ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210091
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
AFTER RETIRING twice, Jeff Jablonski is enjoying himself this season with the Roanoke Express.
It took two attempts at retirement for Jeff Jablonski to realize something that had eluded him during his time as a professional hockey player.
Jablonski realized he actually enjoyed playing the game.
It was a revelation to Jablonski, even though he was a fellow who had played for a collegiate national champion, who had been an NHL draft pick and who had become one of the finest all-around players in the East Coast Hockey League.
Yet, he was unfulfilled as a player, perhaps because his early success prepared him for opportunities that ultimately never materialized. He retired, attempted a successful - albeit abbreviated - comeback to the ECHL, then retired again. Seemingly for good.
``My attitude before was that the game owed me something,'' he said. ``It really didn't.''
He discovered he owed it to himself to continue doing something he loved, which meant asking for another chance to play hockey for a living. He called Roanoke Express coach Frank Anzalone, who coached Jablonski at Lake Superior State in the 1980s, and asked if he had any interest in a left wing who was working as a door-to-door salesman.
That was in the spring of 1995. Tonight, Jablonski will represent the Express at the ECHL All-Star Game in Charlotte, N.C., a distinction that comes during what is turning out to be the best season of his six-year pro career.
Through 38 games, Jab-lonski leads the Express with 25 goals and 52 points. He's on pace to score more than the career-high 39 goals he had during the 1995-96 season.
All this three years after he decided to chuck it all and sell business directories in Marinette, Wis. He first decided to quit in 1993, but was coaxed out of retirement to help the Raleigh IceCaps reach the ECHL's Riley Cup finals. Still, the game wasn't fun anymore. It was a chore slogging to the rink every day.
``There was some disappointment there,'' said Jablonski, 29. ``I thought my career would go a little differently. It became more like a job.''
It hadn't always been that way. It wasn't when he was the New York Islanders' 11th pick in the 1986 NHL draft, and it wasn't two years later when he was part of Lake Superior State's NCAA Division I championship team. In those days, playing hockey was a blast for a guy who scored 78 goals in four seasons for the Lakers, including 38 in 1989-90.
It appeared things would only get better when he signed with the Islanders and was assigned to their American Hockey League affiliate of Capital District in Troy, N.Y.
Then it all changed.
By 1991, he was in the ECHL with Anzalone at Nashville. A year later, he returned home to Toledo and helped guide the Storm to the ECHL championship by scoring 36 goals.
However, it seemed his career was going in the wrong direction. At the same time, his twin brother, Pat, was advancing all the way to the NHL as a goaltender.
``I was always happy for Pat,'' said Jablonski, who talks to the Montreal Canadiens goalie almost every week. ``But deep down, it kind of made my situation seem worse. He made it. I didn't.''
So, Jeff Jablonski packed up his gear, left hockey behind and skated on to the rest of his life. Then, when he went to work for a living, he realized what he was missing.
When his very first business call ended with a potential buyer cursing at him and telling him to leave the premises, Jablonski knew he wanted to get back into a line of work where he could bodycheck anybody who gave him any lip.
That would be fun.
``I called Frank and told him I was thinking about coming back,'' he said.
After initially questioning whether or not his former pupil was making the right decision, Anzalone welcomed Jablonski back to the game.
``Jeff Jablonski stands for everything that the Roanoke Express is about and everything that I'm about,'' Anzalone said. ``The guy was a great Laker. He knows how to play the game, and he wants to win.''
Despite scoring 39 goals, Jablonski felt he was inconsistent in 1995-96. This season, he's in better shape physically and mentally. Hockey is fun again, as is life in general, especially since wife Kim gave birth to a daughter, Jordyn, the couple's first child, during the past summer.
``All my focus is on my wife and daughter,'' Jablonski said. ``There's more to life than missing that goal or backcheck. I don't worry about any of that. I've got diapers to change and a baby to feed.''
And goals to score.
``I'm having fun,'' he said. ``It's fun going to the rink. I don't like having days off. It's fun to play again.''
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: File/1996. Express left wing Jeff Jablonski willby CNBparticipate in the ECHL All-Star Game tonight in Charlotte, N.C.
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