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Post by IceCat on Feb 8, 2016 22:52:36 GMT
This past Friday in Kalamazoo, MI, the East Coast Hockey League board of governors unanimously approved a proposal for an expansion team in Worcester from a group led by local businessman Cliff Rucker. It is slated to begin play in October of 2017.
Why the long lead time, you ask? Back in 1994 Roy Boe launched the Worcester IceCats less than six months after the AHL approved the creation of the franchise, barely enough time to assemble an office staff, promote the team and through the pluck and guile of head coach Jimmy Roberts (who passed away last year) cobble together a roster since they weren't able to secure an NHL affiliation. This time around Mr. Rucker wants a whole year to get everything lined up since he says he's in this for the long haul and to eventually bring a championship to Worcester.
They've scheduled a Fan Fest for 3 April at the DCU Center, where they're expected to announce the team's nickname, logo and mascot as possibly an NHL affiliation as well. In case you're wondering they likely won't be called the IceCats since someone still holds the copyright on that name.
buff.ly/20FmOH4
worcestermag.com/2016/02/08/its-official-pro-hockey-returns-to-worcester/40260
worcesterprohockey.com/
@woohockeyhc
Kevin |
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Post by IceCat on Apr 5, 2016 7:59:09 GMT
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Post by mr3putt on Apr 5, 2016 19:36:03 GMT
That's a nice looking logo...why Railers?
Is this a farm team?...wiki told me nothing.
Canada s*cks....not one Cdn team in the playoff to "OUR" game....LMAO.
What's even more sad are all the losers who spend big bucks to watch the Canucks live and I have a friend who moved back to Ontario who watches all the Canucks games....yes he'a a loser too and I bug him many times about it.
I've been to enough Canucks games...but always via corporate tickets...no way I'm putting my hand in my pocket for those fools.
I love football...but I can get in cheap via scalped tickets.
My friend and I are from Hamilton and when possible .....go watch when the Ti-cats were in town.
We got in for $15/each last fall...I'm the one that peeled down the scalper.
I was mad I paid FV for practice tickets to the 2015 USO....with exchange rate and adm fees we paid $75/each.
On Craigslist here...within 2 weeks of the event....people were dumping practice tickets for $30....I think many were selling their practice rds from their weekly pass packages.
I'd love to go to Fenway....but likely not cheap from scalpers...everyone wants to go to Fenway.
I have no desire to see the CHEATIN Parriots.
12th Man Baby!!
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Post by philknj on Apr 5, 2016 23:54:47 GMT
Railers - apparently, a lot of trains used to pass through Worcester way way back: www.dcucenter.com/about-dcu-center/backstage-blog/introducing-the-worcester-railers-hc/I was in Worcester once...from my photo albums, I'm able to reconstruct a hockey/skiing road trip I did with a friend: 11/30/1994 - Drove to the Worcester Centrum to see the Icecats host the Cornwall Aces (Quebec farm team). Garth Snow was one of Cornwall's goalies. The partial-season NHL lockout was still in place and I got a pic of St. Louis Blues coach Mike Keenan in the stands (I think Worcester was their farm team back then). Took long drive to motel in Brattleboro, VT later that evening. 12/1/1994 - Ski day at Mt. Snow, VT 12/2/1994 - Stopped in Springfield, MA and checked out the Basketball HOF (cost $7 to get in). Later, we hit the Civic Center to watch the Springfield Falcons take on the Portland Pirates. Portland was the Washington Caps farm team; their roster included goalie Jim Carey (who stopped a penalty shot that night) and Wendel Clark's brother Kerry (never made it to the NHL). Checked in to a dumpy motel in West Springfield afterward. 12/3/1994 - Before going home, we watched part of college game, as Western New England College hosted U. of Southern Maine. It was free admission...they played at a public rink across the parking lot from our motel.
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Post by mr3putt on Apr 6, 2016 0:12:32 GMT
Checked in to a dumpy motel in West Springfield afterward. Really?....I'm shocked. I'm surprised how much of a hockey fanboy you are. |
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Post by IceCat on Apr 6, 2016 8:25:05 GMT
Red Sox games aren't all sellouts anymore, although on weekends and certain marquee games tickets are hard to come by. They have now tiered pricing depending on the date, with the highest prices for opening day, all games against the Yankees and certain other key games during the season.
Contrary to Phil's assertions the IceCats weren't affiliated with anyone their first season ('94-95) and finished DFL as a result, but St Louis would become their parent club the following year and took over the team outright during the 2000-2001 season when original owner Roy Boe (1929-2009) sold the team and started over the following season with the founding of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
The IceCats would be among the last teams in AHL history to operate without an NHL affiliation as the league later passed a bylaw mandating that its member franchises have one. As the AHL is the "AAA" level minor league many of its teams are now owned outright by their NHL parent clubs. The wholesale relocation of several teams, including the former Worcester Sharks, to form a Pacific Division this season was out of a desire for the western-based NHL teams to have their top prospects close by in case they needed to call up someone.
The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League but known simply by its initials since absorbing the former West Coast Hockey League in 2003) has no firm requirement for its franchises to have an NHL affiliation but since they bill themselves as the "AA" level minor league they strongly encourage their teams to have one and this season all but three of the 28 teams do. No affiliation has yet been established for the Railers as they don't begin play until October 2017; FWIW the Boston Bruins' current affiliation with the Atlanta Gladiators (formerly the Gwinnett Gladiators although they still play in suburban Gwinnett County) will expire before then.
Kevin
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Post by IceCat on Apr 20, 2016 10:28:22 GMT
A long and storied history of AHL hockey in the Commonwealth's third largest city will likely come to an end. The Arizona Coyotes recently acquired their farm team in Springfield with the intention of relocating it to Tucson, both subject to league approval which is ironic given that the AHL headquarters are just a few blocks away from the team's current home rink, the Mass Mutual Center. Aside from a short hiatus in the early '50s there has been an AHL team in Western Massachusetts since the league's inception in 1936. The Falcons date from 1994 when they were created as an expansion team to replace the Indians, who were acquired by Roy Boe and became the Worcester IceCats.
www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/04/springfield_falcons_to_be_sold.html
Kevin
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Post by IceCat on May 5, 2016 6:08:42 GMT
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Post by IceCat on Sept 15, 2016 5:41:27 GMT
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Post by IceCat on Oct 15, 2017 7:38:53 GMT
Any doubts now about Worcester being a hockey town? 12,135 turned up for opening night on Saturday as the Railers began their inaugural season in the ECHL with a come from behind 4-3 win over the team who will figure to be their arch rivals, the Manchester Monarchs. It was the biggest Worcester hockey crowd since the IceCats drew 12,186 for a game against Providence in February 2000.
Like most mid sized arenas hosting minor league teams the DCU Center ('nee Centrum) has curtains drawn down in front of the upper levels most of the time and sells tickets for only what's in front of them, making it more intimate at just around 6,800 or so. For this game they brought the curtains up, dusted off the upper level seats and nearly sold out the building. As the AA affiliate of the Islanders the prospects for this team are unclear but hopefully the city's enthusiasm will be sustained for the entire season.
Kevin
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Post by philknj on Oct 15, 2017 13:08:50 GMT
My hockey road trip days are long gone. I don't follow the game at all, but I was curious to see what cities had AHL and ECHL teams these days, so I checked their websites. Wow, no teams in New Haven, Albany, Trenton, and Baltimore...and Albany & Trenton have modern arenas.
First minor league game I went to was at the New Haven Coliseum in Jan. 1991, Springfield Indians at New Haven Nighthawks (AHL). Springfield was minor league team of the Hartford Whalers, while New Haven was affiliated with the LA Kings. I'm guessing the building was 1/2 full at the most and a few rows away from me were four to six leather lungs who shouted all night the most outrageous s*** I ever heard at a sports event. They really got all over Yvon Corriveau and Marc Bergevin of Springfield because they had been demoted from NHL. They even took aim at the New Haven coaches, Nick Fotiu (head coach) and Pat Hickey (assistant): "NICKY AND HICKEY: THE FREAK AND THE GEEK!!!" About eight years later, I saw another game there...the team had the dumb name Beast of New Haven. I also saw the New Haven Knights about three years later which was part of the defunct United Hockey League.
I was not aware that the Coliseum was considered a dump by the locals...I went there by rail for night games, so it wasn't that noticeable to me. It was imploded ten years ago:
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Post by IceCat on Oct 15, 2017 17:43:04 GMT
Albany's absence from the world of pro hockey is fairly recent and is boiled down to two facts: A.) The Ottawa Senators' desire to have their prospects a little closer to home and on their side of the border, meaning their team is now the Belleville rather that the Binghamton Senators, and B.) the abysmal attendance in Albany in recent years, prompting the New Jersey Devils to move their team to Binghamton. Some more rounds of musical chairs will be orchestrated before the start of next season, when Portland reenters pro hockey with an ECHL team. The reigning ECHL champion Colorado Eagles, based in Loveland, will move to the AHL next season as their 31st team (the Railers play them out there in a week and a half) and become the Avalanche's AAA team. The San Antonio Rampage currently are the AHL farm team of both the Avs and the St Louis Blues after the Vegas Golden Knights chose to align with the Blues' former affiliate the Chicago Wolves, but from next season San Antonio will be solely St Louis' AAA team.
I tend to agree that the old New Haven Coliseum was a dump by the time I finally got to see hockey played in it, which was when The Beast played there. With Bridgeport's newer facility its days were numbered as a viable venue.
Kevin
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Post by don on Oct 16, 2017 3:49:59 GMT
The fact that there are goon league hockey threads on here solidifies this as one of the great niche sports websites.
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Post by philknj on Oct 16, 2017 15:57:15 GMT
If you expand the definition of "minor league", then the first game I attended was a WHA exhibition game at South Mountain Arena (with chain link fencing behind each goal) on 9/30/1973 where the New York Golden Blades played the Los Angeles Sharks. Maybe the tickets were a fringe benefit from attending a weekly hockey clinic there as a kid. Upon entering the building, they handed out a typed piece of paper listing the rosters, which I kept for a long time...it may be buried at my parents' house. The only player I remember was a gray-haired NY defenseman...who was this old geezer, I thought. It was Harry Howell, who played 21 years in the NHL before jumping leagues. I don't remember what the skates of New York team looked like, but I found this pic to confirm that they really did wear white skates with golden blades (see #17):  The Golden Blades were run out of Madison Square Garden several weeks later and played the rest of the season as the Jersey Knights at the Cherry Hill Arena (demolished in the '80s). I never went to CHA, but that building's awfulness is legendary...tilted and humped ice, no dressing room for the visiting team, a press box with a four-foot high ceiling, etc. Under new ownership, Harry Howell became player-coach and ordered the skates painted black:  |
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