Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 24, 1992 TAG: 9201240056
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
REBELS CONTINUE MOVES IN EFFORT TO FIND RIGHT MIX
Surprisingly, the main door leading to the Roanoke Valley Rebels' locker room remains on its hinges.Rebels coach Roy Sommer continued to boot players out the door this week, shipping forward Brian Bellefeuille and defenseman Terry Virtue to the Louisville IceHawks in exchange for forward Scott Eichstadt and defenseman Trevor Smith.
Eichstadt and Smith become players Nos. 49 and 50 on the Rebels' revolving-door roster this season.
"Believe me," Sommer said Thursday, "I didn't want to have this kind of heavy turnover. I wanted to have nice settled ship and not have to bring guys in and out. But when you're losing, I guess you have got to try anything."
Which meant getting rid of Bellefeuille and Virtue, two players who had become increasingly disgruntled the past few weeks as the Rebels' East Coast Hockey League woes mounted.
"Bellefeuille was not happy here and I wasn't happy seeing him here," Sommer said. "He had a real negative attitude and I had had enough of it.
"Virtue was a good hockey player, but he had that bad attitude, too.
"Both of these other kids [Eichstadt and Smith], at least they want to come in and play. They're going to listen and do what they're told."
Sommer said Bellefeuille and Virtue had become a cancer on a club that's already locked in sick bay.
"Especially when you're losing, those kind of guys bring other guys down with them," Sommer said. "Instead of getting together and trying to snap out of it, they're going the other way, saying gloom and doom. And I certainly don't need any of that right now."
Bellefeuille and Virtue were the Rebels' fourth- and fifth-leading scorers. Bellefeuille, a left wing, had 16 goals and 12 assists in 37 games; Virtue had three goals and 23 assists in 38 games.
The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Smith had 10 goals and 18 assists, and Eichstadt had nine goals and 11 assists in Louisville.
In other personnel news, Sommer said defenseman Mike Barlage, who left the team two weeks ago because of the death of his father, has been sent a plane ticket by the club and could return as soon as Sunday.
Also, top center Peter Kasowski, who was feared to be lost for the season because of a fractured larynx, has been given the OK to return to the lineup in another week or so.
Sommer predicted the Rebels (13-23-3) would have to win 15 of their final 25 games in order to overtake either the Knoxville Cherokees (14-22-5) or Raleigh (16-22-2) and qualify for the ECHL playoffs. Sounds like a tall order for a club that has won only one-third of its games.
"The big thing is that 15 of the 25 are at home," said Sommer, whose team is 9-7-1 at the LancerLot. "We're homers, if nothing else. On the road, though, we're just horrendous [4-16-2]."
Beginning with tonight's and Saturday night's home games against the Dayton Bombers, the Rebels play eight of their next 11 games in Vinton.
\ ICE CHIPS: Dayton's two-game visit to Vinton marks the return of coach Claude Noel to the LancerLot. Noel guided the Rebels last season before resigning in April to take the job with the expansion team. . . . Hottest team in the league? It's Raleigh, believe it or not. The IceCaps, the early season league laughingstock, have won nine of 11 games to leap from the ECHL East cellar past Roanoke Valley and Knoxville. . . . Credit public-address announcer Jeff Dickerson for one of the LancerLot's quickest moves of the season. After asking last Saturday night's near-sellout crowd to stand for the national anthem, Dickerson went into a state of frenzy when he couldn't locate his anthem tape. Seconds later, Dickerson grabbed the microphone, and despite shaking like a leaf, proceeded to sing a respectable rendition.