“This has gone on long enough.” That was the overwhelming sentiment of fans walking out of the DCU Center Saturday night after Worcester’s 5-1 loss to the Adirondack Thunder.
Since heading down to Florida in mid-February the Railers are 4-9-1 and have scored two or fewer goals in nine of those games. Much of that could easily be attributed to Worcester losing top-line players like Blade Jenkins and Anthony Repaci. But every ECHL team is impacted by recalls and injuries, and the line between a successful team and a losing team is how their hockey operations handle missing those top-line players.
And General Manager Jordan Smotherman has once again done nothing.
When Smotherman was named head coach and general manager a couple of summers ago this writer expressed his concerns about a former player coaching his old teammates to Railers’ COO Mike Myers, and honestly, the answers given were very reassuring, that Smotherman didn’t live in the player housing with the guys, and he essentially worked as a second assistant coach even though he didn’t have the title. Because he already had the foundation of that leadership role in place Smotherman seemed to be as good a choice to coach the team as any.
In the long run, my worries turned out to be right, but for the wrong reasons. I was originally worried Smotherman was still part of the “one of the boys” mentality because he had just been a player with some of the guys he was coaching. It turns out he has that mentality because he still thinks like a player and not like a general manager. He’s overly worried about the dressing room and lets that override common sense when it comes to improving the team in the place it matters most: on the ice.
Smotherman learned nothing from last season’s epic collapse where the roster was full of players who had no business playing in the ECHL because they were dealing with two NHL organizations taking players from us. Worcester had a ton of players that simply did not have the skills to play in the ECHL, and for whatever reasons they were Smotherman chose to stand pat with those ill-equipped players and didn’t take chances on bringing in new guys to help the team. We all know how that worked out.
Over this past summer it was decided that the Railers would deal exclusively with the New York Islanders, and we can discuss if that choice was made here or elsewhere and if dealing with the Lamoriellos was even the right call to make at another time, but the situation the Railers face is exactly the same now as it was in December of 2022 and Smotherman is doing the same exact thing as he did last season. It didn’t work then, and it’s not going to work now.
“This has gone on long enough.”
At first, it was just the social media trolls who were calling for Smotherman to be fired. Their opinions don’t usually matter at all on anything, but they were saying it, and I’ll report they were saying it. But over the past few weeks, it has become the dominant hockey conversation along the concourse of the DCU Center. The lack of any attempt to improve the team on the ice has become obvious to even the most starry-eyed fans, and many of them have come to the conclusion that changes have to be made.
Last season I was the first one to start saying the Railers were in trouble despite them having a pretty large lead over any potential fourth-place finisher. I took a lot of heat for that, but in the end, I was right. So now I’ll once again become the first to stand on the soap box and say publicly Smotherman needs to be fired. I’ll take a lot of heat for it too, but in the end, I’m going to be right.
So while he’s a great guy, and awesome to talk with, Smo has got to go.
If he’s out in the next couple of days the Railers might still have a chance at the playoffs if they can clean up the roster and bring in a lot of college kids. If Smotherman stays to the regular season’s end he can be given the news he’s out just as soon as the Railers are eliminated from playoff contention. Which, unfortunately, won’t be long coming.
Getting on to the game, it appeared that Adirondack scored with 9:48 to go in the opening period when Travis Broughman beat Worcester netminder John Muse clean from the back door. Moments after the goal was scored, and not seen on the broadcast video, linesmen Philippe Pilon and Antoine Bujold-Roux began having a discussion, and they were soon joined by referee Will Kelly. After more discussion Kelly gave the wash-out signal, indicating “no goal”, and the play was announced as offside. You can’t see the puck in the broadcast video as it’s blocked by the boards, but this writer’s gut instinct looking at the location of all the players involved says that play was onside. So, the Railers caught a break on the call.
And they did nothing with it.
Grant Jozefek would give Adirondack a 1-0 lead for real at 16:09 when Trevor Cosgrove couldn’t keep the puck in the Thunder zone and the former Railers forward used defender Ryan Dickinson as a screen to beat Worcester goaltender John Muse high to the glove side.
Jake Pivonka would tie it 1-1 when he took a nice feed from Ashton Calder and buried it.
But the middle frame was all Thunder as they scored three times in the stanza, the third chasing Muse as Cole Ceci took over between the pipes. Adirondack would score a third-period empty net goal for the 5-1 final, dropping the Railers to fifth place in the Noth Division by points and tiebreakers and sixth place by winning percentage.
Worcester has 13 games remaining and still mathematically controls their own playoff destiny, but on the ice, where it actually matters, they need help. And a lot of it.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Joey Cipollone, John Copeland (IR/unknown), Jake Goldowski, Christian Krygier, Tristan Lennox (IR/lower body), Anthony Repaci (IR/upper body), and Zach White. Cole Ceci started the game as the backup goaltender and took over for John Muse at 17:09 of the second period. Saturday morning Blade Jenkins was recalled by the Hartford Wolf Pack, and later in the day, Ryan Verrier was activated from the Injured Reserve list.
In the latest on Reece Newkirk, it came as a shock when he was listed in the lineup for the Bridgeport Islanders for Saturday night. And then just moments later, according to a tweet from “not a burner account”, Newkirk blocked a shot on his first shift and headed to the dressing room. There was no further update tweeted, and given that the game was in Belleville, Ontario and the tweeter was not, it’s not surprising there wasn’t anything to update. Jenkins was not in the Wolf Pack lineup as they hosted the Syracuse Crunch in Hartford.
Keeping an eye on Holy Cross’ conference playoff run, the Crusaders were blanked 3-0 at the Hart Center Rink in game two of the Atlantic Hockey semifinal round against American International College Saturday night. The Yellowjackets scored a goal in each of the three periods, the final one into an empty net. Senior Jason Grande recorded 22 saves in the loss for Holy Cross. The two teams will meet again for a winner-take-all game three on Sunday at 5 p.m., and it will be streamed on FloHockey.
There was some confusion about it, but the Railers will have a Military Appreciation jersey coming up on March 30th. That’s the sixth specialty jersey of the season. If you’re interested in winning one of each of the six Railers specialty jerseys, visit the Booster Club table behind section 109 to purchase a $10 raffle ticket. The winning ticket will be drawn on March 30th and the winner will get to go home with all six of the specialty jerseys. You don’t need to be present to win.
The three stars of the game were:
1. ADK – 29 Vinnie Purpura
2. ADK – 20 Andre Ghantous
3. WOR – 13 Jake Pivonka
The 210Sports Player of the Game was no one.
Even Strength Lines
Howdeshell / Quinlivan / Piercey
Bakanov / Scarfo / Callin
Calder / Pivonka / White
X / Robbins / Goehring
Cosgrove / Dickinson
Welsh / Kulakov
Garat / Verrier
Our affiliates last night
Ottawa 4, NY Islanders 3 OT
Belleville 4, Bridgeport 2
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Utah 5, Norfolk 4 OT
Maine 4, Reading 2
Trois-Rivières 5, Idaho 4 SO
Standings
(“Hand” are games in hand from WOR’s point of view)
| TEAM | PTS | PTS % | HAND | vs WOR |
| ADK | 80 | .678 | 0 | 1 |
| NOR | 74 | .627 | 0 | 0 |
| NFL | 62 | .517 | 2 | 3 |
| ME | 57 | .491 | -1 | 3 |
| TR | 57 | .491 | -1 | 3 |
| WOR | 57 | .483 | X | X |
| REA | 57 | .475 | 1 | 3 |
BOX SCORE
Adirondack 1 3 1 – 5
Worcester 1 0 0 – 1
1st Period-1, Adirondack, Jozefek 7 (Isley, Orgel), 16:09. 2, Worcester, Pivonka 17 (Calder), 18:21. Penalties-No Penalties
2nd Period-3, Adirondack, Ghantous 1 (Smith), 3:15. 4, Adirondack, Smith 25 (Ghantous, Ashbrook), 4:33 (PP). 5, Adirondack, Harper 16 (Ashbrook), 17:09. Penalties-Piercey Wor (holding), 3:34; Ashbrook Adk (slashing), 11:07.
3rd Period-6, Adirondack, Gillespie 6 (Jozefek, Crowder), 17:06 (EN). Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Adirondack 9-8-9-26. Worcester 15-14-11-40.
Power Play Opportunities-Adirondack 1 / 1; Worcester 0 / 1.
Goalies-Adirondack, Purpura 14-3-4-1 (40 shots-39 saves). Worcester, Muse 13-9-1-1 (16 shots-12 saves); Ceci 1-4-0-0 (9 shots-9 saves).
A-5,017
Referees-Will Kelly (7).
Linesmen-Philippe Pilon (68), Antoine Bujold-Roux (72).
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