ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 hockey TAG: 9702250035
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
THE EXPRESS FORWARD has had a rough 1 1/2 seasons, but it hasn't adversely affected his play.
Had the folks behind the recent spate of disaster movies now showing on big and small screens decided to use the sport of hockey as subject matter, Wayne Strachan could have been the pivotal character.
He played for a minor-league hockey team more volatile than ``Dante's Peak,'' suffered an injury that nearly did to his career what that TV movie ``Asteroid'' gruesomely did to the Earth and withstood a trade and a demotion that shook his world like an earthquake.
The tremors and aftershocks seem to have subsided, now that he is on solid footing with the Roanoke Express. Strachan is the first person to acknowledge there are other locales where he would rather be plying his hockey skills, but after everything he's been through in the past 1 1/2 seasons, he's happy just to be playing.
``I've finally settled down, physically and mentally,'' said Strachan, a 24-year-old center from Fort Francis, Ontario.
The entire season has been like a rebuilding effort for Strachan, who has spent time with four teams since October. He began the season with the International Hockey League's Long Beach (Calif.) Ice Dogs, then missed nearly a month with an injury before being traded to the IHL's Manitoba Moose.
Strachan (pronounced ``STRAHN'') spent some conditioning time with the Thunder Bay Senators of the Colonial League before Manitoba sent him to the Express in late December.
The trade and the injury robbed him of a chance to continue what he started as a rookie last season, when the 5-foot-11, 185-pounder had 19 goals and 30 assists for the Ice Dogs, who were then playing in Los Angeles and drowning in red ink.
``I was definitely disappointed about getting sent down,'' Strachan said. ``I didn't have a lot of confidence at the time. I didn't really understand why I was sent down. Manitoba didn't give me a chance to prove myself. You always have to think when you get sent down, `Am I going to get back up there?'''
Strachan has made a case for another shot in a higher league while with the Express, for whom he is averaging more than a point per game. Through Thursday, he had 11 goals and nine assists in 17 games for Roanoke.
He's probably lucky to be playing at all, considering the October injury. He sustained a skate cut less than an inch above his left Achilles' tendon. The gash required 11 stitches, five of them underneath his skin.
``If it had been any lower ...,'' he said, letting the sentence trail off with the implication that a severed Achilles' tendon could have spelled the end of his playing days.
Neither his career nor his season ended. The same was true last season, when the debt-ridden Ice Dogs were in danger of folding before being rescued by new owners. One publication reported the franchise was as much as $8 million in debt and was in danger of not completing its schedule. A competitive squad was broken up, with veteran players being dealt to save money.
``Most of the older guys who had families were really worried,'' Strachan said. ``They didn't know if we were going to get a paycheck. There was a time in late November, we heard through other teams, that some teams weren't making arrangements to come to LA. They were saying, `They might be folding.'''
The Dog days continued for Strachan under the new ownership. This season, the team changed its name, but not its address (the Long Beach Ice Dogs still play at the LA Sports Arena). Strachan has changed his address more often than a criminal on the lam.
Whether or not he'll continue receiving his mail and his paycheck in Roanoke the rest of the season is unknown, as is the question of whether or not the front-office shake-up in Manitoba that left head coach and general manager Jean Perron out of a job will affect Strachan's status.
``I'm just looking at the overall picture,'' Strachan said. ``If I don't get the chance to go back up, I'll do my best here and try to help this team win. ... I think we have a good team, a lot of depth and good goaltending. I think we can go a long way.''
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS STAFF. Wayne Strachan skates pastby CNBthe Roanoke bench as Express teammates help him celebrate one of the
11 goals he had scored through Thursday.