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Wednesday, October 20, 1999
Hall dialed long distance to get key player Gilmore
By Mark Button
Caller-Times
Taylor Hall can thank his cellular phone for landing Dave Gilmore.
The second-year IceRays coach had written off the speedy 5-foot-9, 175-pound rookie after Hall heard Gilmore went to Austria to play professional hockey this year.
Taylor's former Vancouver Canuck teammate, Al MacAdam, sold Hall on Gilmore, who played under MacAdam at St. Thomas University in Canada.
But what Hall hadn't heard was things didn't work out for Gilmore in Austria and Gilmore was back home in St. Thomas, Ontario, looking for a team.
Then Hall got the call.
"I was shocked," Hall said. "I never expected to hear from him. I mean, he was in Austria."
He was, until the league started playing politics.
"You can only have eight import players on a team there, eight non-Austrian players," said Gilmore, who has two goals and one assist in three games. "We had eight, counting myself. Then they said that two of our players who were Austrian-Canadian were going to count as imports."
After skating with the club for 11/2 months, Gilmore said he and another rookie came back to North America instead of waiting to see what would happen.
"(Our team) probably would have won in court, but I didn't want to wait," he said. "Plus, there were money problems. We weren't getting paid on time, and as a rookie, you have enough to worry about without having to worry about your paycheck."
Word got out quickly that Gilmore was back.
"I had a few East Coast (Hockey League) and West Coast (Hockey League) teams calling me, but Taylor was the only coach who kept calling me," Gilmore said. "Other coaches would call and leave messages and when I called them back, it took a couple days to get them. Taylor was always available and he always called. He even gave me phone numbers of other guys down here."
Gilmore said Hall's availability (cell phone) and persistence were impressive. Gilmore said those reasons were heavy factors in his decision to come to Corpus Christi, but they weren't the only reasons.
"I also heard he had three legitimate heavyweights in (Geoff) Bumstead, (Brad) Wingfield and (Kevin) Holliday," Gilmore said. "So I knew this would be a good place to play for protection."
Hall has Gilmore playing alongside Wingfield, a brick wall of a forward who has already drawn blood from two players with his fists. Gilmore's game - he's quick and shifty, sees the entire ice surface and can make the difficult pass with precision - works best when he has room to move on the ice. A tough player like Wingfield gives Gilmore that room, Hall said.
"Chris Robertson plays well with Geoff Bumstead on his line," Hall said. "Dave playing with Winger should really help him. Plus, Winger's a really good player, too."
IceCubes
SKAYZK CRACKS TOP 10: IceRays goalie Eddy Skayzk ranks sixth in the WPHL for goaltenders after his one game in net for Corpus Christi. Skayzk stopped 30 of 32 shots for a .938 save percentage. Monroe's Marten Engren posted a shutout (31 saves) to lead the league with perfect, 1.000 save percentage.
SECOND IN WPHL: The IceRays' 29 minor penalties ranks second in the league behind San Angelo's 37. Corpus Christi forward Mike Tomlinson is tied with San Angelo's Darren Wright for the most individual minors (six).
Staff writer Mark Button can be reached at 886-3613 or by e-mail at buttonm@caller.com
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