Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004 | 9:18 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
It was 11:15 a.m. Monday, and Scott Gomez and about eight of his Alaska Aces teammates were fashionably late for a morning skate at the Orleans Arena -- not an uncommon occurrence when an ECHL team plays Las Vegas.
This doesn't happen in Bakersfield or Fresno, where practice always starts on time.
Gomez and his tardy teammates eventually arrived in small groups, the whites of their eyes resembling a map of the Oklahoma Turnpike. "I had a good night," Gomez smiled sheepishly, preferring to leave the specifics of his first evening here at his own blue line.
But it's not as if Gomez is some rube from Point Barrow who has never seen the Lower 48. He's a former NHL Rookie of the Year with the New Jersey Devils, for cryin' out loud, which means he has seen Broadway in New York as well as the Broad Street Bullies in Philadelphia.
So what's a guy who has a Calder Cup sitting on his mantel and two Stanley Cup championship rings in his safety deposit box doing in Las Vegas, about to lace up the skates against the Wranglers at 7:05 tonight?
Well, for starters, he's having some fun while burning off some extra calories during what appears will be a protracted NHL lockout. But there's more to it than staying in shape in the long shot the powers that (used to) be in the NHL come to their senses before old Maple Leaf Gardens freezes over.
For Gomez, it's more about the midnight sun and the Northern Lights, the Sitka spruce and the King Salmon, and proving (William) Seward's Folly, which is what the Secretary of State's purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million from Russia in the 1860s was derisively called, was nothing of the sort.
Alaska may be known as the Last Frontier, at least on the license plate, but for Anchorage native Gomez, it will always be first in his heart, if not in the ECHL standings. And that, more than anything, explains why he'll be skating circles around the Wranglers tonight (provided he got to bed Monday night at a decent hour).
"I'd say just being home," Gomez said about what makes Alaska the ideal place to spend an NHL lockout. "During the regular (NHL) season, when we had the Olympic break, guys went to Cabo and places like that. I went back to Alaska. I love the people there and it's a place where I can be a kid again."
Gomez, 24, is the first person of Hispanic descent to play in the NHL. His father, Carlos, is Mexican-American; his mother, Dalia, is from Colombia. He hasn't spent much time with his parents since being drafted in the first round, 27th overall, by New Jersey in 1998.
So after weighing several lucrative offers from European clubs, he opted to become the only NHL veteran to sign with the ECHL, considered Double-A hockey.
In August, Gomez went to salary arbitration and was awarded a one-year deal with the Devils worth $2.9 million. He won't receive a single penny of that during the lockout. He will, however, get $500 a week from the Aces.
That modest allowance notwithstanding, there are those around the league, mostly guys in the opposite color sweaters trying to check him, who aren't too happy with Gomez's decision to become a big salmon in a small pond.
"I don't necessarily agree with it," said Jason McBain, who at 30 is the closest thing the Wranglers have to an elder statesman. "I understand the situation, with him being a hometown guy, and I'm sure that means a lot to him.
"But putting myself in his shoes, maybe I would think differently. If I was on the outside (of the NHL lockout) looking in, I can't see why I would want to play here. But again, that's his prerogative, his choice. Whatever."
But McBain said he didn't think "whatever" wound entail showing Gomez, a 1999-00 NHL all-star, the butt end of a stick while he's digging in the corners.
McBain had a stint with the Las Vegas Thunder of the since disbanded International Hockey League and watched NHL stars such as Alexei Yashin and Peter Nedved be subjected to some rough tactics while skating here during their contract holdouts. He said that probably wouldn't happen with Gomez.
"I think in this league not so much, because there are mostly younger players here," McBain said. "I almost think they are more star struck at this level. At the American League level (the NHL's official developmental league) I think you'd have a lot more emotion."
But his Alaska teammates, the Aces in the hole, as it were, said there will be no uncivil liberties acts when Gomez takes his shift.
"If people do, then there's going to be a lot of problems," said Mike Lee, who was also a teammate of Gomez at Anchorage's East High School and sipped beer -- and everything else imaginable -- from the Stanley Cup when his buddy brought it from New Jersey to Alaska following the Devils' 2000 and 2002 championships.
"I think guys in this league will automatically give the kid respect. He's a premier, premier NHL hockey player. He's out here just enjoying himself and having fun and staying in game shape and things like that. So I think people will respect that."
In his first seven games with the Aces, in which Gomez has yet to score a goal but has five assists, there hasn't been too much Oggy Ogelthorpe stuff.
"You can go ahead and try to hit him and try to do all those things," Alaska coach Davis Payne said of the Slapshot mentality, "but he's extremely shifty and a difficult individual to hit. He plays in the Eastern Conference against (physical) teams like Toronto and Philadelphia, and he's been the focus of those teams for years. So I don't think a trip around this division is really going to worry him that much."
And just to set the record straight, it's not as if Gomez took the roster spot of somebody who is trying to feed his family. The Aces reserve a couple of slots for "veteran" players with extended professional playing experience, and Gomez assumed one of those that wasn't spoken for.
"People tend to forget that," Gomez said.
"I had tons of offers over in Europe. But I went to the (NHL players association) and they said 'Why not?' Most of the European guys all went home to (play for) their hometowns. I'm not taking a veteran's spot and that was the key. If there was a guy who was a veteran, and I show up and he's got to get his bags packed, then I wouldn't be here."
Gomez's presence has been a gold mine for the Aces, both in terms of publicity and at the turnstiles. All of the team's home games have sold out, and season ticket sales are way up.
So if Gomez is thrilled to be renewing a love affair with his hometown, it appears the feeling is mutual.
"It's not that he's just such a good hockey player and such a good guy," said Lee, part of Gomez's inner circle at East High that also included Trajan Langdon, the former Duke basketball star. "It's that he loves Alaska as much as the next guy, if not even more."
It's too bad William Seward never got a chance to see Scott Gomez play hockey. I have a feeling they would have enjoyed each other's company.
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