wballou@telegram.com
In the American Hockey League's Dark Ages, and we don't mean when the DCU Center lights went on low beam last Friday afternoon, most goalies had their faces torn to pieces, the guy who sharpened your skates also tended to your wounds, and players didn't make nearly as much money as they deserved.
And, back in the Dark Ages, the home team won most of the games, a piece of ancient history that the modern AHL would not mind recapturing.
Sharks fans know only too well the myth that home-ice advantage has become. Worcester just finished a six-game homestand in which it earned three lousy points out of a possible 12. The Sharks played well enough to win in at least two of those losses, but that has been a common lament across the league so far this season.
According to figures compiled by the AHL, road teams have a points percentage of 60.6. Wilkes-Barre has won 12 straight road games, and Milwaukee, going back to last season, has gotten at least one point in 22 straight road games.
Contrast that with the dubious record set by my first AHL team, the Providence Reds, who in the middle of the 1960s went 67 consecutive road games without winning one.
What's going on with this new home-ice disadvantage, anyway?
Sharks general manager Wayne Thomas' career didn't exactly extend back to the AHL's Dark Ages — he wore a mask, after all — but he does remember the days when winning on the road was a chore.
“It does seem like there isn't much of an advantage with home ice anymore,” Thomas said, “and in the playoffs, I don't think it matters at all.”
That's the ultimate Alice in Wonderland effect. Teams battle all season to not just make the playoffs, but finish high enough in the standing to get a home-ice advantage that actually winds up working against them.
There are lots of theories as to why the home-ice advantage has disappeared.
“These days, I think, every rink is the same size, except for maybe Binghamton,” Thomas said, meaning size of ice surface, not seating capacity. In the Dark Ages, rinks varied greatly in width and length and teams tailored their lineups to their home ice, sort of the way the Red Sox like to build a team that will hit well at Fenway Park.
There are intangibles, too.
“All the rinks have glass now,” Thomas said, “and back in the day, you'd go into rinks that had chicken wire — I'm not sure how many even know what chicken wire is now. So the fans were right there, and you could hear everything they were yelling at you through the chicken wire, and some of it could be very, umm, distracting.”
Locker rooms could be primitive, adding to the visiting team's discomfort. There were not league regulations on length of games, etc, and Thomas remembers that in Springfield, intermissions used to last between 20 and 25 minutes so that the home team could sell more beer.
In Providence, the old Rhode Island Auditorium had a couple of unique features, one for fans and one for players. The doors to the benches opened out, not in, and in a similar vein, the place had coin-operated toilets for which you got into for free, but had to pay to get out of.
Down there, visiting teams often had to do more than just outplay the guys in hockey uniforms.
“One night in the 1970-71 season,” Thomas recalled, “a brawl got started, and both our trainer and equipment manager wound up getting arrested and thrown in jail.”
Drive around New England for AHL hockey these days, and all the rinks essentially look alike, save for 1970s rectangle of the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, where the Pirates — maybe not coincidentally — have always been very tough to beat. These arenas are clean and comfortable, with spiffy glass above the boards and hot water coming out of the shower heads in the visitors' dressing room.
AHL teams have found out how to treat their guests right. Now all they have to do is figure out a way to make them lose more often.
AHL pop quiz
Questions.
1. Including only regular-season games, have the Sharks had Jamie Koharski or Terry Koharski more often as a referee?
2. What longtime Sharks nemesis set an AHL record last season by playing in 85 games?
3. Which Sharks player has been picked as the No. 1 star of a game more than any other?
Let 'em walk
Pet peeves, in case anyone is interested:
•Who cares if fans walk down the aisles while play is going on? It's a hockey game, not Holy Communion.
•When the Sharks are playing a day game at the DCU Center, why do the people who work the microphones for in-game announcements and entertainment insist on saying “tonight”?
•There was a lot of positive reaction to Patrick Stephan's rendition of the national anthem Saturday night, and one fan put it best in an email, saying how he hates it when some singers perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” like it's an “American Idol” audition.
Turnaround in Albany
Ben Street of Wilkes-Barre is Player of the Week. He went 2-6-8 and was plus-5 in three games. … Remember how bad Albany looked when it was at the DCU Center early in the season in a 6-1 loss to the Sharks? The Devils have regrouped and are in first place in the Northeast Division. They are 7-1-2 in their last 10 games. … Providence goalie Anton Khudobin and Sharks forward John McCarthy have at least one thing in common — both are better at their positions than many players presently in the National Hockey League. … Neutral-ice advantage? Hamilton beat Binghamton, 5-2, in Ottawa Sunday. The teams were playing the first half of their series in the buildings of its NHL affiliate. The Bulldogs play as home team in Montreal tomorrow night. … Phil McRae had three goals, including two in the final 1:12 of regulation, in Peoria's wild, 7-6 overtime victory over Rockford Friday. Former Shark Jonathan Cheechoo had two assists in the game for the Rivermen, and original Shark Brennan Evans racked up six penalty minutes for Peoria.
Quiz answers
1. Terry Koharski. He has worked, either alone or in tandem, 46 Sharks games through the years. Jamie has done 36.
2. Dane Byers. He played in 16 games for Connecticut, 48 for Springfield and 21 for San Antonio last season.
3. Thomas Greiss. The Sharks' all-time leader in most goaltending categories earned 15 No. 1 selections during his career in Worcester.
Catching up with …
Playing on the best IceCats team ever and being a descendant of Dutch master Rembrandt were two of the notable things about defenseman Mike Van Ryn.
Van Ryn was a rookie on the 2000-01 IceCats, who had the best regular-season record in the AHL. He played parts of two other seasons in Worcester and finally settled into an NHL career with the Florida Panthers. His playing days are over, cut short by a knee injury.
He is back in the AHL, this time as an assistant coach with the Houston Aeros.
“I knew when I stopped playing,” Van Ryn said, “that I wanted to stay in hockey, maybe in scouting or player development. And last year I got a chance to work with the defensemen at Niagara (of the OHL), and enjoyed it.”
In Houston, Van Ryn is working with coach John Torchetti, whom he played for in Florida. He is only 11 years removed from being a rookie in Worcester.
“I really liked it there,” Van Ryn remembered. “The fans were great to me, and I lived out in Marlboro, and used to look out the back window and watch the wild turkeys walk through my backyard.”
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