Trashers 'like all over again'; United league cracks down on dangerous Danbury one lifetime ban, coach among four suspended Goon show called 'disgusting' and 'ridiculous' ... and attendance is through the roof
Their owner is facing criminal assault charges after attacking a linesman. One of their players was suspended from the league for life yesterday for an ugly incident at the opponents' bench. They lead the United Hockey League in penalties, about 1,000 minutes ahead of most of the other teams.
They are hockey's brashest goon show and the first-year Danbury Trashers are apparently quite proud of the black eyes they are dishing out to opponents and bringing to their league.
And it is Trashers, not Thrashers. Their owner, James E. Galante, made his money in waste disposal.
"Right from day one, they've said they wanted to be the bad boys of hockey, the most-hated team, the Evil Empire," Adirondack coach Marc Potvin said yesterday. "It comes right from the top. That's what they've sold their fans. I think they'll find it's unwelcome in our league and it's unwelcome in any league."
Potvin got a close-up look at the Danbury's knuckle-dragging mentality on Wednesday in what he calls a "disgusting" incident when his Frostbite team paid a visit to the Connecticut club. After an on- ice brawl, one of the Danbury players - Chad Wagner, who once set a single-season record with 503 penalty minutes with San Diego in the WCHL - was being escorted off the ice when he broke away from the linesman and attacked the Adirondack bench.
Potvin was holding his players back when Wagner lunged, grabbing him and pulling him off the bench, down to the boards. Then as Wagner was pulled away, two other Danbury players bolted from the penalty box to get at the Adirondack bench.
Wagner, it was announced yesterday, will never play another game in the UHL. Another player, Dave MacIsaac, will miss the rest of the season and the playoffs for a sucker punch that broke an opponent's nose. Two other players received 10- and five-game suspensions for leaving the penalty box.
"It's like Slap Shot all over again," said Kevin Kaminski, head coach of the Missouri River Otters, a UHL team that doesn't face the Trashers this season.
"It's not intimidation, it's ridiculous," Kaminski said of the Trashers' on-ice thuggery. "I think hitting the top guys on the other team is part of the game, but - and I haven't seen (the Trashers) play - from the coaches I've talked to, this is sucker punches, it's blindsiding guys. Someone is going to get hurt."
The Trashers are Danbury's most famous evildoers - at least they were until Martha Stewart appeared to start serving her sentence at the local prison.
Sixteen times this season the league has suspended a Trasher player, and coach Todd Stirling, the son of New York Islanders coach Steve Stirling, is sitting out a three-game ban for not being able to control his players. For two games in January, the team was so depleted by suspensions it had to dress an assistant coach, Bobby Stearns, making him a 36-year-old rookie.
Danbury has accumulated 2,217 penalty minutes in its 59 games, an average of 37.6 a game. Eight of the 14 teams in the league have 1,269 penalty minutes or fewer. Wagner's UHL career ends after two games with 73 penalty minutes and, shockingly, no points.
"He's not very tough. He just doesn't think well," Potvin said, getting in a parting shot.
Brad Jones, league vice-president, gave some indication of his exasperation with the Trashers when he suspended Stirling.
"At some point, with some of the things that have gone on over there, somebody other than the players has to be held accountable," he told the Danbury News-Times.
It's odd to think there is a Gretzky associated with the team. Brent Gretzky had been going at a point-a-game pace with the Trashers - he probably got a lot of room - until he was felled by a shoulder injury two months ago.
When Potvin said Danbury's approach comes from the top, he didn't specify whether he meant Galante or his 19-year-old son A.J., who was installed as president of the club even though he was still in high school. He likely would have been right on either count. After one December game, the elder Galante, at ice level comforting a Trasher who had broken his leg, became so incensed he tried to get at the officials in the penalty box area. One of his punches felled a linesman, resulting in Galante's arrest.
"Me and my father have always done things outside the box," the teenaged executive told minorleaguenews.com. "Quite frankly we don't care how we look to other people."
Attempts to reach the Galantes, Stirling and Wagner proved fruitless yesterday.
"We have no comment on anything you may ask," said a man who answered the phone at the team's Danbury office and identified himself as a team official. He said he was "acting on a directive from team ownership."
While the Trashers' method is clearly questionable, especially in the wake of the suspension the UHL handed out this week when a coach put a $200 bounty on a player's head, it has created some success. The Galantes expanded the Danbury Ice Arena from 600 seats to 3,000 and have sold it out on many nights this season. The average attendance is about 2,600.
The Trashers also sat in first place into December. Danbury is now second in the Eastern Division with a 34-21-4 record. Its home record is 21-6-2.
"It's worked for them," Potvin says. "They have a tremendous home record. I'm sure a lot of teams go in there and don't want to be bothered with them. They just wait for another night. Unfortunately, we have to play them 18 times."
Not everyone is a detractor.
"As much as people want to maybe deny it, intimidation is still a part of the game," Fort Wayne coach Greg Puhalski says. "As a player, you have to learn to deal with it. Being a tough team, there's nothing wrong with that in my eyes."
Credit: Toronto Star
Their owner is facing criminal assault charges after attacking a linesman. One of their players was suspended from the league for life yesterday for an ugly incident at the opponents' bench. They lead the United Hockey League in penalties, about 1,000 minutes ahead of most of the other teams.
They are hockey's brashest goon show and the first-year Danbury Trashers are apparently quite proud of the black eyes they are dishing out to opponents and bringing to their league.
And it is Trashers, not Thrashers. Their owner, James E. Galante, made his money in waste disposal.
"Right from day one, they've said they wanted to be the bad boys of hockey, the most-hated team, the Evil Empire," Adirondack coach Marc Potvin said yesterday. "It comes right from the top. That's what they've sold their fans. I think they'll find it's unwelcome in our league and it's unwelcome in any league."
Potvin got a close-up look at the Danbury's knuckle-dragging mentality on Wednesday in what he calls a "disgusting" incident when his Frostbite team paid a visit to the Connecticut club. After an on- ice brawl, one of the Danbury players - Chad Wagner, who once set a single-season record with 503 penalty minutes with San Diego in the WCHL - was being escorted off the ice when he broke away from the linesman and attacked the Adirondack bench.
Potvin was holding his players back when Wagner lunged, grabbing him and pulling him off the bench, down to the boards. Then as Wagner was pulled away, two other Danbury players bolted from the penalty box to get at the Adirondack bench.
Wagner, it was announced yesterday, will never play another game in the UHL. Another player, Dave MacIsaac, will miss the rest of the season and the playoffs for a sucker punch that broke an opponent's nose. Two other players received 10- and five-game suspensions for leaving the penalty box.
"It's like Slap Shot all over again," said Kevin Kaminski, head coach of the Missouri River Otters, a UHL team that doesn't face the Trashers this season.
"It's not intimidation, it's ridiculous," Kaminski said of the Trashers' on-ice thuggery. "I think hitting the top guys on the other team is part of the game, but - and I haven't seen (the Trashers) play - from the coaches I've talked to, this is sucker punches, it's blindsiding guys. Someone is going to get hurt."
The Trashers are Danbury's most famous evildoers - at least they were until Martha Stewart appeared to start serving her sentence at the local prison.
Sixteen times this season the league has suspended a Trasher player, and coach Todd Stirling, the son of New York Islanders coach Steve Stirling, is sitting out a three-game ban for not being able to control his players. For two games in January, the team was so depleted by suspensions it had to dress an assistant coach, Bobby Stearns, making him a 36-year-old rookie.
Danbury has accumulated 2,217 penalty minutes in its 59 games, an average of 37.6 a game. Eight of the 14 teams in the league have 1,269 penalty minutes or fewer. Wagner's UHL career ends after two games with 73 penalty minutes and, shockingly, no points.
"He's not very tough. He just doesn't think well," Potvin said, getting in a parting shot.
Brad Jones, league vice-president, gave some indication of his exasperation with the Trashers when he suspended Stirling.
"At some point, with some of the things that have gone on over there, somebody other than the players has to be held accountable," he told the Danbury News-Times.
It's odd to think there is a Gretzky associated with the team. Brent Gretzky had been going at a point-a-game pace with the Trashers - he probably got a lot of room - until he was felled by a shoulder injury two months ago.
When Potvin said Danbury's approach comes from the top, he didn't specify whether he meant Galante or his 19-year-old son A.J., who was installed as president of the club even though he was still in high school. He likely would have been right on either count. After one December game, the elder Galante, at ice level comforting a Trasher who had broken his leg, became so incensed he tried to get at the officials in the penalty box area. One of his punches felled a linesman, resulting in Galante's arrest.
"Me and my father have always done things outside the box," the teenaged executive told minorleaguenews.com. "Quite frankly we don't care how we look to other people."
Attempts to reach the Galantes, Stirling and Wagner proved fruitless yesterday.
"We have no comment on anything you may ask," said a man who answered the phone at the team's Danbury office and identified himself as a team official. He said he was "acting on a directive from team ownership."
While the Trashers' method is clearly questionable, especially in the wake of the suspension the UHL handed out this week when a coach put a $200 bounty on a player's head, it has created some success. The Galantes expanded the Danbury Ice Arena from 600 seats to 3,000 and have sold it out on many nights this season. The average attendance is about 2,600.
The Trashers also sat in first place into December. Danbury is now second in the Eastern Division with a 34-21-4 record. Its home record is 21-6-2.
"It's worked for them," Potvin says. "They have a tremendous home record. I'm sure a lot of teams go in there and don't want to be bothered with them. They just wait for another night. Unfortunately, we have to play them 18 times."
Not everyone is a detractor.
"As much as people want to maybe deny it, intimidation is still a part of the game," Fort Wayne coach Greg Puhalski says. "As a player, you have to learn to deal with it. Being a tough team, there's nothing wrong with that in my eyes."
Credit: Toronto Star
