Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 17, 1993 TAG: 9310170020
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Conductor Frank Anzalone has only one warning for those onboard.
"I just hope everybody - the owners, the fans, the players - all remember that this is an expansion team," the Express coach said. "At times, it may be a smooth ride. At other times, it's going to be a bumpy ride."
Anzalone is simply being Frank.
"I'm not trying to dim the enthusiasm of anyone," he said. "But people need to understand that we started with nothing. This is truly an expansion team."
Anzalone pointed out that the Roanoke expansion effort is being looked at differently than new franchises in Charlotte, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; and Huntington, W.Va.
"People should at least understand this is a new franchise and we're going to have to support it in that manner," Anzalone said. "But that's a lot easier to ask right now in Huntington, South Carolina and Charlotte. I almost don't want to ask the people here because Roanoke hockey has been here. They look at this as Roanoke hockey, and it's been down for years.
"They have to understand that this is Roanoke hockey new. I can understand why that's difficult for the fans. The problem is there was a team here called Roanoke. It wasn't the Vinton Jets. I've had people ask me, `Where are the Roanoke players from last year?' They don't understand that that Roanoke team is now down in Huntsville, Ala."
That team, the Roanoke Valley Rampage, won a league-record-low 14 games last season before owner Larry Revo moved the franchise to Huntsville.
Considering the barriers he faced - being affiliated with a first-year club and with Roanoke's well-publicized inglorious hockey past - Anzalone appears to have done a creditable job of recruiting players. The Express has some people who can play the game, which is saying something for an expansion outfit.
"All told, we have the makings of a competitive team, maybe even more competitive than we originally expected," Anzalone said. "No question, we're much better off right now than I thought we might be. We're not a bad team right now. We could go to battle right now and be competitive.
"The down side to that is when people see A [competitiveness], they want B [wins]. You can't get B until you've totally gotten through A. Right now, the thing for us is to get a level of consistency and build slowly. We're not going to make leaps and bounds that quickly. It's going to have to be baby steps."
Anzalone said the Express has two or three main areas in which to improve.
"At least it's not seven or eight areas like it could have been," he said. "We have some holes to fill, . . . we need to build upon a few areas like our power play and our defensemen moving the puck, whether that be improving a player we have or finding a player we need."
Anzalone has built the club around his early signing of three highly touted Russians - veterans Oleg Yashin and Lev Berdichevsky and youngster Ilja Dubkov. Another foreigner, Ladislav Svoboda of Czechoslovakia, is the other scorer in a young and primarily untested front line.
Forward Dave Morissette, the club's first pick from Hampton Roads in the June ECHL dispersal draft, and defenseman Darin Srochenski are being counted on to supply the muscle.
Defensively, Anzalone says the club is above average for a first-year outfit. The last line of defense - goaltender - figures to be the club's early strength, with San Jose farmhands Dan Ryder and Bryan Schoen battling two other goalies for the two spots.
"I don't think we can whip right through this league," Anzalone said. "If we're the best team in the league, then that's terrific. But it really shouldn't be that way. Even the Edmonton Oilers, with [Wayne] Gretzky and [Mark] Messier in the first year or two, didn't make the playoffs once.
"The truest saying of all was that Rome wasn't built in a day. Just give us some time, that's all I ask."
by CNB