Columnist Steve Carp: Bourne’s a nice start to retro look

Steve Carp

Thursday, June 25, 1998 | 9:22 a.m.

ONCE UPON A TIME, Las Vegas had a hockey team it could enjoy, one it could be proud of.

That was only five years ago.

The Las Vegas Thunder will attempt to embrace that exciting inaugural year at the Thomas & Mack Center. It's not a novel concept by any means, but consider the path the franchise has taken recently and you don't have to be Scotty Bowman to figure out this was a highway to hell. Or at the very least, a road to disaster.

General Manager Bob Strumm, who has been behind the wheel, doesn't need to retake his road test. He needs only to remember how he built that first Thunder team in a brief four-month span and how it performed.

And if he needs a reminder, his coaches should tell him. Bob Bourne and Rod Buskas were part of that first Thunder team which captured the International Hockey League's overall points title with 115. Bourne was an assistant to Butch Goring, Buskas a rugged, no-nonsense defenseman. That team had lots of character, few characters and a great work ethic, not to mention a special bond within the locker room and in the community.

That should be the blueprint Strumm uses to return the franchise to respectability, if not dominance.

"I think we got away from that," Strumm admitted, talking about the chemistry and character that first Thunder team had. "Our talent evaluations have been superficial the last couple of years. Our fans want good, hard-nosed hockey."

And they want guys they can identify with. They want guys like Todd Richards and Jeff Sharples. They want a Clint Malarchuk. They'd love to have a Radek Bonk and they sure want a Ken Quinney and definitely a Patrice Lefebvre.

They were some of the key components to the original Thunder, guys who never took a night off. To them, losing wasn't an option.

And that's where Strumm comes in. His job is to put together that kind of team. He has done it before, and assuming management will let him, he can do it again. He has to if this franchise is to remain alive.

Don't forget, the climate is much different than it was in 1993. Back then, UNLV's basketball team was on the road to ruin with Rollie Massimino at the helm. Today, Bill Bayno has the Rebels back in the NCAA Tournament and the fans have returned to the Thomas & Mack. The Rebels once again dominate the sports pages and the 6 p.m. sportscasts.

Five years ago, there was no big-league motor sports to speak of. Today, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a major player in town. Throw in the usual boxing, golf, NBA and NHL exhibitions plus the gaming factor, and that's a lot of competition for the discretionary income dollar.

With its lease set to expire at the end of the 1998-99 season, the Thunder is still trying to extend its stay at the Mack. To remain viable, a deal needs to be cut soon. Otherwise, turning back the clock may be a season-long promotion for a lame-duck franchise. And that wasn't the retro look the Thunder had in mind when it reached back into its past Tuesday.