THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 1, 1995 TAG: 9510010165
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Three years ago, the Hampton Roads Admirals had reason to swagger. Nobody in the East Coast Hockey League won more games or drew more fans.
The Admirals had the league's only name coach - John Brophy, who came to Norfolk from the Toronto Maple Leafs. They won ECHL championships in 1991 and 1992. And team president Blake Cullen, the only ECHL owner with two decades of big league experience, ran the best front office around.
But as the Admirals open their seventh training camp today at Scope, much of the swagger is gone. The organization is still classy, the fans still fill Scope each Friday night, the coach is still the league's best-known. Yet that no longer sets them apart from the rest.
South Carolina and Charlotte now draw larger crowds. Richmond, once considered a poor relation, is making up ground at the gate and won the ECHL title last season.
Mostly, though, it's because the Admirals have become a playoff also-ran.
Last year they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, three games to one, by Tallahassee, an expansion franchise. A year earlier, Wheeling knocked the Admirals out in the second round. In 1993, a year after winning the title, the Admirals were knocked off by Raleigh in the first round.
Once considered the league's toughest playoff team, Hampton Roads has become just another face in the crowd. And that sticks in Brophy's craw.
``The way we went out of the playoffs last year was sick,'' he said. ``Something is wrong when you can't get past the first round. That should not happen here. Our fans are too good, our owner does too much for the players, to lose like that.''
The Admirals tried to fix what was wrong in the offseason. They signed a revamped working agreement with Portland of the American Hockey League that will, in theory, provide them with better players down the stretch. They added a working agreement with Cleveland of the International Hockey League that could be more lucrative than the deal with Portland.
They let loose talented players - Brendan Curley, Brian Goudie and George Zajankala to name a few - to recast the team. ``When you have veteran players, the cream of the crop, and they lose like that, why should they be back?'' Brophy said.
``Basically if you're going to have some money to stay alive for the next year, you do it in the playoffs,'' Brophy said. ``Winning in the playoffs means everything.
``I'm not saying we didn't get beat by good teams. We did. And it's not like we played terrible.''
But each ill-fated playoff series turned on a loss at home, something Brophy can't abide.
``That's been our whole history - we can't get ready for the first game,'' Brophy said. ``We play all season to get the home-ice advantage, then blow it in the first game.''
Brophy acknowledges that's ultimately his fault. He recruits his players and then molds his team. And Brophy molds the old-school way. He is demands perfection to the point of being abusive. He verbally prods his players with the ferocity of Woody Hayes and Bobby Knight combined.
His championship teams responded by peaking in the playoffs.
Not so his last three teams, which wilted at the end, a turn of events Brophy said ``is my responsibility.''
``We prepared them the best that we could,'' he said. ``But it wasn't enough. We know that. We know we've got to do better.''
That's the theme of this season for the Admirals - they must do better, for another one-round-and-out finish is something they can't afford.
Hampton Roads is a fickle sports market. It ignores losers and supports winners selectively. Just ask the Old Dominion basketball team, which wins consistently in front of empty seats.
Admirals season-ticket sales were down slightly this season. Most of those who canceled lost their jobs to military downsizing, so the team remains unconcerned.
But will the decline accelerate with another first-round loss? Nobody knows, nor does Brophy care to find out.
That makes this a ``must-win'' season, one in which the Admirals must regain their playoff form of old.
And their swagger. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
John Brophy: ``Something is wrong when you can't get past the first
round. That should not happen here.''
by CNB