OT: Remembering the Icecaps and other ECHL teams of the 90's

[HisIceness]

Curious how many of you were around for the days of the Icecaps (1991-98 I think). Would love to hear stories, funny moments, whatever, about the franchise.

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[Navin R Slavin]

Remember that time when Lyle Wildgoose killed a guy?

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I wasn't around for the Ice-Caps, but a few years ago, I had a few beers with an ex-Ice Caps player in a bar up in NY. He claimed that he once bit the tip of a guys nose off in a fight back in the day. Seemed a bit far fetched to me. He played with a few other ECHL teams so wasn't sure if he was saying he did this with the IceCaps or with another team.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I wasn't around for the Ice-Caps, but a few years ago, I had a few beers with an ex-Ice Caps player in a bar up in NY. He claimed that he once bit the tip of a guys nose off in a fight back in the day. Seemed a bit far fetched to me. He played with a few other ECHL teams so wasn't sure if he was saying he did this with the IceCaps or with another team.

My money is on Barry Nieckar.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

i went there

i remember it being foggy because dorton arena wasn't really setup for hockey at all

also the zamboni had no hubcaps and it freaked me out when i was little

 

[sheriff bart]

I saw several IceCaps games at Dorton Arena. Fun times. Players would get tossed for fighting, and a little while later, they'd be back on the bench.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Sometimes Dorton smelled like pig ****, which is why our current mascot is a giant pig.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Also: the best hockey heckler I ever saw was at Dorton. Little dude who looked like an accountant and had a booming voice. Sat near the visiting bench. Would just pick out a dude on the other team, figure out his emotional weakness, and then go after him as viciously as he possibly could.

Most memorable: in the playoffs, one of the guys on the other team was getting roughed up. He wasn't a big guy and seemed to be getting pushed off the puck a lot. Heckler Dude waited until Player-Dude was near him on the bench, and then said, in a voice that was both loud and matter of fact "hey $PLAYER-DUDE, this why $AHL-COACH keeps sending you down. You're too small. You. Will. Never. Make. It."

Player-Dude turned around and looked dead at Heckler Dude, who just stared him down for a second, and then shrugged and said "you know I'm right."

I swear to Jeebus I thought Player-Dude was gonna start crying. He looked so incredibly hurt. Crazy Jedi mind trick ****.

Good times.

 

[RodTheBawd]

I went to a few games, probably around age 12/13, and all I remember is it smelling like a barn and telling my dad "this isn't like the Spectrum".

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

I only went once or twice. The memories are very vague since I was probably 8 or 9 at the time. I can only piece that together because I remember somebody commenting on my 49ers hat, and that was the age when I thought it was cool to be a 49ers fan for some reason (even though I didn't know anything about them besides Jerry Rice).

Besides that, the only other thing I specifically remember was being introduced to the goalie chant. My parents were horrified because those were the days when "suck" bordered on a four-letter word and everyone remembered what it actually meant.

 

[A Star is Burns]

I grew up in Roanoke, Virginia. I remember seeing Raleigh and Charlotte play the Express a few times. It was a lot of fun. I hated it when the Express went away, though luckily I moved away right after that.

Oddly enough, Roanoke is getting an SPHL team next year that is owned by Brock McGinn's dad and the whole family with some local investors. I still have family in that area so I'll probably check out the team when the time comes.

 

[RodTheBawd]

I only went once or twice. The memories are very vague since I was probably 8 or 9 at the time. I can only piece that together because I remember somebody commenting on my 49ers hat, and that was the age when I thought it was cool to be a 49ers fan for some reason (even though I didn't know anything about them besides Jerry Rice).

Besides that, the only other thing I specifically remember was being introduced to the goalie chant. My parents were horrified because those were the days when "suck" bordered on a four-letter word and everyone remembered what it actually meant.

Hahaha, I had a 49ers starter jacket around the same timeframe. I was a Bears fan, but loved Young and Rice.

 

[GoldiFox]

My favorite memories of the IceCaps were every Generals and Checkers game (was one of the villains named Wheeler I think?), the furious rowing guys, and waiting down by the basement for the players to come out after the game.

Edit: The "Warm up the bus" chants at the end of big wins were also great.

 

[Guy]

Went to games in Raleigh, Richmond, and Norfolk growing up quite often. I kinda miss those rivalries tbh.

 

[PorkFlavoredTobacco]

I was present at a bar fight on the night the Ice Caps shut it down in Raleigh. It was at an upstairs bar on Hillsborough. (The bar downstairs was the Wolf's Den or something like that. Upstairs was the 5-0.) Bunch of players blowing off steam got into it with a group of regulars. Fun times.

 

[HisIceness]

This just screams 90's.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I knew them as a road team in Charlotte. Aside from one good season, they were known mostly as the cellar-dweller team in the division. A soft team in an extremely rough league. But they had cool jerseys in the 90s-Stars template.

Wildgoose is of course one of the most memorable players in the 90s ECHL. Other than him -- cameos by Jason Karmanos and Trevor Jobe, who had a remarkable journeyman's career and was one of the league's "star" players. The aptly-named Spencer Meany. Bill Horn in net... their goalies were always terrible. Of course, being known for playing in Dorton Arena which was like trying to maintain an ice rink inside a greenhouse.

It was sad when they left. That was pretty much the end of the ECHL as a super-fun league for this region. Greensboro leaving in '96 was the canary in the mineshaft, and then by the time the Caps left '97 the old East Division had been split into two groups that just didn't hate each other the same way. From a Charlotte perspective it just wasn't as fun after that, playing against teams from SC and Florida instead of the rough old established rivalries of NC and Virginia.

I grew up in Roanoke, Virginia. I remember seeing Raleigh and Charlotte play the Express a few times. It was a lot of fun. I hated it when the Express went away, though luckily I moved away right after that.

Roanoke had great fans. I know their attendance slipped toward the end, but still. Like the other teams in that division, they had such vivid characters on the team and I got to be online friends with several Express fans back in the listserv era. I felt genuinely sad when I saw that they had been moved.

My favorite memories of the IceCaps were every Generals and Checkers game (was one of the villains named Wheeler I think?),

Shawn Wheeler, one of the only black players in minor league hockey at the time. And he played a power forward game that attracted a lot of attention. He eventually became the Checkers' coach after John Marks left.

Other big personalities involved in that division:
Charlotte - Howie Rosenblatt, Phil Berger, Nick Vitucci, Dennis Maxwell, Darryl Noren
Greensboro - Wheeler/Berger/Rosenblatt, Dean Zayonce, Davis Payne, Petr Skudra
Hampton Roads - Wheeler/Berger, "Rocket" Rod Taylor, Brian Goudie, Aaron Downie
Richmond - Scott Gruhl, Shawn Snesar, Trevor Senn, Roy Sommer, Tripp Tracy
Roanoke - Daniel Berthiaume, Jason Clarke, Tony Szabo, Jeff Jablonski, Dave Stewart
South Carolina - Brett Marietti, Marc Tardif, Ed Courtenay, Rob Concannon

Even the coaches... Brophy, Vaive, Anzalone, Brubaker, Marks, Kleinendorst. They were as colorful and as important as the players on the ice. I think Kleinendorst was the only one I never saw get involved in an altercation.

I'm getting carried away, but this is probably what it's like for people who think back on the O6 NHL. There's such a difference between that atmosphere and the monotony of an NHL season.

 

[Bub]

Oh man, tarheel, lots of memories in that post.

I had Renegades season tix for their first five or so years. The 'E' back then was so much fun, and not just because of the potential for full-on goonery. Your team could look like all-stars one night and like an overmatched junior team the next.

Funny you mentioned Trevor Jobe: he was the first guy I ever saw literally play his way off of a club. He was on his usual ridiculous scoring pace for Richmond when all of a sudden he just stopped. As in, you could tell he just wasn't trying. He stopped skating after pucks, couldn't receive a pass, looked like he gave zero Fs...and got traded a couple games later. Rumor had it he wanted to go back to where his girlfriend lived, in Nashville.

Ah, good times.

 

[mattyace9]

I was just a little guy when I went, so maybe 3 or 4, but I vividly remember Dorton Arena with a hockey rink inside of it. It was my first professional hockey game, how could I forget?

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I took a Canadian friend of mine to a Caps/Rebs game. This was when Roanoke was sporting a maple leaf with the Confederate battle flag on top. I thought my buddy was going to have an aneurysm.

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

I took a Canadian friend of mine to a Caps/Rebs game. This was when Roanoke was sporting a maple leaf with the Confederate battle flag on top. I thought my buddy was going to have an aneurysm.

i am so happy to learn that this exists

the trolling possibilities are endless

 

[tarheelhockey]

i am so happy to learn that this exists

the trolling possibilities are endless

Bask in the glory of hillbilly hockey.

 

[Guy]

Renegades/Admirals games were always my favorite growing up, you could tell the teams and fans HATED each other. On some nights there were as many fights in the stands as there were on the ice.

I wish I had gotten to more Icecaps games growing up, but growing up on the NC/VA border Richmond was quicker to get to than Raleigh before the Knightdale bypass, so we always went there instead.

 

[Unsustainable]

Bask in the glory of hillbilly hockey.

I need this jersey in my life, the trolling ability is beyond anything we could ever imagine.

 

[tarheelhockey]

^ I just stumbled across a hidden YouTube gem: footage of a game in which these jerseys were actually worn.



I honestly can't tell whether the video is slowed down or not. If not, that's the slowest professional hockey I've ever seen.