Welcome to Episode 3 of Days of our……..I’m sorry, honest mistake. The way the FPHL is run, it might as well be a soap opera. I meant the 3rd edition of Federal Offense. My semi-weekly FPHL recap. I apologize for missing last week, I was fighting the flu then a serious sinus infection, and I’m just recovering. So, I hope you’ll understand that this week will be a little shorter.
When we left off, the Mississippi Sea Wolves were riding high after sweeping the Carolina Thunderbirds. The last two weeks, they hung in there with the first place Columbus River Dragons, well, almost. They started off last Friday pushing the Dragons to overtime, falling 7-6, then dropping a thrilling 8-5 game on Saturday. The wheels fell off this past Saturday, getting wiped out by Columbus 7-1. Bad news came for the Sea Wolves late last week when Player/Head Coach Joe Pace Jr announced he was stepping away from the team for personal reasons, releasing himself as a player and resigning as Coach.
Columbus also took on the woeful Baton Rouge Zydeco, dispatching them Friday 8-5. Baton Rouge was in action last weekend, facing the Blue Ridge Bobcats Friday and Sunday, falling 3-2 and 4-1. More of this later.
The Carolina Thunderbirds rebounded last week from their embarrassing losses to Mississippi, by sweeping the defending Champion Danbury Hat Tricks 3-2 in overtime and 4-3. This week they won a pair of matchups, defeating Blue Ridge 3-1 on Saturday and 4-1 Wednesday.
Danbury’s woes continued after getting swept by Carolina, perhaps hitting their lowest point of the season, getting swept by the Elmira River Sharks, 7-3 on Friday, 6-3 Saturday.
Elmira tried to hold their momentum, upsetting the Binghamton Black Bears Sunday, 6-3, only to be knocked back to reality by the Bears on Wednesday with a 10-2 trouncing.
Binghamton was only in action once last week, defeating the Motor City Rockers 6-3, this week they also faced Motor City, defeating them 7-5 Friday, but falling Saturday 3-1.
In-between those, Motor City took a pair from Watertown, 7-6 and 6-3. The Wolves also dropped a pair of 4-3 losses to Port Huron.
The Prowlers needed the bounce back wins over Watertown, after struggling last week against Elmira, dropping the first 5-1 and needing a late goal to sneak away with a 5-4 win.
I think I got it all, I apologize if I missed anything.
This week’s completely biased and unscientific power rankings.
11: Baton Rouge Zydeco(NC)
What more do I need to say? They’ve lost 8 straight and 13 of their last 15. It’s hard to argue against them being the worst team in the league. It’s sad, because they have a solid fan base.
10: Danbury Hat Tricks(-3)
My how the mighty have fallen. It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the defending Champs, getting swept by Carolina was bad enough, but to follow it up with a sweep by Elmira was just a gut punch. They seriously need to get some scoring in there or it’s going to be a long summer.
9: Watertown Wolves(NC)
Getting swept by Motor City and Port Huron knocked them into last place, the only bright spot, at least they have a better record than the Zydeco.
8: Blue Ridge Bobcats(NC)
It wasn’t a bad two weeks for the Bobcats, taking a pair from Baton Rouge, but losing to Carolina and Columbus keeps them here.
7: Mississippi Sea Wolves(-4)
What a fall, from a hot streak, to losing 6 straight and losing their coach. I’m optimistic they can turn things around, hiring FPHL vet Dustin Skinner as the new Head Coach. Only time will tell.
6: Elmira River Sharks(+4)
Never thought I’d see this, I thought it was a fever dream, but Elmira surged. Sweeping Danbury and upsetting Binghamton. The 10-2 trouncing almost had me knocking them down, but I couldn’t do it.
5: Port Huron Prowlers(+1)
They really only moved up by default because Mississippi dropped. It was a decent couple of weeks, nothing amazing.
4: Motor City Rockers(+2)
They jumped Port Huron by knocking off Binghamton and sweeping Watertown. Yes, they dropped a pair to the Prowlers, but they still get the edge.
With the Top 3, we now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.
3: Carolina Thunderbirds(+1)
They sure rebounded, picking up a pair of sweeps. They received a massive boost Thursday, trading Goaltender Frankie McClendon to Baton Rouge for Greg Hussey. Hussey was a key part of the Thunderbirds run to the finals last season. No doubt he will be a huge factor moving forward.
2: Binghamton Black Bears(NC)
Despite the upset to Elmira, Binghamton is solidly the #2 team in the league.
1: Columbus River Dragons(NC)
13 in a row. What more is there to say? Columbus is clearly the team to beat.
Not this again? Come on Fed, didn’t we learn anything from last season?
Once again, another FPHL team is having transportation problems. According to a source, last weekend the Baton Rouge Zydeco players had to drive their personal vehicles to Wytheville, VA to take on the Blue Ridge Bobcats. You read that right. Not a van rented by the team, their own personal vehicles. That’s over 800 miles one way. How is it possible, that any professional sports team, regardless of the level, fails provide their players with reliable transportation? Even if it’s a bunch of passenger vans. Forget that they had to drive their own cars, players shouldn’t have to drive themselves PERIOD. These guys are putting their bodies through enough on the ice and playing for peanuts, they should be forced to drive 800 plus miles on top of that. Do better FPHL.
Speaking of doing better, it recently came to light that the FPHL, a processional sports league, has tax exempt status as a non profit. Furthermore, players aren’t “paid”, they are “reimbursed” and many are paid with Visa gift cards. Huh? Can somebody, ANYBODY, please make this make sense. If you truly are a professional sports league, how are you getting away with this?
Photo credit – Toni.Hill@prohockeynews.com
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