Some of us had never seen Mark Kaufman, the somewhat hyper-intense individual who coaches the Richmond Renegades, just throw back his head and laugh. Catch him at the wrong time, which could be any time, and Kaufman comes across as if he's wrapped tighter than a Christmas present.
Kaufman wasn't laughing off his team's chances in the upcoming East Coast Hockey League playoffs, which begin next week. The Renegades haven't exactly come down the stretch like Secretariat, but they've survived the "dog days" phase of the regular season with their roster, their health and their record in good condition.
Except for high-scoring center Ryan Kraft, who's been called up and won't be back down, Richmond should have excellent roster stability. The Gades have even insured against a coach's most acute playoff fear -- a run of injuries through his group of defensemen -- by retaining six defenders and a seventh, Dan Vandermeer, who doubles as a forward.
Then there's the Max Factor. The one player Richmond could -- and probably will -- add for the postseason is goalie Maxime Gingras, who's already been informed he won't be on the AHL Providence Bruins' playoff roster.
Gingras, last year's ECHL Rookie of the Year and Goalie of the Year as a Renegade, should be back in town by April 9 at the latest. That's the night Providence closes its regular season. Since Richmond will probably open its initial playoff series April 6, Kaufman's all in favor of an earlier arrival, which remains possible.
"Max hasn't had a smooth year up there," said Kaufman. "We'd like to start getting him reacclimated. He's been dealing with some things he hasn't dealt with before."
Extensive bench time, for one. Losing, for another.
Gingras' record in Providence is 3-7-1. With their regular goalie, 32-year-old NHL vet Kay Whitmore, the Bruins are 17-16-1. Gingras' goals-against average last year in Richmond was 2.26. In Rhode Island, it's 3.07.
Gingras also did two short tours with this year's Renegades (5-1-1, 2.22).
"The first time he came back he was very sharp," said Kaufman. "The second time, he struggled a little bit. We'd like some time to see where he is now."
That's unlikely. Kaufman easily could be faced with a situation where he could be presented with Gingras in the middle of a first-round series, which is only a best-of-five. Kaufman may have only one practice to evaluate Gingras' readiness to play.
"That's what you call an interesting coaching situation," said Kaufman.
It's made more interesting by the fact that Renegades fans, and perhaps Kaufman's holdover players, may not see Gingras as a 21-year-old kid who's been slightly bruised by a frustrating season.
In Richmond, Gingras may always be the impossibly undersized goalie who showed up without any hype just before the 1998 opener and wound up carrying the team all the way to Game 7 of the Kelly Cup finals.
"People who blame Max because we lost the last three games of that series are still missing it," said Renegades President Harry Feuerstein. "We lost because we were down to four defensemen. Mississippi finally figured out we could be worn down and overwhelmed if they just threw everything they had into attacking us."
The Renegades close the regular season with a span of four games in five days, beginning with last night's home-ice meeting with Johnstown. Absent Gingras, Kaufman would like to see one of his current goalies -- Tommy Noble and Dennis Bassett -- assert himself as a potential playoff mainstay.
However Noble and Bassett may fare, the thought was posed to Kaufman that some people would expect to see Gingras in the nets the day after he was officially restored to the roster.
"Some people!" said Kaufman. "How about you, me and six or seven thousand other people!"
I can still hear him laughing.
(c) Richmond Times Dispatch 2000