Tom Rowe believes. He believes in a team that lost more games than it won last season. He believes in a core of players who failed to make the playoffs. He believes in a spectacular turnaround for the Rampage.
“We don’t just expect to make the playoffs,” said Rowe, the second-year Rampage coach. “We expect to go deep into the playoffs.”
He means it, and he has his reasons. The Rampage return as many as 19 players from last season, including right wing Bobby Butler, who led the team with 47 points (22 goals, 25 assists), and left wing Quinton Howden, who recorded 27 points in 59 games for the Rampage and 10 for the Florida Panthers in 16 games.
Centers Vincent Trocheck (16G, 26A) and Drew Shore (6G, 26A) also return. Four blue chip prospects will join them: defenseman Jonathan Racine, forwards Garrett Wilson and Logan Shaw and goalie Michael Houser.
Rowe’s optimism, though, is rooted in more than new and returning talent. He gets to start the season with training camp and players buying into his system. That wasn’t the case last year.
Eleven games into the 2013-14 season, Rowe became coach. He inherited a team on Nov. 8 that had lost six games, a team that had lost its coach, Peter Horachek, to the Florida Panthers. Rowe spent the first few weeks observing players, practice habits and the system of the previous coach.
He noticed the players were not practicing hard. The pace was too slow. Rowe introduced his own system, a set of new demands, and the Rampage responded.
“They needed to learn to push themselves,” he said. “I told them, ‘You go fast. You go hard. The only way to get in good shape is to practice at game speed.’ Then all of a sudden you saw guys not pacing themselves. They put in 45 minutes of hard work. It took one month to get them to practice right. It took another month to get them to do it consistently.”
As January turned into February, the results showed on the AHL ice. The Rampage completed the best Rodeo Road Trip in franchise history -- 7-2-0-1 -- and excitement grew. Then the Panthers began calling up players and the team lost momentum. The Rampage finished the season 30-37-3-6 and failed to make the playoffs.
At the end of the season, Rowe took time to learn from his own mistakes. Exit interviews indicated players embraced the new intensity and fast pace of practice. But they also believed Rowe came down too hard at times. Though it went against his nature, Rowe decided to pull back.
Now Rowe has an entire training camp to prepare his team. “We’ve got a very good foundation,” he said.
The first preseason game offered a promising glimpse. Butler scored two goals and goalie Dan Ellis had 24 saves on 27 shots to propel the Rampage past the Oklahoma City Barons, 4-3, Saturday at the AT&T Center.
“Bobby came back in great shape,” Rowe said. “Hopefully, he gets a chance to get called up to Florida. But he’s focused on here.”
Rowe is especially pleased with his veteran leadership: older players pushing younger players and holding them accountable. A favorite is defenseman Greg Zanon, whom Rowe says coached less experienced teammates in the locker room last season.
“We know the work ethic we need,” Zanon said. “We know the system we are playing and what Tom wants for us. Guys are going to be prepared to push right from the beginning, No more feeling out process. We know what to expect. … We are going to go ‘guns-a-blazin.’”