2-9-99. The Pilots Seat is commentary, written from a fan's perspective, about the Pensacola Ice Pilots
by Scott Gregory
Memo to all ECHL players with any semblance of talent: If you get traded to somewhere you don't want to go, simply stay in town and refuse to report or pack
your bags and go home.
Sure, it's childish and unprofessional. But you're like the screaming kid in Wal-Mart -- your parents are more likely to give you what you want to shut you up and make the situation end rather than do the right thing and teach you a lesson.
Nick Stajduhar and Brendon Concannon get traded by the Pensacola Ice Pilots and refuse to report to their new teams. Where do they end up? On the league-leading Louisiana IceGators.
Kelly Hultgren doesn't want to leave Pensacola for Miami, which draws fewer fans per game than an Applebees on a Friday night. So Hultgren gets his agent/lawyer to start nitpicking his contract until the Pilots throw in the towel and ship Eon MacFarlane to Miami instead of Hultgren. MacFarlane suffers. The Pilots suffer by
losing MacFarlane. And Hultgren gets out of his Pilots contract and packs his bags for the UHL-powerhouse Quad City Mallards, who signed him this weekend.
"The opportunity arose to pick up a player like Kelly, and we didn't want to miss out," Mallards Vice President/General Manager Howard Cornfield said. "He's a quick
defenseman with a lot of skills, along the lines of (Mallard) Brian La Fleur. He can only
help us in our drive toward another championship."
I know what you're thinking -- "The GM of the team from Moline, Ill., is named
Cornfield?"
"After seeing the operation of the Quad City franchise, not only this past week for the All-Star Game, but over the last three seasons, I felt very comfortable recommending to Kelly that he become a Quad City Mallard," said Hultgren's agent, Neil
K. Sheehy, who also represents ex-Pilot La Fleur. "Because of the top class organization they run and their fantastic fans, they can expect to continue to get outstanding players from me."
And management of ECHL teams can continue to expect more of the same from players if they don't put an end to this bad "parenting."
Carpet of Death
OK, what's it going to take for the Ice Pilots to figure out it's not a smart idea to roll a carpet onto the ice and turn out the lights while people unfamiliar to the practice skate onto the ice?
Pilots management "Rolls out the Red Carpet" for the National Anthem singer to stand on as a carpet-company promotion.
On Saturday, the referee hit the carpet and went sailing into the boards. The fans had a hearty laugh, but the ref was fine. On Saturday, three of the Baton Rouge Kingfish hit the carpet and fell.
Is this not a sign this is not a good idea? What's it going to take -- one of these guys wrecking a knee and ruining his career, and suing the Pilots and the Civic Center for a few million dollars?
Either have at least three people stand on the carpet to make sure the players and officials know there's something there, or don't roll the thing out until the lights come on.
Blasts from the Past
Two familiar faces that fans thought were long gone could be joining the team in the next few weeks.
Bob Wilkie, who traded in his Jersey for a suit in December and has been helping coach behind the Pilots bench, will be examined by doctors this week, Coach Al Pedersen said. If Wilkie gets the medical green light, he's toying with trying to play
again. It was long believed that Wilkie wouldn't be back until playoff time, if at all.
Christian Sbrocca, who gave up hockey in favor of a music career, is considering joining the Pilots in early March, Pierre Gendron said Monday. Sbrocca scored 25 goals and added 46 assists for the Pilots in 1996-97.
© Scott Gregory. All Rights Reserved. Gregory is a Pilots season
ticket holder from Navarre. He is a former Florida Gators football beat writer and sports editor for Copley Newspapers. He can be reached at scott@thefivehole.com. Comments are always welcome.
