The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Timing helped Ice Breakers avoid Rumble Bees’ fate
Commissioner Don Kirnan on March 16 officially canceled the remainder of the FPHL regular season and the playoffs because of fallout from the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Players from all 10 teams, including the Mentor Ice Breakers, scattered. The ones that toiled in Battle Creek in the inaugural season of the Rumble Bees headed to their various homes in the United States and Canada, and as each walked wearily through the front door he could look his parents in the eye and say:
“Pa, Ma, at least we weren’t the Windsor Ryancretes.”
And then a commiserating group hug would follow.
The Rumble Bees finished their first season 1-45-0-2. The “2” represents two overtime losses in addition to 45 losses in regulation.
The Ryancretes once played in the now defunct International Hockey League (1945-2001), the home of the Cleveland Lumberjacks. The Ryancretes were 0-31-6 (six tied games) in 1948-49. They lasted one more season, going 10-25-5 in 1949-50, and then folded.
Which record is worse, 1-45-0-2 or 0-31-6, might make for a good bar room debate over a couple beers.
Had the FPHL’s timing been different, the 201819 Ice Breakers might have been the 2019-20 Rumble Bees.
The Ice Breakers came to life as an expansion team in August 2018, making the FPHL a six-team league. The Bees became the league’s 10th team a year later.
Both teams missed out on an expansion draft because each was formed too close to the start of the season they began play. Battle Creek had the added challenge of being a new team competing with nine other teams for players. The Ice Breakers competed with five other teams.
By the time Battle Creek started signing players, the talent pool was so picked over and diluted, a nod to the question “Can you skate?” was about the only requirement to earning a roster spot.
Bees general manager Adam Stio fired head coach Clint Hagmaier after the team started 0-9. Stio took Hagmaier’s spot behind the bench. It soon became obvious coaching wasn’t the problem.
Battle Creek followed the 0-9 start with 15 more straight losses. They were 0-24 before beating the Elmira Enforcers, 2-1, in Elmira on Jan. 3.
Perhaps you remember how emotional the
Browns were after they beat the Chargers, 20-17, after being 0-14 at kickoff on Christmas Eve 2016? A similar party was cut short in the Bees’ locker room.
“A lot of these guys were rookies,” Stio said March 30 in a phone interview with the News-Herald. “You really have to look at it in terms of 56 games. The guys looked at it as, ‘We just got our first win! This is awesome! This is amazing!’
“Here I come into the locker room, a Debbie Downer, and say, ‘Congrats, but we still have a game to play tomorrow. You can’t go back to the hotel and sip champagne and have a grand old time and expect not to show up to work the next day.’”
One day later, the Enforcers got even, 6-3, and a new losing streak began. The Rumble Bees were showing improvement when the season abruptly ended, but their miserable record exposes how trying bus league hockey can be.
I asked Stio what he could have said to inspire his team when the Bees trailed Delaware, 10-2, after two periods Feb. 28. They were 1-40-0-1 at the time.
“It’s the same thing you say to them all the time — ‘Win the period,’” Stio said. “‘No matter what the adversity is or how it strikes you, your job is to play hockey.’
“‘You have to play for your job every single day, every period, every shift. If you stop, we’re going to bring in somebody else on Monday.’ That’s what you have to remind these guys.”
Delaware won that game, 13-2.
The Rumble Bees’ future in Battle Creek is uncertain. There are rumblings they will fold or the franchise will be moved to another city. Bloomington, Ill., is a possibility.
Stio said he doesn’t know what the future holds for his team.
The Bees were last in the FPHL with an average attendance of 353 a home game, yet even teams that do poorly at the turnstile have devout fans. The Bees were no exception.
“Everybody is a fan of somebody,” Stio said. “A player might think he doesn’t have any fans, but he does. These guys see that.
“You bring them out for an autograph session after a game and a fan will say, ‘No. 5! You really hit that guy!’ You’re my favorite player!’ They won’t even know his name sometimes, but all these guys mean something to somebody.”
The Ice Breakers, 15-300-3 in 2019-20, were 7-0 vs. the Rumble Bees. The Ice Breakers were 17-35-1-5 in 2018-19.