When Scott Drayton left Kansas City after nearly two decades
as the face of the Twisters, most believed his best years were behind him.
Entering his second season as a member of the Long Island Concordes, Drayton
was largely viewed as a valuable veteran presence and a key mentor to young star
defenseman Nathan Webb. Nobody expected the 37-year-old to have the most
productive season of his career. Drayton led all defensemen in points in
2007-08 with 96, making him the first defenseman ever to lead the Concordes in
scoring. Despite Drayton’s efforts, Long Island stumbled out of the gate,
losing eight out of ten to start the year. In November, the team acquired two
veterans who would both help turn things around. Tory Partridge came in a deal
with Vancouver, while veteran goaltender Scott Morrison was acquired from
Winnipeg to help first-year starter James Gurmett with the workload. Long
Island strung together two ten-game winning streaks after Christmas and were
easily the league’s best team in the second half, finishing first in the East
and second overall.
The Eastern Conference was dominated by the Atlantic
Division, with Philadelphia and Boston rounding out the top three. It was the
second year in a row that the Conference was led by the “Big Three”.
Philadelphia enjoyed a strong year from their captain, Jared Baxter, as well as
solid goaltending from the tandem of Luke Bowers and Pierre Noel. Meanwhile,
the defending champions in Boston never lost a step, taking second place with
Brendan Marlo claiming the Cleveland Cup with 113 points. The rivalry between
the two teams was also renewed in late 2007. On December 16, the teams met in Philadelphia
where Redshirts’ agitator Sean Nowakowski delivered
a vicious elbow to Jordan McLean. Several scrums ensued but little beyond that.
Nowakowski was suspended five games and would return to the ice on January 2,
the rematch in Boston. The sold out Globebank Arena booed Nowakowski
mercilessly. In the second period, enforcer Brayden McPherson grabbed
Nowakowski and the two went toe-to-toe by the Bulldogs’ bench. Several other
fights broke out before the game was over in the stands as well as on the ice. “It
was a gong show, an embarrassment” said Redshirts’ coach Clint Allen. “What a
ridiculous thing to say” responded Bulldogs’ coach Maxime
St-Beaudoin. “His goon started the whole thing back in December with that
elbow.” The teams played one last game in April, where things took a dark turn.
Nowakowski fought Boston enforcer Chris Woods and beat him decisively,
humiliating him. Towards the end of the game, Woods retaliated with a horrific
slash to the face of Nowakowski, leaving the 25-year-old with a concussion and
a shattered jaw. Woods was suspended 40 games for the incident, the longest suspension
in PHL history.
The Chris Woods incident was a black
mark on the league and the game, but it failed to take attention away from the
intense playoff race between Detroit and Houston. The sophomore curse never
affected Nathan Sibley, who scored 43 goals for the Mustangs as they looked to
return to the post-season. Meanwhile, Houston had struggled all season with
Petr Kaleek out with a knee injury. Kaleek returned just in time for the
Roughnecks to make a push. A win over Washington, as well as a Cleveland loss
to Toronto gave the Generals an opportunity to get into the playoffs on the
season’s final weekend. Washington beat Carolina, putting them in the final
playoff spot. But Detroit beat Toronto the following night to clinch the final
spot. It was a disappointing end for the Roughnecks, who had hoped to make some
progress. For Detroit, making the playoffs was an important step for a young
team. Sibley. Dominik Musil, and rookie defenseman Jordan Billings had taken
Motor City by storm and now they had a chance to make a run for the Lewis Cup.
The Western Conference was dominated
once again by the Milwaukee Choppers. The Chops took first overall for the
third straight season and first in the West for the fourth straight season with
Brad McNair finishing second in league scoring. The Oakland Nuggets won the
Pacific for the first time in a decade thanks to a big 92-point year from
Justin Ramsey, while goaltender Travis Sweet took home the Whyte Trophy as the
league’s top goaltender for the second time in his three-year career. In
Edmonton, the Northern Lights overcame a tough season for Kris Nazarenko to
finish fourth in the West with Brendan Carnes scoring 44 points in what would
be his final PHL season. In St. Louis, the Spirits, led by a 46-goal effort
from Tobias Grunberg, finally returned to the post-season for the first time in
ten years.
The Calgary Wranglers played the
2007-08 season surrounded by uncertainty. The team’s home arena, the Calgary
Exhibition, had failed multiple inspections and was slated to be demolished at
season’s end. The club was to move into the smaller but newer Beltline Arena
for ’08-09, but the 10,000-seat venue would not cut it for much longer than
that. Speculation about the Wranglers’ future swirled while the distracted team
plummeted to last place in the Western Conference. In December, things hit a
new low when head coach Ron Nichols quit in the middle of a game. Assistant coach
and former Wrangler Gary Fox took over and the following day the team made him
the new head coach. Things went from bad to worse by season’s end, when the
City of Calgary decided through a vote that it could not use taxpayer money to
pay for a new building, a private investor would need to step up for at least
half. As the season finale and final game at the Exhibition against Edmonton
wound down, the crowd began to loudly chant “Save our Wranglers!” In the crowd
that night was rodeo legend Rick “Rippin’ Ricky” Adkins. Adkins was a world
champion bull rider from Texas who had settled in Calgary after his retirement
to pursue various business ventures. Adkins played a key role in the Calgary
Stampede, held every year at the Exhibition. Now organizers of the event were scrambling
to secure a new home, just like the Wranglers. Two weeks after the end of the
regular season, Adkins was joined by former Wranglers stars Don Taylor and
Shannon Michaels both successful businessmen since their playing days, to
announce that the “Cowtown Three” as they were nicknamed were going to make an
attempt to buy the franchise and help fund a new arena. It seemed like a longshot,
the group needed to find more money. Altogether, the trio was worth about $800
Million, not near enough to buy even the Wranglers, the PHL’s lowest valued
franchise. Other investors soon jumped on board and the hope was that the big
names spearheading the campaign would draw a big lead investor over the summer.
A city of desperate hockey fans held their breath.
One big name that the Wranglers organization
hoped to bring aboard, along with every other team in the league, was
18-year-old Erik Camden. Camden spent 2007-08 tearing up the Ontario Junior
League, scoring an unbelievable 124 goals in 64 games for the Guelph Royals,
who lost just six times all season. Camden wasn’t even being compared to past
PHL greats, he was projected to be better than all of them. Montreal was the
front-runner for the new-look draft lottery, with Calgary and Kansas City not
far behind. In the end, ten teams qualified for the lottery, with the winner to
be revealed just prior to the playoffs. “This could be one of the most
significant moments in league history” said one columnist of the lottery. “The
future of possibly the greatest prospect in this league’s history is about to
be determined.”
On March 29th, 2008, the
Chicago Shamrocks set a mark unlikely to ever be matched when they clinched a
playoff spot for the 40th consecutive season. The last time Chicago
missed the playoffs, Lyndon Johnson was president, the Vietnam War was at its
peak, and Neil Armstrong had yet to set foot on the moon. Even more impressive,
the Shamrocks had yet to miss the playoffs in the PHL’s post-merger era, and
not one player on the team’s roster was alive yet the last time their team
enjoyed an early spring. Jonathan Wheatley won league MVP honours for the first
time in his career. Wheatley was third in league scoring but finished first in
team scoring with 104 points, 46 more than runner-up Vladimir Kozakov. Corey
Clark finished second in Cooper Award voting for the league’s top defenseman,
and Kari Nurminen enjoyed a stellar season in net. The Shamrocks entered the
playoffs as a serious threat to claim the Lewis Cup, just as their owner,
82-year-old Fred Garfield Jr. was handing the reins over to his son, Richard.
Richard Garfield was just thirteen years old when the Shamrocks’ incredible
streak began. Now he was tasked with running the most successful sports
franchise in history, and it would all begin with an opening round date with
one of hockey’s newest franchises, the hard-hitting Portland Cascades.
