Welcome to the 4th edition of Federal Offense, my weekly recap of the circus we all love, AKA, the FPHL. It sure has been an eventful week. Like Mom always said, just rip off the band-aid, so let’s get started.
The Baton Rouge Zydeco surprised absolutely nobody last week. It’s been the one constant in the league this season, the mediocrity known as the Zydeco. It started Friday night with an embarrassing 11-1 massacre at the hands of the Columbus River Dragons. Columbus had 8 players with at least 2 points. Saturday was a little better, it was only 4-1, but the big story was the controversy surrounding Head Coach MJ Graham and Matthew Bazarin. Allegedly there was an altercation between the two on Friday. We don’t know who was at fault, but Monday morning Graham was dismissed as Head Coach and replaced by Everett Thompson. Read into that what you will.
The Elmira River Sharks continued their surprising surge last week sweeping the Blue Ridge Bobcats, 3-2 Friday and 4-2 Saturday. It’s a nice change of pace seeing Elmira string together some victories and doing it at the perfect time.
Danbury and Watertown played a triple header last week, Friday Watertown took the 3-2 victory in overtime, but Danbury was able to recover with a pair of convincing wins, 7-1 Saturday and 5-1 Sunday. Hopefully this is the beginning of a turnaround for Danbury.
The Port Huron Prowlers faced their in-state rival Motor City Rockers for a home in home series. Motor City took the victory Friday in PoHo 5-1 and secured the sweep Saturday in Fraser with a 4-3 OT thriller.
The Mississippi Sea Wolves recovered this week and proved to still be the Achilles Heel for the Carolina Thunderbirds. Saturday they rattled off a pair of second period goals to take the 2-1 victory. Saturday was another nail biter, but Carolina was able to pull off the 5-3 victory leaving Biloxi with a split.
My totally biased and unscientific power rankings.
11: Baton Rouge Zydeco(NC)
Do I still have to explain this? Who knows, the coaching change could finally give them a boost. We’ll find out this weekend as they travel to Winston-Salem to face the Thunderbirds.
10: Blue Ridge Bobcats(-2)
They looked promising last week, but getting swept by Elmira drops them this week.
9: Watertown Wolves(NC)
The week started out hopeful, but losing the last 2 to Danbury keeps them at 9.
8: Danbury Hat Tricks(+2)
It was a promising weekend, taking a pair from Watertown in convincing fashion. For a team that’s been lacking a scoring punch, netting 12 in 2 games is a good sign. This week will be a good test when they host a hot Elmira team for a pair and Binghamton for a Sunday matinee.
7: Port Huron Prowlers(-2)
It’s hard to drop the Prowlers, but they did get swept by Motor City.
6: Mississippi Sea Wolves(+1)
They get a little boost by splitting their series with Carolina last week. We’ll see if they can keep it up on the road this week against Blue Ridge and once again Carolina.
5: Elmira River Sharks(+1)
I wanted to rank them higher, but I couldn’t justify them jumping Motor City or Carolina.
4: Carolina Thunderbirds(-1)
This was a tough one, but it’s hard to ignore them splitting their series with Mississippi.
3: Motor City Rockers(+1)
They swept Port Huron and have a similar record to Carolina. They get the slight edge.
2: Binghamton Black Bears(NC)
They were off last week, but they’re still the team to beat in the Empire Division.
1: Columbus River Dragons(NC)
Easy, 15 game winning streak, best record in the league.
My weekly rant
As the Coaching Carousel Turns
Baton Rouge has been a dumpster fire from the beginning, if literally started before they even played a single game. They hired Matt Hamilton as their first Head Coach, but according to multiple sources, he had Visa issues. 2 weeks before their first game, he was replaced by Co-Coaches Paul Maclean and Matthew Fornari. Exactly one month into the season, MacLean and Fornari were fired and replaced by Player/Coach MJ Graham. At least he lasted close to 4 months, as Monday he too was removed as Head Coach and replaced by FPHL veteran Everett Thompson. This makes 5 Coaches in a single season. That is never a good sign for any team, let alone an expansion team. It’s a real shame because they are at the top of the league in attendance. They have an extremely loyal and passionate fanbase, but at some point those fans are bound to get tired of all the changes. It’s to be expected that a new boss will bring in his own guys, but I hope for the sake of their fans, they work and begin to show improvement, because those fans truly deserve better.
Photo Credit –
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