CANTLON’S CORNER: A GAME THAT WAS A BLAST FROM THE PAST 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – It was like the first day of school as the Hartford Wolf Pack and Hartford Whalers alumni gathered for its annual charity game against the Hartford PAL team.

For Stefan Cherneski, a former Wolf Pack, he stayed in Connecticut when his career was abruptly cut short because of an injury. For him, it felt good to be in the locker room with the boys.

“This is fun. I have been playing in a senior league one day a week at Trinity, but this is the first time I have been here since my last game,” the 40-year-old Cherneski said.

Cherneski is a father of two and now runs a life insurance business.

In his professional career, two dates stick out.

In 1997, he was the New York Rangers first round pick (19th overall) from the Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL). His last year of major junior, Cherneski was voted the WHL and CHL (Canadian Hockey League) Scholastic Player of the Year. He led the WHL in playoff goals with 15, but they fell short of the league championship and Memorial Cup berth.

The future looked bright.

However, just eleven games into his pro career, on November 13, 1998, he suffered a devastating injury to his right patella (knee cap) off a hit by Springfield’s Scott Ricci. The hit came at center ice right in front of the Wolf Pack penalty box. His leg was caught, and Cherneski was going to the bench for a line change.
He never made it.

The injury required him to endure four surgeries, countless hours of rehab and for nearly two years trying to make his leg whole again. However, the loss of the range of motion in the knee left Cherneski half the player he used to be.

On January 2, 2001, Cherneski had his last professional game brief AHL career of 40 games.

The insurance offer was a 30-game clause. If he couldn’t continue medically to play, he would be forced to retire after a year-and-a-half plus of rehab. John Paddock, the Wolf Pack head coach at the time and future AHL Hall of Famer did one of the classiest gestures anyone has done. He let him play the final 1:46 of the game as his last pro shift.

“I always appreciate that from Paddock more than anyone could know,” Chernesky said.

On that night, Paddock sounded like a sad, proud father.

“It’s a terrible misfortune for anybody, and a tortuous situation to have your career decided like this,” remarked Paddock at the time. “I think he’s capable of playing at the AHL level and was getting better, but that doesn’t help any of the longer-term ways he has to look at it. He has the financial considerations, but there’s also the pain and not being able to do other workouts that are just as important to maintaining and improving.”

He was then the team captain, and then later and now former Wolf Pack head coach, Ken Gernander,  was decent was eloquent and a true teammate on that night.

“It’s probably the worst decision I’ve seen someone have to make, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” Gernander said to the media gathered in front of him. “He’s had an unbelievable row to hoe, and how do you tell someone at 22, who had so much future, and so much promise, that you’re better off taking the money instead of giving it another chance?

“If you had seven or eight years to give it your best, and didn’t succeed, you can be more accepting, but it’s tough walking away from the game never really having had a shot through no fault of his own. He’s never had a target date to come back, just one surgery after another until this year. He’s not to where he was or to where he was projected to be, and how much of him did we really see?

“He wants to be part of a locker room and have the identity of a hockey player, and how do you put a price tag on that type of thing? He’s still so young, and if he channels his energy somewhere else he can be far more successful and happy.”

After the alumni game, Cherneski’s ever broad smile, and rapid-fire sense of humor was clearly evident.

“This a lot of fun, but by the third period I was toast out there,” he said.

Despite the shortness of his career, Chernerski has a favorite Wolf Pack moment.

“No question, Game 7 against Providence when (Terry) Virtue scored the game winner. Simply the most intense game I have ever seen in person, that was a great game.”

One of the other alumni that returned came from his farm in Barrie, Ontario.

Richard Scott was a beloved heavyweight. Scott was always smiling and had 150 Wolf Pack games under his belt and racked up 760 PIM, the third most in team history behind Dale Purinton, and P.J. Stock.

“This is just the way I like it. The fun, and the laughs, and good feelings here means a lot,” Scott said.

Cherneski and Scott held court along with Billy Tibbetts. The one-liners flying back and forth across the UCONN locker room they were using.

When Scott asked what time the Wolf Pack game started, without skipping a beat, Cherneski needled his friend. “Hey, have you ever been to a hockey game before? Saturday night! What time do you think?”

Scott easily laughed at himself as he remembered his first Wolf Pack game on October 28, 2000, against Lowell.

“I knocked out Kip Brennan, one of the biggest, toughest guys to play the game,” Scott said with a smile.

Scott led the Wolf Pack with 320 PIM in 2000-01, the third highest total in the regular season for the Wolf Pack behind Dale Purinton’s 415, and Garrett Burnett’s 346.

Scott would smile through most of his bouts whether it was Brennan, Dennis Bonvie, or Eric Godard.

Scott’s NHL and pro career came to screeching halt when he suffered two concussions in the space of five games.

The first came off a non-fight when he absorbed a big hit from Toronto’s Mats Sundin. Mistakenly, Scott hid it from the Ranger coaches and training staff. On December 4, 2004, Scott would drop the mitts with one time Wolf Pack, Eric “Big Daddy” Cairns.

Scott was tough, but Cairns was Godzilla-like on skates. In a super-heavyweight division bout, Cairns connected and Scott wobbled to the penalty box. Everybody knew something was really wrong.

Scott was forced to retire and began a two-year odyssey to recoup from the back-to-back concussions.

“It took time, but I’m doing better today. I know I’ll never be 100%, but I know more about concussions. I know my limits. I can’t do anything really fast because (concussion symptoms) come back on me. I can do most things, I just gotta pace myself.”

He did enjoy seeing all his friends and getting back on the ice again.

“To be honest, I haven’t done an on-ice game in like five years, so it took a while to get my legs under me, but by the third period, I was feeling good. I had more ice time tonight than when I played,” Scott said and drew howls from everybody nearby. “If we had overtime, I was ready and maybe the shootout!” The comments drawing even more laughter.

He genuinely enjoyed the event.

“It was a fun game. I really want to be back next year depending on the schedule of course. I had a lot of fun in Hartford and made a lot of good friends both on and off the ice. It’s great to see everybody. While I don’t miss the grind, this being here (in the locker room) I do miss,” said Scott tapping his heart.

One of Scott’s Pack teammates was Billy Tibbetts who played just one season with the Wolf Pack.

The MA native, now 44-years-old, is still in top shape. It’s no secret that Tibbets had a tumultuous pro career.

For Tibbetts, his on-and-off ice issues were numerous, and Tibbetts took ownership of them.

“I had a lot of things going on in my life back then. Right now, I’m in real estate. I’m glad Doug Smith talked me into coming. It was so much fun to be here,” Tibbetts said.

The XL Center was home to some of his numerous wild incidents.

As an opponent, while he was with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Tibbets helped ignite a pre-game brawl, in part because he couldn’t get a pre-game massage for his ailing back. Then the New Haven Knights (UHL) trainer, John Sullo, who had a massage license, couldn’t get to Hartford that day. He didn’t want to play that night.

As a member of the Wolf Pack, he once got suspended when off a faceoff against the Houston Aeros he hauled off and decked a completely, unsuspecting Russian rookie named, Ratislav Pavilkovsky. The AHL VP/Head of On-Ice Discipline and Hartford-area native, Jim Mill was in attendance and got a full bird’s eye view.

In Tibbetts last game for the Wolf Pack, a Saturday game on March 15th in 2003 against the Providence Bruins, Tibbets played well on the ice that game but had a heated on-bench dispute with then Wolf Pack head coach, Ryan McGill, now an assistant coach with the Vegas Golden Knights.

After contacting Wolf Pack GM, Al Coates, about releasing him and getting permission to tell him, McGill asked the training staff to inform Scott to come to his office.

Scott couldn’t understand why.

When McGill brought in Tibbetts and told him of his release, the light bulb went on over Scott’s head.

“The first and only time I was ever asked to possibly defend my coach against one of my own teammates,” Scott said.

Tibbetts played on seven teams in nine cities and finally ended his playing days with the Cape Cod Bluefins (FHL) in 2010.

Bob Crawford, the former Whaler, not the long-time Wolf Pack radio voice, had to play for the PAL team and did so as his usual ebullient self.

“Always a good time, but I gotta say, by the third period, I felt like I was skating in cement.”

Many players had wished to attend but had prior commitments but said that if the date works better for them that they would gladly be at next year’s event.