WORCESTER—For the last three hockey seasons the Worcester Railers have been driving in the middle lane.
That is not the place to be. You get passed on the left, you get passed on the right. You get cut off in front, you get tailgated from behind. For those last three seasons, Worcester has compiled a cumulative record of 98-98-19 and missed making the playoffs by one victory each season.
It is time for the Railers to either pass or pull over. They put their left blinker on during the summer, or at least they hope they did.
It started out in the way they replaced GM-Coach Jordan Smotherman after he left for Austria. Instead of one man doing two jobs, they have two men doing three. Assistant coach Bob Deraney was promoted to head coach. He was replaced as assistant by Nick Tuzzolino, who will also be the general manager.
That’s a new approach, and not just for the Railers.
“We wanted to try something different,” team COO Mike Myers said. “There’s a lot of responsibilty for one person. It’s a lot to ask one person to do both jobs, because both are fulltime jobs.”
Sounds like a great approach, but when a vote is deadlocked at 1-1, who breaks the tie?
“It’s very collaborative,” Myers said. “In their roles, each has his distinct responsibility. The hockey part — the practice, game-time decisions and things like that fall more on the head coach. The roster construction, player movement and contract end, the administrative stuff, is for the general manager and associate coach.”
The Railers just split a weekend exhibition series with Maine, each team winning one game. They begin their seventh ECHL season at home this weekend with two games versus Reading. The teams play at 6:05 on Saturday night and at 3:05 p.m. Sunday.
Opening Night is usually one of the season’s biggest crowds. This year it will be bolstered by the 500 free tickets given to local non-profits by M&T Bank.
In the exhibition games, the Railers lost 4-3 in Maine and won 4-0 at the Worcester Ice Center. After the shutout victory Saturday night, Deraney compared this season’s team with 2023-24.
“I think we’re more skilled and deeper at every position, and that’s not a criticism of last year’s team,” he said. “You’re always trying to upgrade, and I think Nick [Tuzzolino] has done a remarkable job of not only bringing in the right talented players but also bringing in the right character guys.”
Notable newcomers include:
— Goaltender Michael Bullion, who posted the shutout Saturday; rookie forward Justin Gill, who had 123 points in 82 regular season and playoff games for Baie-Comeau of the Quebec Major Junior League last year; veteran forward Colin Jacobs, 31, who is going into his 11th pro season; and veteran defenseman Griffin Luce, who has played 93 games in the American Hockey League over the previous four seasons.
Notable departures include:
— Ashton Calder, Jake Pivonka, Trevor Cosgrove and Blade Jenkins, four of the team’s top six scorers; and Brendan Robbins and Zsombor Garat, both of whom played in more than 60 games. Calder has retired. Pivonka, Cosgrove and Garat are in Europe.
Notable returnees include:
— Anthony Repaci, the Railers’ all-time leading goal scorer who missed much of last season with injuries; veteran goaltender John Muse who, at 36, is arguably the best goalie to have never played in the NHL; defenseman Connor Welsh, who led the team in games played with 70; and second-year forward Anthony Callin, whose 49 points were third on the Railers in 2023-24.
During the off-season Worcester worked on improving in at least a couple of parts of its game.
“Goal scoring is one,” Deraney said, “also playmaking, getting bigger at the defense position. We don’t want to get pushed around. When it comes to being physical, we want to be the initiators. And we wanted strong goaltending.”
The Railers may get a goaltender down from Bridgeport before the season opens. No matter who that is, for the first time in franchise history they will not have a rookie goalie on the opening night roster.
Muse is a veteran of parts of 14 pro seasons. Bullion is 27 and this will be his fourth professional campaign.
Saturday will mark the fifth time in seven seasons Worcester will open at home. The Railers have won each of the previous four and are 5-1-0 overall on Opening Night through the years.
The Newfoundland Growlers are out of the ECHL and thus the North Division. They have been replaced by Wheeling, which will play the Railers five times this season, and for the first time in five years.
Worcester has two first-time opponents in Wichita and Bloomington, an expansion team.
As they have for the past five seasons because the DCU Center is booked, the Railers will finish the year on the road. That has cost them the last three years. They have worked through the summer to build a team that will make the final game of the season an afterthought in the playoff race.
This weekend is when they start to find out if that will be the case.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
