ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 15, 1996 TAG: 9611150036
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
JEFF LODER COMES FROM NEWFOUNDLAND, but he feels right at home playing for the Roanoke Express minor-league hockey franchise.
Even though he leads the team in scoring, Jeff Loder's best position for the Roanoke Express may be on the punchline.
Loder's from Newfoundland, the scenic, isolated Canadian island province that is a world and a time zone unto itself out in the Atlantic, where its colorful inhabitants revel in their native eccentricities.
Many continental Canadians call Newfoundlanders ``Newfies,'' sometimes in a derogatory manner. Newfie joke books are popular sellers and they contain the same insulting jokes that Americans have used against ethnic groups of choice for ages.
``Like the one about the Newfoundlander who drove to Toronto,'' Loder recalls. ``He saw a sign that said, `Toronto left,' so he went home.''
(Eye-rolling and head-shaking permitted here)
Or this:
Did you hear about the Newfie who broke his arm while raking leaves? He fell out of the tree.
(Audible groan here)
``Some people look at us as a bit on the slow side,'' said Loder, who won't turn 21 for another two months. ``A Newfie is seen as a guy who's not intelligent but thinks he is. Newfoundlanders are different. We enjoy ourselves more. The rest of the country is in a rush. [The term ``Newfie''] is taken in different ways by different people. In my case, I'm a Newfie just because that's where I'm from. I don't take it in a bad way. ''
It's a good thing, because he gets good-natured ribbing from his roommate, right wing Sean Brown.
``I'll pass along some jokes to him,'' Brown said. ``He understands it's in fun. I don't know how people from Newfoundland got that reputation.''
When asked if Newfoundland really was that different, one Express staffer said: ``Oh my God. It's like [bleeping] West Virginia.''
How many Newfies does it take to lead the Express in scoring?
No joke here, unless it's on anyone in the East Coast Hockey League who overlooks the easy-going, 5-foot-9 center. Loder leads the Express with nine goals and 17 points in 15 games. He owns the third-highest point total in the league and may unofficially lead the league in facial stitches with nearly 20. Incredibly, he sustained those injuries even though he wears a face shield. If he didn't wear one, he'd probably be unrecognizable now.
``He's got more stitches in his face than were used to sew his uniform together,'' one Express official said.
The little guy has come a long way just to get his lip busted, his eye blackened, his teeth knocked out and his homeland ridiculed. Like all the aforementioned facial injuries, Loder takes the good-natured slurs and jokes in stride. That's the same way the affable Newfoundlander takes the puck on the ice before depositing it in the net for the Express. That's why he's fast becoming a crowd favorite in the Roanoke Civic Center, where the Express takes on the South Carolina Stingrays tonight at 7:30.
As a continental Canadian might say, Newfoundland may not be the end of the world, but you can look back and see it from there. The place wasn't even a part of Canada until 1949, some 450 years after explorer John Cabot staked it out as the new-found land for European settlers.
By the time it hoisted the Maple Leaf flag as the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Newfoundlanders had become pretty set in their ways. Many still speak with an Irish brogue.
``Everyone speaks English, but it's a different style,'' said Loder, who's from Corner Brook, a town of 30,000. ``They'll take letters out and put 'em in somewhere else.''
There are even different ways to pronounce the island's name. Many Americans pronounce it ``NEW-fin-lund.'' Loder emphasizes the last syllable, ``new-fin-LAND.'' Brown calls it ``new-FOUND-land.''
It's a place so unique, it has three pronunciations and its own time zone, thirty minutes behind Atlantic Time. People with surnames like Pretty and Party traverse the country woods to places like Come By Chance, Blow Me Down, Tickle Cove, Sitdown Pond and Joe Batts Arm.
While the splendor of Newfoundland's coastline and western mountains, rivers and forests attract many tourists during the summer months, the place known as ``the Rock'' is still in no-man's land to many hockey scouts. Only three Newfoundlanders - Los Angeles' John Slaney, Montreal's Terry Ryan and the New York Rangers' Darren Langdon - are playing in the NHL this season. Only a handful more are scattered throughout the minor leagues. The place is better known for exporting salmon and cod than hockey players.
Did you hear about the Newfie who went fishing on a frozen pond with just a stick and filled the other guy's net? It was with pucks.
Loder's performances in the Quebec Major Juniors caught the eye of Jean Perron, the coach and general manager of the International Hockey League's Manitoba Moose.
He signed Loder to a contract and invited him to camp before sending him to Roanoke to get more seasoning.
``He wanted me to work on my mental quickness on the ice,'' said Loder. ``The reaction reaction time is 10 times faster here than in juniors. I'll just play hard and try to get better and win games. I'm not going to worry about moving up. If I play well, it will force them to take me. I'm not worried about it.
``I'm from Newfoundland. I'm pretty easy-going about things.''
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY\Staff. Roanoke Express center Jeff Loder hasby CNBproven he can handle the puck, scoring 17 points in 15 games this
season, his first in the ECHL.