Tuesday, April 16, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
THERE'S A phenomenon common to many minor leagues where regular-season games outdraw playoff contests, but that's probably OK with Thunder general manager Bob Strumm.
That means the upper regions of the hostile buildings the Thunder will visit during the second season may be devoid of spectators, giving Strumm plenty of room in which to pace and throw back double shots of Pepto-Bismol.
Actually, the Pepto-Bismol part isn't exactly true -- Strumm prefers the chewable tablets. But his pacing is genuine.
When the Thunder unexpectedly was bounced in the first round of the '94 playoffs by the San Diego Gulls, Strumm was strolling to and fro in the nosebleed sections of the decrepit San Diego Sports Arena, way up where the weird acoustic booms hang from the ceiling. Expectant fathers in the maternity ward looked less nervous.
Now in his third year as Thunder braintrust, Strumm claims his watch isn't wound quite so tight. He says that like most GMs, he is comfortable viewing the talented team he has assembled from the press area or owner's box.
But let's not forget this is a driven man who once Xeroxed a photo of the Turner Cup and tacked it up on his living room wall for inspiration.
"There is a bit of a helpless feeling," concedes Strumm, a control freak who appointed himself head coach last season to assume more of it, before handing the reins to right-hand man Chris McSorley before the first faceoff of '95-96.
"But as much confidence as we have in the coaching staff and players, I'm able to just watch and let it happen."
Strumm publicly accepts none of the credit for Las Vegas' 122-point season (the third-highest total in IHL history), although it is his shrewd mid- and late-season trades that have the club looking like the IHL equivalent of the Red Wings.
The closest he comes to a self-inflicted pat on the back is when he says "I'd much rather drive a 12-cylinder Mercedes 180 mph than a Volkswagen 55 miles mph" -- his way of indicating he has provided McSorley with championship ingredients.
McSorley's past ECHL and roller hockey title teams suggest he knows how to cook up a winner. But there's still no accounting for the puck's weird bounces or an opponent's hot goaltender -- two things that could negate the Thunder's playoff edge.
Strumm, McSorley, the players, -- heck, probably even team mascot Boom Boom -- probably will consider anything less than a championship a bigger disgrace than Sasha Lakovic's PIM total.
But if they don't wind up sipping their favorite beverage from the Cup, they can take solace that each and every one -- even Lakovic -- has aided and abetted in making Las Vegas, of all places, a viable hockey market.
As Strumm aptly puts it, "When you've got 7,000 people in the building on a Tuesday night booing the power play because we don't score a goal, you realize how much you've accomplished."
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