Albany River Rats reflect 25 years after Calder Cup title
TROY, N.Y. » The 1994-95 Albany River Rats were a team for the ages.
Just 25-years-ago that squad went 46-17-17 (109 points) and earned Albany its lone Calder Cup title.
After a first-round playoff loss to the eventual Calder Cup champion Portland Pirates the season prior, the club brought back a mix of veterans and rookies with something to prove.
“I can specifically remember coming into the season after camp broke in New Jersey. We got to Albany and were playing a couple of preseason games and kinda just looking around thinking we’re not going to be very good,” forward Matt Ruchty remarked on his initial impressions.
Yet, like the team they were aiming for, those Rats were prepared for the challenge.
“For us coming into the next season with Robbie [Ftorek] coaching, he always had us well prepared too,” Alternate Captain Bill Armstrong said of the future AHL Hall of Fame coach.
“It was a different type of feel with that team because Robbie was the only coach. One of the things he always did was he really included the captains in everything that he did, so we always kind of felt like that was a good liaison between the team and him,” Armstrong noted of the trust between players and coach.
“I give Robbie Ftorek as much credit as any coach I’ve ever had
in my career for how he handled that season and all on his own for the most part,” Reid Simpson said of Ftorek. Ftorek earned the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as top coach in the league.
“[He] held it together and made it as special as he possibly could. I think he created an environment and the players were all part of it that you really couldn’t wait to go to the rink to practice, you couldn’t wait to go play,” Simpson added.
And play they did, jumping out to a 4-0-3 start.
“Obviously pretty quickly Robbie put together a system that worked for this group of guys and everybody was on board,” Ruchty commented on the team clicking.
“We had a lot of guys score a fair amount,” Ruchty continued on the balanced attack encompassing 10 double-digit goal scorers.
“You had Sully [Steve Sullivan], Army [Bill Armstrong}, Rob Conn, Pelle [Scott Pellerin], Bobby House, Vuk [Mike Vukonich]. I scored 26 goals that year. Simmer [Reid Simpson] had a bunch,” Ruchty noted of the deep group of forwards.
“Earlier in the year we got rid of Dean Malkoc, a huge piece in the locker room. We brought in Rob Conn and obviously “Conner” played great for us,” Ruchty said of Conn, who led the team with 35 goals.
“[Conn], Sully and Army on a line for a whole year basically, those three connected real well. Not flashy players. Sully, that was his first year and he got better and better but at that point he was just a rookie, he wasn’t even a mouthy rookie at that time. He went on to get mouthy in the years after that,” Ruchty said of Sullivan, who led the team with 81 points and finished second in AHL Rookie of the Year voting.
“Then on the back end [captain] Kevin Dean and [Bryan] Helmer,” Ruchty continued.
“The easiest thing to point out to our group is the goaltending obviously. I don’t know if you have another team that can say they rotated goalies every night for the whole season. Our goaltending was fantastic,” Ruchty added on the tandem of Corey Schwab and Mike Dunham.
The two goaltenders earned the Harry (Hap) Holmes Memorial Award for lowest goals-against average, as well as the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as copostseason MVP.
“With Schwabby and Dunnie, in our minds, we thought we had a number one goalie and again that just goes to prove again about that team that these guys never really questioned who was number one or who was number two,” Armstrong said of the duo.
In front of those two, a youthful defense corps was helped out by a Hall of Fame defenseman in practice as well.
“I think one of the things that really helped that year too with the lockout if you’re looking at it in a positive sense for us was Larry Robinson came down from New Jersey,” Armstrong said of the Devils assistant coach.
“We had a really young defensive group and he worked with our group there for a bit. That really solidified any question with that young group that we had,” Armstrong added.
That group would yield a league record low of 219 goals for an 80-game season.
Along the way, the season produced its fair share of rivalries as well.
“It was like an NHL atmosphere, the rivalries with Adirondack, you just loved playing those games,” Simpson
noted of the packed barns in Albany and Glens Falls.
“That year we had a much better team so we had a lot of success with them. That was an hour up the road and we played them a ton,” Ruchty remarked on the rivalry with the Red Wings.
“Binghamton [Rangers], kind of the same thing, always tough going into Binghamton’s building, we had some serious battles with them,” Ruchty continued.
“It was fun, you knew what you were getting into, we could hold our own with Simmer, Champ [Geordie Kinnear], Cale Hulse, Malkoc when he was there. There was no back down in our squad that’s for sure. Good battles, good rivalries,” Ruchty added.
“That was fun. Portland was always one because they always had a very tough team and very strong team and a well-coached team,” Armstrong said of the Barry Trotz-led Pirates.
“Adirondack, because you know they’re the rivals just down the road, right? So any time we played them you knew the place was going to be rocking,” Armstrong added.
The toughness displayed by Ruchty and Simpson, who combined for 616 penalty minutes, opened up the ice for some of the skill guys as well.
“Simmer and I played on the same line for most of the season and we had Sergei Brylin as our centerman,” Ruchty said.
“[A] young, first-year Russian kid, quiet as a church mouse and basically we told him you go out there and you can do whatever the hell you want. The three of us had great chemistry,” Ruchty added.
After the Rats skated to the best regular-season record, they continued to roll in the postseason. Following a first-round sweep of the Red Wings (4-0), only “The Greatest Show On Earth,” in Providence could trip up the greatest team on ice that season.
“That was a weird time because I remember the circus came to town and we had nowhere to play so we had to sit and wait to play these games,” Armstrong said of dropping two straight, after holding a 3-0 series lead against the Providence Bruins.
“That kind of messed with our mojo a little bit I think and we kind of stumbled a bit but just proved again, hey boys this is not something that’s anything to get too concerned about, let’s just put our noses back to the grindstone, play our way. We had our style down to a fine science,” Amstrong added as the team rebounded to take the series in six games.
Even with that hiccup and a slightly altered roster from players being called up to New Jersey, the Rats finished the job with a 4-0 sweep of the Fredericton Canadiens in the Calder Cup Final.
“You talk about interchangeable, you look at the roster when we won the final game in Fredericton, Army was out of the lineup, “Champ” wasn’t in the lineup. Late we brought in Ricard Persson from Sweden but he fit in well, Jason Smith was playing with us. You look at Jason Smith, he played over 1,000 games in the NHL was the captain of three NHL teams, it’s pretty crazy. I don’t think Vuk played much in the playoffs,” Ruchty noted of the deep and versatile roster.
“It was interesting how it all worked, you know who played late in the season after his Junior career was over was Stevie Brule. He came in and played between Simmer and I and [Brule] and I led the team in playoff scoring,” Ruchty added of a postseason where he and Brule notched 15 and 14 points respectively.
Armstrong echoed those sentiments on a roster which was composed of 29 former or future NHL players. “With this group it was never a question of who’s going to step up on any given night. You never really relied on one line or one guy or one power-play unit. It was everybody chipping in,” Armstrong said.
“Looking back at it I knew that time was special when it was happening. I think what really stands out about that team that year is that there were so many good quality guys on that team that kind of all came together and really I don’t think I’ve been on a team before where you had so many guys that you felt all cared and were all looking for the same results,” Simpson added.
The season was made even more special for the organization as Simpson, Dean (who was on the ice for both Cups) and others joined former teammates Brylin, Brian Rolston, and Chris McAlpine, with the Devils and their run to a Stanley Cup title.
“I just remember the next day the feeling was OK, what’s next? What are we doing next? Like, alright, let’s go practice again,” Simpson said of wanting the magical ride to continue.
“We all knew that the NHL was still there and I think probably eight or nine of us got called up to spend the rest of the playoffs in the NHL as “black aces.” There was a whole group of guys that were up, that was practicing and that was fun too!” Simpson explained.
“It was another month of hockey that we spent in New Jersey that we got to win a Stanley Cup. We weren’t on the ice when it happened but we all went on the ice after they won and got to experience that whole thing too,” Simpson remarked on the experience.
Reflecting back, all three noted the bonds forged on that team and the culture that was created.
That trust extended from
Ftorek to Armstrong and his high wrap shot more affectionately known as the “do it.”
“We would always play East-West or Canadian-USA games or any kind of scrimmage stuff and I did it in one of those games and he’s like what is that? I told him and he’s like, why aren’t you doing that in a game?” Armstrong said of testing the shot in practice.
“I said I didn’t want to get benched for doing it, right? So he’s like, you get the puck behind the net and you have the chance in the game, do it, so that was the green light to go ahead and do it,” Armstrong continued.
“If you remember in those days that’s what everybody in the building would yell when I’d get behind the net because of the [local] interview piece that they did, I just said I didn’t have a name for it so we called it the “do it” at the time, that was funny. When [Andrei] Svechnikov of the [Carolina] Hurricanes did it this year I got a message from Matt Ruchty and he said, “do it!” Armstrong chuckled.
Ruchty was also complementary of Ftorek working solo behind the bench, almost unheard of in today’s game.
“Obviously Robbie’s a little different. Robbie’s a frickin’ hockey nut, man. He loves hockey more than any person that I think I’ve ever met, so he was dedicated to his craft, that’s for sure,” Ruchty added.
Reflecting on the season, Armstrong looks back at the completeness of the 1995 Calder Cup Champion team and how they will forever be linked together as champions.
“In my nine-year professional career this team here was the one team that had it all, every aspect that you needed to win. All these guys here on this team are still my best buddies and always will be, we’re like family.”