Skeptics be silent: Trenton, New Jersey has the best fans in the ECHL! You would think that the skeptics learned a lesson after loudly doubting whether minor league baseball would fare well in Trenton. The Trenton Thunder silenced those skeptics by packing the ballpark in record numbers and quickly building an enthusiastic fan base. Many of the same critics crawled out from the woodwork when minor league hockey was officially slated for New Jersey's capital city. But we knew beyond a doubt that hockey would be another great success for the city of Trenton and the entire region!
The first clear sign of the fan support that the Trenton Titans had to look forward to came when season tickets went on sale. Ticket sales quickly shattered the ECHL's mandate and reinforce the league's hope of laying a cornerstone for ECHL expansion into the Northeast. It was noticed all throughout the sports world when the Titans had to cap season ticket sales at 5000! Yes, Trenton sold more season tickets than last year's ECHL average game attendance and had to stop sales solely for the benefit of other fans. In November 1998's Titanic, I set the expectation at 7,000 for the Titans' average attendance for their inaugural season. My goal was far above most official expectations (especially that early in the game) and even drew ridicule by one of my readers. Sixteen months later (as of 3/1/2000), the Titans have averaged 6,993 fans per game! The other seven fans are probably still looking for parking ;-) The Titans have drawn the best attendance in the Northern Conference and 4th best in the entire East Coast Hockey League, behind only Greenville (8,145), Louisiana (7,779), and Florida (7,102). Trenton's attendance shines even brighter when compared to the ECHL's other new venues for the 1999/2000 season: Arkansas (3,933), Jackson (3,698), and Greensboro (3,371).
Enough about the numbers though, it's the people that make Titans fans the best in the ECHL! The fan frenzy began long before the first puck was dropped at Sovereign Bank Arena. Just take a stroll through this site's Guest Book and you'll see that fans began supporting the team well before the Titans signed their first player. I could go on for hours raving about the enthusiasm that I see and hear from Titans fans (despite being out in Texas)! On February 12th and 16th, I finally got my chance to see it in person. First came the road game at Richmond where I had the great pleasure of meeting Pam and Barbara Bloom, clearly the most loyal fans when the Titans hit the road (not to diminish all of the support they provide at home)! The Blooms have followed the Titans as far as Roanoke and catch many of the road games. The photo at the top of this article pays tribute to just a few of the Titans' great fans. Pictured are the Blooms, Joe ("Puckhead") and Cindy Bartzak, Willie and Blake, Derek Bronsteen, and Nick Brener. Anyone who has been to a Titans game can see their contributions. Another great Titan fan is the man behind the camera: Peter Bronsteen, the person responsible for dozens of wonderful Titans photos on this site and the official web site. (And I suppose that I'll confess that I'm in the photo too.)
Not in the picture, but just as vital to the Titans fan base is the man I only know as Nick8768. He has been a steadfast presence at the Titans' practice at Ice Land in Hamilton since training camp began in October. My apologies go out to the dozens of fans that I have met but failed to mention here, and the thousands of Titans fans that I have yet to meet. Fans can show their support by joining the Trenton Titans Booster Club, which is having its first meeting on March 13th at the Urban Word Cafe in Trenton. With our support, the Trenton Titans will win the 1999/2000 Kelly Cup!
Taras Lendzyk has surfaced as Titanic's Titan of the Month for February! This was one of the toughest months this season to select a single Titan as the Player of the Month, but Taras Lendzyk wins the nod! In the days following the ECHL All-Star Game, Titans fans held their collective breath as the front office searched frantically to find goaltenders to replace Bujar Amidovski and Stephen Valiquette, both on call-ups to the American Hockey League. Taras Lendzyk answered their call! He debuted as a Titans goaltender on January 28th, making 44 saves on the road against the Hampton Roads Admirals. The following night, Taras earned his first Titans win at Huntington, stopping 32 of 33 shots. As the month of February came to a close, Lendyk's record stood at a very deceptive 6-6-0 (the Titans averaged only 2.50 goals per game for him) with an impressive goals against average of 2.68 and a spectacular .922 save percentage. Lendzyk's fine performance included leading Trenton to three shootout wins in February. It was his fine goaltending that is responsible for keeping the Trenton Titans in the playoff hunt despite their injuries, call-ups, and struggling offense in February.
Even during a leap year, February is supposed to be the shortest month. Not for Trenton. The Trenton Titans entered the month of February with a 21-17-3 record, ranked sixth in the Northern Conference by win percentage, ahead of the Huntington Blizzard and Dayton Bombers. The Titans were positioned well within striking distance of the Johnstown Chiefs and even a fourth seeded Hampton Roads Admirals. The month began innocently enough with a 3-5 road loss against the Dayton Bombers, not particularly surprising, not particularly disturbing. The Titans quickly rebounded from that loss with a 4-3 rally-from-behind road victory against the Toledo Storm the following night. Cail MacLean's hat trick and Taras Lendyk's 37 saves helped Trenton earn the rare road victory. Would this be the turning point for the Titans?
The Titans returned home to Sovereign Bank Arena for a game against the Greensboro Generals two nights later. Despite more than doubling Greensboro on shots (32-15), the Titans had to rally from a 2-0 deficit to force a shootout, in which they prevailed for a 3-2 win. The following night, the Titans squeaked out another narrow victory against the visiting Dayton Bombers 4-3. The wins weren't pretty, but the Trenton Titans improved to a franchise best six games above the .500 mark. With a 3-1 launch, February was looking like a profitable month.
The night after the Bombers game, the Titans travelled to Johnstown and were happy to have goaltender Bujar Amidovski back from the AHL for the game. The celebration didn't last long as the Chiefs lit the lantern three times in the opening and closing periods and once in between for a 7-2 blasting of Bujar and the Titans. Two nights later at Hampton Roads, the Admirals helped themselves to a 5-2 victory over a lifeless Titans squad. Injuries and call-ups were starting to take their toll on the over-achieving rookie franchise. The Admirals followed the Titans back to Trenton and resumed the beating there, three nights later, with a 3-1 victory over a home team that managed only 21 shots on goal. It was only the second time all season that the Titans had sufferred three consecutive losses.
The Trenton Titans had a long bus trip to reflect on their loss with a game in Richmond the next night. In another game where the Titans started off like snails, netminder Taras Lendzyk kept their hopes alive. The Titans came to live in the third period to force a shootout and silenced the Renegades fans with a 3-1 shootout triumph for a 3-2 game victory. The Titans continued their winning ways four nights later with a 3-2 victory over the visiting Johnstown Chiefs. They were back on track!
Then came another roster depleting array of injuries and call-ups, leaving the Titans critically short for a pair of back-to-back road games at Roanoke. Taras Lendzyk did what he could in the first game with 34 saves, but Trenton fell 2-1 to the Express. In the second game, the Titans established a 3-0 lead in the first period but watched Roanoke chip away at it for a 4-3 victory over Trenton. The Titans returned home but couldn't buy a goal four nights later in a frustrating 4-1 loss to the Richmond Renegades. The slump continued two nights later when the Titans watched a 4-1 lead disintegrate into a 6-5 road loss against the Peoria Rivermen. The Titans salvaged the trip to Peoria two nights later with a 2-1 shootout win over the Rivermen.
When the longest month was over, the Titans stood at 27-25-3, clutching the eighth and final seed for the Northern Conference playoffs after a 6-8-3 month. On paper, the Titans have everything they need: above average goaltending, a stocked offense with seasoned veterans and ambitious rookies, and a fairly impressive lineup on defense. It's the qualities that don't show on paper that the Titans have been lacking recently. Motivation, discipline, desire, leadership, .... With only 15 games left to play, the Titans need to find those qualities quickly if they still hope to be in the playoffs, not to mention chase the Cinderella dream of capturing the Kelly Cup.
The Huntington Blizzard have the best logo in the ECHL. Stop laughing! While I won't be blinded by loyalty and claim that the Trenton Titans have the best logo in the East Coast Hockey League, I will freely laugh at the 'expert' who judged the Huntington Blizzard's logo as the best. I have no ill will toward the logo (and certainly none toward the fans) - it is simple and harmless. The culprit is Todd McFarlane, this year's judge for The Hockey News minor pro logo ranking in the February 25th issue. The Titans ranked 51st out of 58 AHL/IHL/ECHL logos that he rated, and drop to 56th when the legacy rules are applied to this years THN rankings. Under the rules, no logo can move more than three places in a year as a legacy to past judges, which in the case of the Titans, caused their rank to slip into the nearest vacancy convenient for a new logo.
McFarlane's credentials? He is the creator of the Spawn comics empire, and is an Emmy winning (2), MTV Video Music Award winning (2), and Grammy nominated (2) producer and director of various works on television, film, and video. His McFarlane Toys has a wide range of products including the Hanson Brother figures picture above and a line of NHL action figures due for release this year. He is also the man who shelled out $3 million for Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball in 1998. Yes, he is quite rich and very confident, to put it politely. In his own words, "I haven't penetrated the world psyche as vastly or deeply as I would wish." His connection to hockey (other than the action figures)? He's Canadian. Well, and he also owns a share of the Edmonton Oilers.
Included in McFarlane's Top Ten ranks are the Blizzard's snowflake logo (ranked 24th overall), the Johnstown Chiefs' arrowhead logo (4th/3rd), the Florida Everblades' gator (8th/36th), and the Pee Dee Pride's lion (9th/38th). You can see the gap between his ranking and THN's overall ranking. Joining the Titans on his Bottom Ten are the Mobile Mysticks' dragon "M" logo (49th/57th), Jackson Bandits logo (50th/55th), Mississippi Sea Wolves logo (52nd/17th), South Carolina Stingrays logo (55th/49th), Dayton Bomber' star logo (56th/23rd), Toledo Storm logo (57th/58th), and the Greenville Grrrowl's puck-munching mutt logo (58th/19th). In addition to ranking the Titans 51st, McFarlane goes on to say that Trenton's logo is "too amateurish. They're trying too hard to be hip with the kids." First he provides the comics, now he provides the comic relief! How he can put the Titans in a class with the Storm and Stingrays while elevating the Blizzard to first place, we'll never know. His bizarre point of view means that the Titans and Bandits are banished to the lower ranks for years to come because of the legacy ranking rule. The joke's on us. Thanks Todd!
The visit is over, but the memories live on forever! The Unofficial Visit lived up to my greatest expectations! One of the first features in the new Trenton Titans Fans Scrapbook section of The Unofficial Web Site of the Trenton Titans will be The Unofficial Memoir, which promises to be a long and rambling account of my trip to Richmond and Trenton to see the Titans, and the many great people who made it such a wonderful trip. I hope to have it posted in the Scrapbook by March 10th.
NORTHERN CONFERENCE / NORTHEAST DIVISION Realistically speaking, the Northern Conference teams are already selected for the playoffs. The Greensboro Generals (17-32-6) will become the first official victim in the Northeast Division, failing to live up to the standards set previously in Greensboro by the ECHL's Monarchs (1989 - 1995). A 3-3-2 February has insured that the Generals won't be heading into battle during their inaugural postseason, and will probably finish the season in the basement. Securing their fifth place division standing and a likely second straight pass on the playoffs after a 5-10 month, the 22-29-4 Charlotte Checkers couldn't maintain January's momentum. Charlotte's loss is Trenton's gain: Despite their franchise's first losing month (6-8), the 27-25-3 Titans are looking fairly secure in their fourth place standing and appear destined for a run at the Cup in their first ECHL season. Third place in the Northeast belongs to the ECHL-departing Hampton Roads Admirals (33-19-3) who are well positioned for home advantage in the first round of the playoffs after a 7-3 month. That's a solid eleven seasons in the ECHL without missing the playoffs once! Meanwhile, a 5-4-2 February has knocked the Richmond Renegades (33-15-4) from the division lead but a second place division finish will garnish the number three seed in the Northern Conference. The Renegades look forward to another crack at the Cup after falling in double overtime of game seven of the Kelly Cup Finals to the Mississippi Sea Wolves in last year's Kelly Cup Finals. The new division leader, courtesy of a 9-4-1 month, is the Roanoke Express (36-15-5). They are looking to repeat as the division leader with a fighting shot at the number one seed in the conference to avenge last year's loss in the Conference Finals to the Renegades.
NORTHERN CONFERENCE / NORTHWEST DIVISION In the basement of the division, the 16-36-4 Wheeling Nailers will likely earn the Northern Conference's best tee time this Spring with the worst record in the North after a 3-9-1 February. This is the second consecutive season that the Nailers will watch the playoffs from home. The Toledo Storm (19-27-6) will be getting an early start on the golf course for the first time in their nine year franchise history after a 3-8-1 month sabotaged their efforts to join the playoff hunt. Fifth place in the Northwest Division is Toledo's for the keeping, despite a 4-6-1 February performance from the fourth place Johnstown Chiefs (25-21-7). The ECHL's oldest unchanged franchise will return to the playoffs after a four year detour. Also making a return to the playoffs this season, the 28-21-9 Huntington Blizzard are in the midst of their best season ever after a 7-3-1 month keeps them in the thick of the battle for the Northern Conference's lower seeds. The Northwest second place Dayton Bombers (29-21-8) make it a perfect 9-for-9 at earning bids to the postseason. A 7-3-2 February leaves the Bombers atop the pack for a fifth seed, but a division title and fourth seed are well out of reach. Drifting comfortably toward a division title with their best season yet, the 36-14-4 Peoria Rivermen have the best record in the Northern Conference. An 8-4-1 month has helped them retain the lead over their Northeast foes for the precious top seed in the conference.
SOUTHERN CONFERENCE / SOUTHEAST DIVISION An 8-5-1 showing in February has failed to lift the Augusta Lynx (23-29-3) out of the Southeast Division cellar, but it does improve their odds at a longshot bid to the playoffs. A late season rally still might rob some of the playoff invites from the bid-heavy Southwest Division and capture another wild card for the wild cats. Inches ahead of the Lynx in the crawl for contention, the 22-27-7 Jacksonville Lizard Kings slipped a rung on the Southeast ladder due to a 5-9-2 month. Their Florida neighbors, the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks (22-26-6) are circling in their wait for prey as a 6-4-2 February puts them close enough to smell a wild card (and a return to the playoffs) in the water. Miles ahead, the 30-19-7 South Carolina Stingrays can focus on fighting for a 'true' bid (rather than their current wild card) after a surge from their 10-2-2 month. The Pride (36-14-3) is still running strong in Pee Dee despite a relatively disappointing 8-6-1 February. With a huge gap behind them, the Pride can only improve on their third place division standing and fourth seed. A 9-5-1 month reinforces Greenville Grrrowl's status as Most Improved Franchise. Their 37-12-6 record and second place standing in the Southeast Division, Southern Conference, and ECHL is a vast improvement over their 26-33-11 playoff-less inaugural season last year. Sitting pretty with the best record in the ECHL (41-12-2), the Florida Everblades used a 10-2-1 month to become the first team to officially clinch a playoff bid. The are one the pace for the league's best winning percentage ever and not very likely to budge from their number one seed.
SOUTHERN CONFERENCE / SOUTHWEST DIVISION While the Everblades are closing in on the record for the ECHL's best performance ever, the expansion Arkansas RiverBlades (12-42-3) are within spittin' distance from the record for the ECHL's worst performance ever after a lackluster 3-9 month. A 3-7-1 February is jeopardizing the playoff hopes of the Jackson Bandits (23-27-5). Jackson will need to rally in March to regain a playoff bid from their Southwest Division opponents. A 4-8-2 month has dropped the Baton Rouge Kingfish (25-24-5) into a three team brawl for the fifth-seventh place in the Southwest and the final three wild card seeds in the Southern Conference. A 6-6 February leaves the 28-25-3 Pensacola Ice Pilots a nervous grasp on the tenth seed and a return to postseason play. Virtually tie with Pensacola, the defending Kelly Cup Champion Mississippi Sea Wolves (26-23-5) continue their slow recovery from a horrible Championship hangover with a 6-3-1 showing in February. All three teams must still keep an eye out for an eleventh hour effort from one of the outsiders (Jackson, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, or even Augusta); one of the teams is bound to take advantage if someone chokes down the home stretch. Once comfortably above the dividing line, the 30-23-4 (pre-correction) Birmingham Bulls are being dealt a 6-point setback for using an ineligible player and will see a 6-7-0 month morph into a 3-10-0 month. That leaves the Bulls hanging on to the eleventh and final wild card instead of an eighth seed. One wrong move in March could leave the Bulls seeing red (and greens) instead of the playoffs. In third place after a 9-5 month, the Mobile Mysticks (33-23-2) are debating whether to take the fifth seed and a wild card seed (sixth or seventh). The second place New Orleans Brass (31-19-6) will be defending their claim to the fifth seed and a bypass of the wild card round, hoping to improve upon their 8-5-1 February. Cruising to their third straight Southwest Division crown, the Louisiana Ice Gators (34-17-7) will take the Southern Conference's number two seed into the postseason thanks to a 10-3 February that left their foes chewing on gator tail.
Coming up next issue, Bayou Bubba's Fearless Playoff Predictions!
Cassidy's Reunion With the acquisition of Kurt Mallett, Trenton Titans head coach Bruce Cassidy has reunited the three top scorers from his 1997/1998 Jacksonville Lizard Kings team: Cail MacLean, Mike Hall, and Mallett. Trenton defenseman Kam White was also a member of that team.
The Numbers Game In his first four assignments to the Trenton Titans, Francis Belanger wore four different jersey numbers: 22, 14, 8, and 9.
Mr. Goal Toledo Storm forward Andrew Williamson is burning up the ECHL with 53 goals in 50 games. Too bad he drew a 5-game suspension for a nasty high-sticking incident that left Roanoke Express defenseman Steve Sabo with a broken nose.
Double Duty New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur received credit for the game winning goal in the 2/15 game against the Philadelphia Flyers. He was the last New Jersey player who 'made a play' before the Flyers inadvertantly chopped the puck into their empty net during a delayed penalty against the Devils. Brodeur ties former Flyers goalie Ron Hextall with an NHL record 2 career goals. His first goal, actually shot by him, came during the 1997 playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens. Hextall's goals came in 1987 against the Boston Bruins and 1989 in the playoffs against the Washington Capitals. He was the first NHL goalie to actually shoot the puck for an NHL goal in both the regular season and playoffs. Islanders netminder Billy Smith was the first to receive credit for a goal in 1979. Detroit's Chris Osgood (1996) is the only other NHL goalie to shoot the puck for a goal, while Ottawa's Damian Rhodes (1999) is the only other goalie to be credited for a goal.
Crime and Punishment Boston Bruins defenseman Marty McSorley will pay the price for deliberately whacking Vancouver Canucks winger Donald Brashear upside the head with his stick in a February 21st game. The attack caused Brashear to fall backwards, striking his head on the ice. He was rushed to the hospital and is still suffering the effects of a severe concussion. In addition to being suspended at least for the remainder of this season (23 games) and possibly for several games next season, McSorley has been charged with "assault with a weapon" by British Columbia authorities and could face up to 18 months jail time if convicted. He maintains that he was simply trying to provoke a rematch of an earlier fight with Brashear.
