to get into the next echelon you've got to have some bigger, better players."
Anzalone refused to speculate on whether the Express will retain its affiliation with San Jose or look elsewhere. Gagnon and Express general manager Pierre Paiement have hinted strongly that one of the summer's major goals will be to affiliate with a more responsive NHL club.
The expansion Express may have stalled quickly in the playoffs, but what it accomplished didn't go unnoticed around the ECHL.
"Frank should be commended for the job he's done," said Kurt Kleinendorst, Raleigh's coach. "He brought that club from nowhere to this point. He faced a lot of obstacles.
"First, there was Roanoke's past in the league. It had to be difficult to get players to come to Roanoke. I know a lot of guys said they wouldn't play there.
"But I think all that will change now. They're building something there now and the word is getting out."
And inside the ECHL, the jokes about the "No-Nokes" have stopped. Suddenly, nobody's laughing at Roanoke anymore.
by CNB