Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 20, 1991 TAG: 9103200182
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A week after his team had packed up its hockey sticks for the season, the Roanoke Valley Rebels' coach says he's still hurting.
"It's going to take me a while to get over this," Noel said. "Everybody wants to be successful in whatever they do. And, let's face it, we weren't very successful."
The roller-coaster Rebels finished the 1990-91 East Coast Hockey League season with a huge dive, losing 22 of their final 32 games and failing to make the playoffs.
Roanoke Valley, which led the ECHL's Eastern Division at midseason with a 16-13-3 record, limped home at 26-31-7. The Rebels were one of only three teams failing to qualify for the eight-team playoff format.
What went wrong? Plenty, the first-year coach said.
Although a rash of injuries to key performers and the midseason American Hockey League call-up of his best player, center Paul Willett, provided him with legitimate alibis, Noel also pointed a finger at himself for the Rebels' quick trip south in the standings.
"As I look back and evaluate the year, I see some areas where I should have made some changes," Noel said. "There were some changes made that weren't possibly with the right people. But hindsight is always 20-20, I guess.
"Sure, all the injuries hampered us. But the ability to improve throughout the year is one big fault. We were improving when I had Willett and [Peter] Kasowski. Then, Willett got called up, Kasowski got hurt and I ended up picking up guys on waivers from clubs even worse off than we were.
"You just can't replace guys like that with bottom people. I was always searching to find a Band-Aid and Band-Aids don't do it."
Noel, whose system started with defense, said his other big mistake was not stocking his roster with enough offensive-minded players. The Rebels averaged a league-low 3.40 goals per game.
"For the first couple months, our defense was good and things were working," he said. "We didn't have a high-scoring team, but we still won games with good, defensive hockey.
"Looking back, I don't think you can do that for 64 games at this level of hockey. The inability to score goals just kills you eventually. I look at the league and see everybody is able to score goals. The ability to score dictates whether you win or lose.
"Basically, I had only one line all year that could score, and it killed us."
Noel said his first season behind an ECHL bench taught him plenty of lessons.
"I learned an unbelievable amount this year about the league, the players and the style of play. If I were able to start over again tomorrow, I would do some things differently. There's no way we can't say we didn't make some mistakes. Look at our record and you can tell some mistakes were made," he said.
Noel, 35, who was hired by Rebels owner Henry Brabham on a handshake deal last July, said he will sit down with Brabham soon and discuss the future. Brabham said last week that he felt Noel "had worked hard and done a good job."
"I really don't know what's going to happen," said Noel, who is taking his family back to its North Bay, Ontario, home at the end of April.
"Right now, I've got a lot of decisions to make. I'd like to continue coaching," he said, "but there's a lot of things that will have to discussed first."
\ Advice to those teams yearning for an ECHL championship: Don't dare win the regular-season title.
When Louisville completed a startling first-round sweep of Knoxville on Sunday, it marked the third straight season the league's regular-season champion has failed to win the playoffs.
After racking up a record 377 goals en route to a 46-13-5 regular-season record, the Cherokees scored only eight goals in three straight one-goal losses to Louisville.
\ As expected, Knoxville dominated the 1990-91 ECHL All-Star team selections.
Right wing Stan Drulia, center Dan Gauthier, defenseman Jeff Lindsay and goaltender Dean Anderson took four of the six first-team positions in balloting among league coaches and media representatives. Hampton Roads left wing Brian Martin and Nashville defenseman Brett McDonald rounded out the first squad.
The second team included Cincinnati goalie Wayne Cowley, Knoxville left wing Troy Mick, Hampton Roads center Murray Hood, Louisville right wing Sheldon Gorski, Richmond defenseman Tom Searle and Erie defenseman Ryan Kummu.
Don Jackson, who turned around a Knoxville franchise that won only 21 games and finished last in 1989-90, was selected ECHL coach of the year.
\ ICE CHIPS: Drulia and Gauthier finished 1-2 in the scoring race with 140 and 134 points, respectively. Drulia's and Gauthier's offensive numbers were the second- and third-highest in the ECHL's three-year history, ranking behind Erie's Bill McDougall, who scored 148 points in 1989-90. In all, a record six players broke the 100-points barrier this season. . . . Anderson's four shutouts set a league record. . . . Erie enforcer Greg Spenrath had a league-record 429 penalty minutes. The previous mark was 365 minutes, set by Johnstown's Brock Kelly in '88-89. . . . The Rebels' booster club selected goaltender Bill Horn the club's most valuable player, forward Brian Bellefeuille was chosen the team's most improved player and forward Marco Fuster was voted the squad's unsung hero.
by CNB