Riders carry on without coach/4 players

CEDAR RAPIDS - Get to know Jeff Dwyer because he's in the saddle for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders the next few days.

Dwyer is the first-year assistant coach for the Riders who is taking over for head coach/general manager Mark Carlson while he and four RoughRiders players are in Canada representing the United States at the World Junior ‘A' Challenge international tournament. The Connecticut native, 29, went to Yale and played five seasons professionally as a defenseman after being drafted in 2000 by the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers.

He spent last season as an assistant coach for the Utah Grizzlies of the professional ECHL, where he actually got to be a head coach for one game because of a suspension to the team's head coach, former New York Islander Kevin Colley.

“It didn't go so well,” Dwyer said. “I'll leave it at that.”

It was a 5-1 loss to Idaho, in case you're wondering. Dwyer expects things to go significantly better this time around, as he is running the show behind the bench for four games, including last night in Chicago and tonight at home against the Steel.

“I wouldn't say (Carlson) necessarily left instructions,” Dwyer said. “But obviously Mark has been here for 10 years and he's got a successful track record. I think I'd be a fool to come in and change too much.

“What I've been saying to the guys is the message is going to remain the same. It's just going to be a different voice delivering that message.”

The really tough part is being without four top players for four games: defenseman Mac Bennett and forwards Jeff Costello, Derek DeBlois and Mike Parks. The Riders enter the weekend tied with Chicago atop the Eastern Division at 6-2.

“Yeah, we've lost four players,” Dwyer said. “But we believe, and we'd said it all year, that we're a pretty deep team. We believe in all the guys."