Posts from ‘July, 2009’

Special thanks to John Landers for working on this, especially after we were both getting conflicting reports there for a while. Two heads are always better than one if you ask me.

Team 1- Kingston RI playing @ University of Rhode Island. This team will be called the Storm.
 
Team 2- Fitchburg, MA playing @ Fitchburg Civic Center. This team will be called the Yeti. [Looking forward to seeing a logo for these guys.]
 
Team 3- Salem, NH  playing @ Salem Ice Center. This team will be called the Phantoms.
 
Team 4- Saugus, MA playing @ Kasabuski Arena. This team will be called the Wings.

No word yet on Danbury and Brooklyn.

According to writer John Landers, and confirmed by an anonymous source with a knowledge of the situation, a team from Brooklyn is extremely close to joining the new NEPHL.

From what is known, Aces owner Alan Friedman is not heading the new team and the new potential owner could not be confirmed.

As well, a team from Danbury is close to joining the league as well, possibly giving the NEPHL six teams.

Check the site again tomorrow for more information.

Still no calls from any of my sources in the EPHL.

But according to John Landers, who writes for Stan “The Maven” Fischler’s newsletter, here’s a list of the teams in the new NEPHL:

Kingston, RI playing @ University of Rhode Island
 
Fitchburg, MA playing @ Fitchburg Civic Center
 
Salem, NH  playing @ Salem Ice Center
 
Saugus, MA playing @ Kasabuski Arena
 
90% chance of the 5th franchise being
 
Danbury, CT playing @ Danbury Arena.

Also, another very interesting sidenote.
 
“Absolutely no owners from the EPHL are involved in this league on any level,” according to Pat Lovett, NEPHL Commissioner.

The way it looks right now, hockey in Brooklyn, for the near-future, is all but dead.

The league’s website and the Aces website, in the addition to all of the teams that were in the EPHL last season, now have no representation on the web. Still no answers on the record for any of this.

Truly a dark day for Brooklyn Aces fans.

Read the Press Release Here @

http://nephl.423942.free-press-release.com/

The News Times reported two days ago that Jim Riggs, the then commissioner of the EPHL has left the league to take on a position as the executive vice president of the Quad City (Ill.) Mallards of the International Hockey League.

You can read the story here:

http://www.newstimes.com/ci_12805142

Editor’s Note:

It’s quite ironic that I’m watching “Slapshot” as I write this. What does this news mean for the future of the EPHL? The Brooklyn Aces? I haven’t been able to get a comment on the record about anything of real importance in over a month from anyone involved in the league, which isn’t exactly strengthening many peoples thoughts on what the future holds for the league and hockey in Brooklyn as we know it.

The second I find out something that I can record ethically, it’ll be on the site.

Saying that last season was a tough one to swallow for Rob Miller would be an understatement.

After the New Hampshire Freeze, the team Miller was supposed to coach, folded, the 30-year-old came out of retirement to play defense for the Brooklyn Aces. Just when things looked to be going his way, Miller suffered a broken hand after a vicious slash by Hudson Valley Bears forward Tom Westfall.

Over the next two and a half months, Miller served as the Aces assistant coach, before coming back to the team for their playoff push. In spite of playing some of the best hockey of his pro career during that stretch and earned player of the week honors for the last week of the season. The team couldn’t hold off the surging Jersey Rockhoppers in spite of having their hard-nosed captain back however and lost an EPHL championship that many felt they owned since the first week of the season.