Posts from ‘May, 2009’

Things may be a bit slow right now with both the Aces and the EPHL trying to find answers on several different questions, but at Aces Over Brooklyn, I will continue to bring you as much information about the team and the league as possible.

Over the next week, I’ll be interviewing both B.J. Kuper and team captain Rob Miller.

Originally tabbed as a defensive/pest-like player, Kuper turned into a solid offensive performer as well, scoring 16 goals and 42 points and was a part of one of the team’s much successful lines, teaming with other fan favorites Eric Frank and Jesse Felten. In addition, he was one of only three players on the team to play in all 49 games this season.

While Aces captain Rob Miller only managed to skate in 22 games due to a nasty hand injury, he still scored 23 points and was a leader in the clubhouse. During his time on the shelf, he even served as the team’s assistant coach.

The last time around, Aces Owner Alan Friedman answered several questions on his team’s play this past season. This time around, in the second part of a phone interview that was conducted two weeks ago, the questions focused more on the strength of the EPHL and what the Aces are trying to do to reach more fans.

Aces Over Brooklyn: The organization played a big role in getting four players sent up to the ECHL this past season. Is that something you will be trying to do more of in the future?

Alan Friedman: Absolutely. We want to send up as many players as we can and if our coach can do it, we’d love to see it continue. Sure, having a winning record at the end of the season is great, but getting these guys up is what we want to do more of. If we do that, more people will want to come see us because they know they’ll be able to say that they saw these players play and they rooted for them in Brooklyn before they made it to the next level and the NHL. As an organization, this is our main goal.

Hours before every game at Aviator this past season, Brooklyn Aces forward Chris Holmes was out on the ice, garbed in a t-shirt, shorts and sneakers, firing pucks all over the ice.

It didn’t matter if it was a against the glass or at the net- just as long as it made a lot of noise.

Possessing one of the hardest shots in the EPHL, Holmes’ shot is his trademark and something he’s always working on.

That shot undoubtedly played a huge part in the 19 goals and 47 points he had this season, but those numbers alone can be deceiving. Not many knew that Holmes was playing the majority of the year with a separated shoulder.

Nevertheless, the 23-year-old Brick, New Jersey-native still averaged a point a game and helped lead the Aces to a regular season championship.

With social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook quickly becoming staples in our Internet browsing lives, I felt it was necessary to eventually get with the times and create Aces Over Brooklyn pages on these respective sites. While I started the Twitter page during the playoffs and it has proven to be a good way of keeping you guys informed, I always find myself stifled by the small amount of characters allowed. Also, there isn’t any room for a message board or sharing of other information like photos and video, so I felt the next step would be to start a facebook page, which allows us to take things even further.

Now, you guys can not only express your feelings on the wall about the site, but you can start your own discussions on the discussion board. That alone should make things interesting over the next few weeks and months as we wait for the 2009-2010 season to begin and news on how many teams will be joining the league.

Watching every Brooklyn Aces home game during the regular season and the playoffs this past season, I couldn’t help but feel that things could have been different.

Despite their loss in the EPHL finals a few months back, I’m not talking about their play on the ice either.

What I’m talking about is the team’s home.

While Aviator Sports and Recreation is a great place, especially to those in the community who wouldn’t otherwise have a place to go rock climbing, ice skating and play hockey or basketball, it’s not the easiest place to get to if you don’t have a car, especially considering how poor the mass transit runs around the area.

Even though I found it easy to get there a few hours before a game by bus this past season, it was nearly impossible to get home after games. If it wasn’t for my insistence to cover the team and a family and girlfriend who saw how difficult the journey was, I may have ended up calling it quits early on and missed out on some great hockey and great stories.

On December 18, 2008, Tom Collingham made his debut on the blueline for the Brooklyn Aces at Aviator and played on the powerplay and special teams. At the time, the Aces were dealing with an assortment of injuries and Collingham was thrust into action. While he didn’t show up on the stat sheet in any positive way, going -1 in about 15 minutes of ice time, he showed good mobility and a poise at the point that played a huge part in his stellar play in Germany with the Deggendorf Fire, where he scored 41 points in 54 games.

While the interview is only 90 seconds long, Collingham did his part and discusses his career and what he was looking to accomplish with the Aces. However, that was his only appearance with the team and according to various sources, his only stint in pro hockey as well this season.

As always, you can hear the interview here @

After losing in the EPHL finals in March, many have been wondering what the Brooklyn Aces will do in the upcoming season to make sure that they make sure they have the pieces necessary to contend for a championship again. Chatting via telephone with Aces owner Alan Friedman answers several questions about his team’s play this season.

Aces Over Brooklyn: The team ended the season in a somewhat disappointing fashion. It must have been rough. What did you do to deal with it?

Alan Friedman: With what happened in the playoffs and not being able to score on 18 powerplays approximately, we sat down with our coaching staff and decided which direction we wanted to take the team so we can become a powerful, higher-scoring team.

AOB: You just mentioned that you want the team next season to be better offensively, but they were the best team in the league this past season in that regards. Were you more specifically talking about the team’s special teams play?

When I think about it, this season was easily my favorite of the past five seasons covering professional hockey because not only did I get to blog about the New York Islanders and cover the Aces, I was able to bring some of my Journalism Students to games and teach them the ropes of the field, something I would have wished for when I was first starting out.

The first time I was able to do this, I figured I was going to have some fun with it, so I set up an interview between Aces then captain and EPHL penalty minute leader Chad Wilcox and one of my best students, Joey Curto. Again, dealing with personalities all the time at the college and at the rink, I like to think that I’m a good judge of character and after the fist time I spoke with him, I thought Wilcox, despite his menacing stare that could tear a hole in the universe, was a straight up, no nonsense guy that just wanted to play the game and be a good teammate. Curto, who was in his second class with me after taking a basic English course the semester before was and still is an animated and bright kid that isn’t scared to be himself. I figured it would be a perfect match, in spite of Curto’s mixed feelings that Wilcox was going to kill him during the interview.

When Brooklyn Aces leading scorer James Brannigan was called up to the Utah Grizzles of the ECHL late last December, the team knew they needed a replacement- and fast. Enter Josh Coyle, who just wrapped up a successful amateur career at Union College the year before and already had a few games of ECHL experience under his belt.

Scoring four points through his first four games with Brooklyn, it appeared the team had something going with Coyle, but soon after, he was put on waivers and claimed by the Hudson Valley Bears, where he scored 10 goals and 19 points in just 10 games. Coyle didn’t have much staying power there either, as he ended up finishing the season with the Columbus Cottonmouths of the SPHL, scoring three points in six games, including five in the post-season.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Brooklyn Aces winger Chris Holmes this past week over the phone and before I post that interview sometime next week, I figured I’d share some of the things that didn’t make it into the article.

Always a fun interview, Holmes was candid and shared his thoughts on the season. After about 20 minutes of chatting it up and touching on various topics, it was obvious, just like all of you, the Brick, New Jersey-native with the booming slapshot is eager for the upcoming season.

AOB: The last week of the season, Mike Christensen had said that even before he had played with you, he was intimidated by you. He said that he just knew that you were a great hockey player. He also said that throughout the season, he wanted to make sure that he didn’t let you down and wanted to be as good a linemate for you as possible. Considering Christensen scored 34 goals this past season, how does that make you feel?