Sons of Bitches!!!!! Happy Birthday Rod, your Fired!
Langway won't be back with RiverDogs
Coach isn't offered contract after team failed to get out of the first round of playoffs
BY JERRY LINDQUIST
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER May 4, 2004
The first casualty of the Richmond RiverDogs' failure to get beyond the first round of the playoffs is Rod Langway.
The United Hockey League expansion team's first coach, Langway was told yesterday he wasn't going to be re-hired even though the'Dogs led the Eastern Conference regular-season title and finished 17 games over .500.
"Rod and I have decided to part ways," said RiverDogs General Manager Jeff Croop. "We just couldn't come to terms."
The decision to replace the NHL Hall of Fame defenseman, who turned 47 yesterday, apparently was made some time ago but wasn't set in stone until an organizational meeting with Croop and co- owners Glenn Morelli and Eric Margenau last week.
Langway and Croop talked for about 45 minutes. "He said he was going to make a change. That's how the meeting started," Langway said. "I'm not going to lose any sleep over it."
Croop wouldn't say specifically why Langway was terminated except to put some of the blame on himself. "If there's anything Rod did or did not do that I'm displeased about, I'm as much at fault as he is," Croop said. "I'm not going to burn the guy."
This was Langway's first job as a head coach after serving parts of five seasons as an assistant coach since leaving the NHL with 15 years' service (11 with the Washington Capitals). He had been out of hockey the past three years while tending to the family business, Richmond Heat Treating.
"I'm very thankful they gave me the opportunity," Langway said. "We came in first place. We did OK. I did my job until the playoffs [when] goaltending was the difference."
The RiverDogs got off to an 8-0 start and, when another expansion team in Columbus, Ohio, folded about mid-season, they were the team to beat in the Eastern Conference the rest of the way. Despite a couple of slumps, the'Dogs remained in first place, leading by as many as 15 points. They completed the regular season 44-27-5, five points ahead of second-place Flint and fifth overall in the 11-team UHL.
Prohibitive favorites to reach the Colonial Cup finals, the'Dogs were beaten three games to one by the fourth-place Elmira Jackals in the first round of post-season play. "I cannot describe the level of my unhappiness," Croop said the day after the season ended.
He gave no hint then that Langway's future employment might be in jeopardy. But, as the days went by and no attempt was made to give him a new contract, it became increasingly evident the RiverDogs were going in another direction.
Before he arrived for yesterday's 45-minute meeting with Croop, Langway sensed he was not going to be asked back. "I had a gut feeling it wouldn't work out," he said.
The opening is bound to attract a number of applicants, but leading candidate to replace Langway is thought to be Donnie Martin, who served as the RiverDogs' assistant bench coach. He also had front-office duties and helped Croop, a longtime friend, locate players.
"One bridge at a time," Croop said. "I'm sure we'll have something shored up quickly."
Because he had been out of the game for a while, and the UHL was new to the area after 13 years in the East Coast Hockey League, Langway had little involvement in the acquisition of players. It was an arrangement he said he felt comfortable with from the start. Still, it had to be a bit awkward at times.
"I think if he knew the league, he may have built a different team than I did," Croop said. "I don't think Roddy and I were at odds over any one player. Certainly, if he ever were to come in and say, 'This player goes,' I promise you he would have been gone.
"I didn't interfere with Roddy as far as putting the guys on the ice, and he didn't interfere with me. There were no problems in regard to personnel - I don't think. If there were, he didn't tell me."
Langway frequently referred to himself as "a player's coach." RiverDogs assistant captain and leading scorer Jay Murphy agreed.
"The players and him had a great relationship," the veteran forward said. "Maybe him not coming back might be a fault of the players, the fact we lost in the first round. I'm sure a lot of the guys feel they let him down."
Contact Jerry Lindquist at (804) 649-6323 or jlindquist@timesdispatch.com
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I am not a number...... I am a Free Man!
