WORCESTER—History can be reviewed, revised, and even rewritten but it cannot be changed.
The Worcester Sharks, for all they contributed to the city’s professional hockey legacy, were our second team. They are the middle child — after the IceCats and before the Railers.
Finally, the Sharks are getting their due.
The inaugural Sharks Night is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, at the DCU Center as they play host to the Wheeling Nailers in the middle of an ECHL 3 in 3 weekend.
The event includes an appearance by Finz, the mascot, and The Railers are slipping into Sharks uniforms. Some former Sharks are going to be in attendance. That list includes the team’s first captain, Ashton Rome, and Shrewsbury’s Marc Busenburg, one of the few pro players to skate in two games in the same day.
Fans attending Sharks Night also receive a Worcester Hockey Heritage mini banner, a giveaway recognizing the city’s long-standing connection to professional hockey and the generations of fans who have supported it. The Railers auction off the specialty Sharks jerseys following the game.
Others have been invited but have yet to commit. Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche, an original Shark, cannot make it due to commitments at the NHL level. You know, typical GM stuff like making trades and getting the roster ready for a playoff run.
Darche is hoping to get here when his schedule opens up. In the meantime, he remembers his 2006–07 season fondly. That is not surprising, since his first linemate was Joe Pavelski and he finished with a stats total of 8-1-26 in just 16 games.
There was more to it than just goals.
“It was a really fun year,” Darche said in a phone call from Long Island. “We were all part of something new and it was exciting. I still keep in touch with guys like Pavelski and Graham Mink. Nobody knew anything about Pavelski at camp. He was just a college kid and I was a veteran and I think he appreciated the experience I brought to the game.”
Part of Darche’s Sharks experience was playing for Roy Sommer. The coach spent nine seasons here during his record setting career and eventual induction into the American Hockey League Hall of Fame.
“Roy was a fun guy,” Darche said, “and I remember Mo being around all the time and everywhere. He was part of the team.”
“Mo” is Sommer’s son Marley who has Down Syndrome.
“For a guy with a family like me,” said Darche, who had two pre-kindergarten sons while with the Sharks, “it was a great place to play. The cities were all so close. We were home most nights.
“It was a great group. We hung out a lot together and Roy was part of that.”
Darche was with the Sharks just for that season and left with a city hockey record that was not surpassed until last season. In a game at San Antonio, Darche scored the winning goal at 4:59 of overtime back when overtime went five minutes.
Anthony Callin scored at 6:59 of overtime last season under the new format.
The Sharks came to town for the 2006-07 campaign, two years after the IceCats departed. The franchise originated in Lexington, Ky. and had a stop in Cleveland along the way.
The Sharks played at the DCU Center from 2006 to 2015 as the American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s San Jose Sharks, becoming a central part of Worcester’s sports identity before relocating to California and becoming the San Jose Barracuda.
This will be the second retro event of the season for the Railers. They previously celebrated the IceCats with a very successful weekend that included a crowd of 8,025.
“The response has been great,” is how Railers COO Mike Myers described the buildup to Sharks Night. “The nostalgia for the IceCats is much deeper. Their fans are older. They went to games there with their kids. Sharks fans are my son Matthew’s age.”
Mike Myers is, in fact, playing for the Railers.
Myers has been part of the city’s hockey scene since his days tending goal at Assumption but did not get into the pro side until being hired to work for the Sharks. He stayed with them until their departure for California, a move that was not totally unexpected.
“When I took the job,” he said, “Mike Mudd told me, ‘Just so you know, and it’s a million miles away, there is talk about a western movement.’”
The Sharks are the only one of the city’s pro hockey teams that used its parent club’s nickname, and there has always been debate about whether or not that was a good idea.
“There is no clear answer,” Myers said. “One thing is that the name gave us an instant connection to an NHL team. If your parent team is 3,000 miles away and you’re the Canal Diggers, I don’t think that means that much in Worcester. Sharks gave us a clear identity right away.
“IceCats would not have done well as a nickname. There were still negative feelings about the way they left.”
The Sharks missed the playoffs more than they made them but developed an awful lot of players who had excellent NHL careers.
Pavelski’s is the best, but Logan Couture started here as did Thomas Greiss, Ryan Carpenter and some under-the-radar players such as defenseman Dylan DeMelo. He is still skating for the Winnipeg Jets and has been in almost 700 National Hockey League games.
In 2009, the Sharks played host to the only hockey All-Star game of any kind ever held at the DCU Center. The next season, they won 49 games, most-ever by a Worcester team, and scored 272 goals, also an all-time high here.
They may have been the middle child, but the Sharks will always be an important part of the city’s hockey family.
Bill Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
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