Not surprisingly, but nonetheless disappointingly, the seasoned and accredited Rhode Island media passed over yet another intriguing Providence Bruins’ story. Tonight, the P-Bruins will host the fifth incarnation of the Charlotte Checkers, who entered the AHL this autumn as the Carolina Hurricanes’ new feeder club.
One may recall that a previous version of the Checkers –who also played in the defunct Eastern League from 1956-73 and the bygone Southern League from 1973-77- were Boston’s Double-A affiliate from their inception in the ECHL in 1993 until 1998, when their auspices shuffled over to the New York Rangers.
During the Checkers’ five-year partnership with the Spokespeople, the following 30 players saw action in both Providence and Charlotte:
Howie Rosenblatt, RW (both teams 1993-95)
Sergei Berdnikov, LW (Providence 1993-94, Charlotte 1993-95)
Roman Gorev, F (Providence 1993-94, Charlotte 1993-95)
Derek Eberle, D (Providence 1993-95, Charlotte 1993-94)
Matt Robbins, F (Providence 1993-94, Charlotte 1993-97)
Scott Lindsay, RW (Providence 1993-94, Charlotte 1993-95)
Scott Bailey, G (Providence 1993-97, Charlotte 1993-94)
Andre Bashrikov, RW (Providence 1993-94, Charlotte 1993-95)
Dominic Amodeo, C (Both teams 1993-94)
Scott Meehan, D (Providence 1993-94, Charlotte 1993-96)
Kurt Seher, D (Providence 1992-95, Charlotte 1993-2003)
Evgeni Ryabchikov, G (Providence 1994-97, Charlotte 1995-97)
Rob Tallas, G (Providence 1994-98, Charlotte 1994-95)
Steve Norton, D (Both teams 1994-95)
Bill McCauley, D (Providence 1995-98, Charlotte 1996-98)
Andre Roy, LW (Providence 1995-98, Charlotte 1997-98)
Milt Mastad, D (Providence 1995-96, Charlotte 1996-98)
Scott Kirton, RW (Providence 1995-96, Charlotte 1995-97)
Charles Paquette, D (Both teams 1995-98)
Joe Crowley, LW (Charlotte 1994-95, Providence 1995-96)
Shawn Wheeler, LW (Charlotte 1994-97, Providence 1995-96)
Brad Konik, C (Both teams 1996-97)
Justin Gould, D (Providence 1996-97, Charlotte 1996-98)
Paxton Schafer, G (Providence 1996-99, Charlotte 1996-98)
P.C. Drouin, LW (Providence 1996-98, Charlotte 1997-98)
Andrei Yakhanov, D (Both teams 1997-98)
Kimbi Daniels, C (Charlotte 1995-97, Providence 1997-98)
Antti Laaksonen, LW (Providence 1997-00, Charlotte 1997-98)
Eric Naud, LW (Both teams 1997-98)
Richard Uniake, C (Both teams 1997-98)
Quick feeds: Goaltender David Brumby also dressed for the P-Bruins and Checkers in the 1998-99 season, though the alliance had officially ended by then. Brumby and Laaksonen both exulted in the Spoked-Ps 1999 Calder Cup championship…Five other players –Kirton, Meehan, Paquette Seher, and Wheeler- partook in Charlotte’s Kelly Cup title in 1996…Of the 30 players listed, Laaksonen saw the most cumulative action with the P-Bruins, appearing in 144 games and charging up 85 points…Robbins is the ECHL Checkers’ second all-time leading scorer with 340 points in 256 career games…Seher played in Charlotte from 1993-2003, overlapping the teams’ affiliations with Boston and the Rangers, and logged a franchise-high 593 games played…Bailey, Drouin, Laaksonen, Roy, Schafer, and Tallas all garnered a few ice chips of regular season action in Boston.
