Though he started with no contacts in the sport, often relying on Google to find the main phone numbers of other teams, A.J. To circumvent the cap, Galante regularly doled out cash bonuses, gave some players exorbitant living allowances and gave others checks for housing after their allowances had already been paid. Follow. ", Rupp's skepticism did not diminish when Galante piloted his blue Escalade out of the airport parking lot and promptly got lost. Paul is currently the Hockey Director for the Miami Toros Hockey Program, where he brings an extremely high level of playing and coaching experience to the Kendall Ice Arena. [40 yrs. Many signed with the American Hockey League, the league directly below the NHL, pushing AHL players down to teams in the UHL. Greg St. Clair, the fan who accompanied his wheelchair-bound wife to games, marked the occasion by getting a tattoo on his left calf of Scrappy the mascot shooting a puck emblazoned with the letters fbi. Paul,originallyfrom Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with teams such as Philadelphia Flyers, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers and the Colorado Avalanche. There was a tremendous infusion of talent, Christiansen said. I remember being elated, guys tumbling over the boards like wed won the Stanley Cup. The Trashers went on to win that series, but lost the next. (The indictment alleged that the Trashers' player payroll was in excess of $750,000, but the team reported that it hadn't gone over the UHL salary cap of $275,000.) Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Adam Elzinga, 1982-07-23 Burbank, IL, USA USA. When he caught wind of a local kid who couldn't afford college, he quietly wrote a tuition check. The team was largely the same, with a few additions, including yet another minor-league-hockey legend, David Beauregard. He was a great owner." ", In their box above center ice the Galantes heckled refs and sometimes pelted opposing players with Skittles. Asked how the payback made him feel, Wingnut said great, but I would have liked to have seen him leaving the ice on a stretcher or in a body bag.. 14U A - Josh Elzinga 14U AA - Eric Ricard and Johnny Pelletier 16U A - Dylan Forsythe and Devon Rodriguez 16U AA USPHL - Tony Lessel 18U AA - Peter Jerabeck Coach's Bios Will be released the week prior to tryouts For more information contact: Tony Lessel, Hockey Director TonyL@floridaeverblades.com - 239-948-7825 x1303 Upon his release he had rebuilt his empire and now, according to The Hartford Courant, was worth more than $100 million. He was a defenseman and hit a kid, Galante said. The pediatric emergency room at Danbury Hospital was named for Galante after he helped fund it. He searched two places, one actual, one virtual. They were always pulling them out late, clearing the bench, fighting and celebrating. And fans werent the only ones who found the Trashers; players did too. He was a star in the UHL, having scored 43 goals for the Port Huron. Then AJ had gotten hurt. The Kalamazoo Wings were a Minor Professional hockey team based in Kalamazoo, MI playing in the United Hockey League from 2000 to 2007. But it wasn't just the players who were punished. Right before the league's trade deadline in March 2006, Jimmy and A.J. Needless to say it was gobbled right up.The documentary has taken the hockey and sports worlds by storm. Besides, what choice did he have? (I wanted to bring something back to the community, Galante told me when I spoke with him in February.) Steve Lynch has been coaching ice hockey for over 20 years. My father said, out of nowhere, If I ever buy a hockey team, youre going to run it. I was like, Yeah, sure. Then, two days later, he said, Okay, I bought the team. True to his word, Galante made his son the teams general manager. I will. What followed was a process of trial and error, with the couple purchasing equipment and constantly refining it to fit Brendas needs. The winning goal came in the third overtime. I remember asking, Why does he have the full mask? Someone told me, Hes only got one eye. Hed lost vision in the othera stick through the visor. "My dad always put me in sink-or-swim-type situations," he says. For all that's happened, the kid still idolizes his father. Some fights started spontaneously, following a big hit. Wiretaps of thousands of phone calls between Automated Waste Disposal employees and representatives of other trash companies in 2004 and '05 revealed a variety of criminal activities. "You got us a guy with one eye? Though the camp was postponed until September, the St. Clairs decided to head south, meeting Vogel at Ice Line in West Chester, where he learned to skate as a kid. NHL hockey fights, brawls, scrums, roughs, hits,. But his passion for sports never faded. And Galante had the money. The Trashers still trigger strong responses in Danbury, too. He graduated from Manhattanville with a business management degree in 2008 and bought into a New York City company that sells heating oil and diesel fuel. The roster was constantly in flux, but it usually had more enforcers than players in need of protection. First of all, if you look at the bus, it was pretty sick, Mario Larocque told me. The New York Yankees have the Boston Red Sox; the Chicago Bears, the Green Bay Packers. She had tears in her eyes and was thanking us so much. For a few hours, hockey had given Brenda a sense of normalcy to which Vogel can relate. "The camaraderie with the Galante familythe laughs, the dinnersit's sad," Pomposello says, his voice catching. John was the originalfounding member of the South Florida First Youth Hockey League. A tale of goons, no-show jobs, and a legendary minor-league franchise that helped land its owner in prison. Whether people deny it or not, everyone loves a hockey fight.. One of the featured players, Brad \"Wingnut\" Wingfield plays a significant role in the film. ago] Height 6.02 -- Weight 205 [188 cm/93 kg] Regular Season. Today he represents Frank Galarza (11-0-2), the New York State light middleweight champ. She started playing hockey, in her wheelchair. As he explained, No matter what type of day you had when you go out on the ice for an hour, hour and a half or two hours you forget everything that happened that day and you focus on that black little puck. He caught Josh Elzinga in a corner, called him out, beat him down. FUNNY THING about Connecticut: It's one of the wealthiest states, but it also has a good many broke cities and hard-ass working-class towns. The government seized most of his assets, including 25 trash companies and a string of race cars. In the indictment filed by the U.S. Attorneys office, Galante was charged with 72 counts, including extortion, witness tampering, and racketeering. One team employee had the inspired idea of buying fresh fish and placing it in the HVAC ducts above the visiting locker room. They led the league in penalty minutes. After hearing ESPN hockey commentator Barry Melrose, a co-owner of the Frostbite, trash the Trashers on the radio, an enraged A.J. He is prohibited from reentering the carting business in New York or Connecticut, but his plea bargain makes no mention of minor league hockey. The jerseys featured the team mascot, Scrappy, a garbage can with the lid raised just enough to reveal two almond-shaped eyes peering from the darkness. "You had blue-collar guys banging on the glass. What happened Josh Elzinga? Jimmy pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, tax fraud, and wire fraud. Catalyzed by their new scorer, the Trashers cruised through the regular season, finishing 48--17. I was on the bench, Doug Christiansen told me. Hes working to turn Danbury into a boxing meccaup there with Oxnard, California., Galante got out of prison in 2014. People were like, What the hells going on over there? And theyd do some research and see how young I was, and the fatherson dynamic and the type of fighters. He's 27 now. Player after player came by the house to show support. He was born in the Bronx but grew up in bucolic South Salem, New York; did a stint in the Air Force; and then took a job driving a garbage truck. 2005-2006 UHL Fight - Danbury Trashers Brad Wingfield Takes Revenge On Josh Elzinga Who Ended His 2004-2005 Season On A Slew Footing Incident The Broke Winge. To Galante, it was a rounding error. - Connect directly with players, coaches, teams, scouts and agents (optional) Galante spent $3 million to refurbish the Danbury Ice Arena. AJ filled out the roster with a mix of has-beens and might-bes. says, shifting uneasily in his seat. The Trashers' most notorious festival of violence had taken place on Dec. 1, 2004, when they hosted the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Wings. Listen to the trailer for Holy Week. Josh Elzinga player profile, stats and championships. "But you got to stir it up sometimes.". ", Occasionally, though, Jimmy betrayed a temper and turned it on his team. (A.J. wasn't the only reason Galante drew comparisons with Tony Soprano. . "People love to watch him perform. He also played one season for the Russia Omsk of the KHL. The game turned into a riot, everyone taking a run at everyone else. says wistfully. AJ did one of his first press calls on a cellphone in a New Fairfield High School hallway, the interview ending abruptly when a teacher walked by. 2002-03 Chicago Steel #6 Josh Elzinga: 2004-05 Kalamazoo Wings #3 Josh Elzinga: 2005-06 Kalamazoo Wings #3 Josh Elzinga Mahfuz riad. began moonlighting as a boxing manager. Defense. HOCKEY IS BACK!!!. Now, the younger Galante has embraced boxing instead of hockey. "It comes right from the top.". Josh Doan and Jack Judson scored for the Sun Devils (15-19-0), who were forced to play a man short against the Nanooks (19-10-2) due to mounting . According to authorities, DeLuca said yes and provided Colella's address. A.J. One night, he got into a shouting match with a stranger who turned out to be the visiting teams general managerthe result being a call to AJ from Richard Brosal, the UHL commissioner, followed by a short suspension. Seven players were sent to the penalty box. We were maybe the toughest team to ever play this game. The Danbury Whalers of the Federal Hockey League now play downtown, and it's fair to wonder whether they would be there were it not for the hockey culture Jimmy Galante started and the arena he built. Mid-season, thats when we really caught fire, AJ told me. starts innumerable sentences, "My dad always says.", Usually so engaging and candid, A.J. "A.J. The second place AJ looked was where any other fan might have: hockeyfights.com, a website that aggregates footage of brawls on the ice. In his 56 games with the Trashers, Wingfield piled up 496 penalty minutes. AL hasattended many coaching seminars and clinics around North America. Such a city will have many of the bad elements of a metropolis and few of the good. First of all, he was a really good player, AJ explained, and second, the name recognition.. Same for Mike Rupp. It was a violent league made of players on the way up, players on the way down, and some players simply holding on, happy to live in the limbo of the minor leagues. My dad wasnt too happy, and in so many words I was told, We need a fucking scorer. I was on spring break from college, and my break consisted of me in my room researching I didnt really have any relationships with other hockey people. It was four years to the day from the Trashers' first game. He made some contacts, hung out in gyms in the Northeast, met some promoters and trainers, and so far he has represented three fighters. "Right from day one, they've said they wanted to be the bad boys of hockey, the most hated team, the Evil Empire," Marc Potvin, coach of the Adirondack Frostbite, one of the Trashers' rivals, disapprovingly told the Toronto Star in February 2005. He had me arrested in the locker room. He would also wash the Trashers' jerseys in Crisco and slather Vaseline on their helmets so opponents couldn't grab hold in a fight. At a press conference on April 1, Galante also introduced the team's 17-year-old president, who had just bought a suit for the occasion. (VOY: "Shattered") Following the loss of the USS Voyager, Johnson was devastated, but he held out hope that Janeway and the rest of the crew were alive longer than most people did. ", The Galantes put the rowdiest boosters behind the opposing bench. "Al Davis, he was a wild man with a team full of outlaws, and that's how I wanted to be. "He must've thought he was on Punk'd or something. AJ spent the summer after his senior year assembling a roster. A.J. Marc specializes in the full spectrum of athlete development. After he was released on $1 million bond, he was asked whether he had any comment. In 2004, this meant buying a minor-league-hockey franchise and installing it at the local youth rink, the Danbury Ice Arena. His accomplishments includeover 30 wins across the World, along with competing with Team USA at World Championships. That meant late-night sessions on hockeydb.com, where he searched for telling stats. Parents were warned to keep children away. In the first period Wagner instigated a fight, and an all-out brawl broke out. Most recently in the AAHL with Chicago Blaze. Rupp had played two seasons in the NHL and had even scored the decisive goal for the Devils in the 2003 Stanley Cup finals. Join Facebook to connect with Josh Elzinga and others you may know. Al grew up and was raised in small-town Manitoba and played all levels of minor and senior hockey. If you search Jim Duhart, those are what you find: Jim Duhart versus Tom Clayton, Jim Duhart versus Jason Taylor. AJ and I would stand up there and look at the teams that were coming to play us, Galante told me. SHOWTIME The Trashers didn't just start fights. They were both in waste management, and both possessed an undeniable charm that compensated for their rough edges. When linesman James Harper approached him, they engaged in a shouting match, and Jimmy reportedly gave Harper a fat lip. Torres said he lost confidence at . The issue was a letter he wanted Harper to send the commissioner, absolving Galante: Tell him that it is fucking imperative that we get that letter that Harpers gonna write to Brosal. Galante added what the referee should say in the letter: After coolin off and thinking about it for a few days I was just as much at fault. Harper never sent such a letter, but another wiretap captured Viento on the phone with Brosal: I was asked to give you a call, but not to give you a call, so that you would never be put in the predicament where somebody said that you were called. (Brosal denied any effort at coercion. Sep 30, 1984 Position D Age 38 Height 5'11" / 180 cm Place of Birth Burbank, IL, USA Weight 183 lbs / 83 kg Nation USA Shoots L Youth Team - Status Retired Brother: Adam Elzinga Team Staff profile of Joshua Elzinga also available Use/Embed statistics Default Per Game Average Coaches Played For Player Statistics Regular Season + Postseason , Okay, I bought the team banging on the bench, fighting and celebrating `` Davis!, one actual, one actual, one actual, one virtual quietly... 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