FHL: Who will be the first to fold
- Thread starter AHLFAN
- Start date
Someone please put this league in the dirt and soon so others don't make the mistake of playing there. Im for the players, but this league needs to be demolished once and for all!
No heat in rooms. Not being paid. Not being fed. Having to get own transportation on out of town games..... I could go on but I see no more need to waste my breath.
Die FHL and do the country a big favor.
No heat in rooms. Not being paid. Not being fed. Having to get own transportation on out of town games..... I could go on but I see no more need to waste my breath.
Die FHL and do the country a big favor.
Awesome, I was told I could get at least a 1-game tryout next season, so I'll fit right in!
ckg927
Registered User
Uh...have you heard any of his speeches over the past few months?
That's all I have to say about THAT!(Mostly because I don't want to bring politics onto a hockey board.)
Cyclones Rock
Registered User
- Jun 12, 2008
- 10,601
- 6,526
Awesome! Good luck.
While I don't get why or how the FHL stays around, I can tell you that if I were young and had a shot to play anything called pro hockey for even a day, then I'd do it in a heartbeat.
alko
Registered User
SemireliableSource
Liter-a-cola
The Port Huron Prowlers are one win away from the championship of the FHL! The championship series is the best of 5 with the Prowlers taking the first two in Danbury. It has been a fun series so far. I know this league takes a lot of abuse, and some well deserved, but it is pretty entertaining hockey.
I am in no way comparing this league or their hockey skill to the upper level pro hockey leagues, but they are giving the fans some things that "old school" hockey fans enjoy. The scoring is fun. Your team can be down 3 entering the 3rd period and your team is still in the game. The NHL keeps tinkering with things to get more scoring because they know that low scoring is a negative to a lot of fans. Scoring is fun and so are the fights that many games have. It may not have all the skill and speed of other pro leagues, but these players came from junior and college programs. If you think about it, some of these players still hold out hope of playing at the next level, but most are playing for the pure love of the game. Isn't that a pretty neat thing. Many of us fans would have loved to have had that opportunity. Aren't we all guilty of over analyzing this league? Anyway, thanks Prowlers and the FHL for giving us some fun this winter in Port Huron. If the boys win the Cup this weekend, we will be proud of all of them and our hockey fans will celebrate just like any other championship town would do. Go Prowlers!
I am in no way comparing this league or their hockey skill to the upper level pro hockey leagues, but they are giving the fans some things that "old school" hockey fans enjoy. The scoring is fun. Your team can be down 3 entering the 3rd period and your team is still in the game. The NHL keeps tinkering with things to get more scoring because they know that low scoring is a negative to a lot of fans. Scoring is fun and so are the fights that many games have. It may not have all the skill and speed of other pro leagues, but these players came from junior and college programs. If you think about it, some of these players still hold out hope of playing at the next level, but most are playing for the pure love of the game. Isn't that a pretty neat thing. Many of us fans would have loved to have had that opportunity. Aren't we all guilty of over analyzing this league? Anyway, thanks Prowlers and the FHL for giving us some fun this winter in Port Huron. If the boys win the Cup this weekend, we will be proud of all of them and our hockey fans will celebrate just like any other championship town would do. Go Prowlers!
Last edited:
CMUBrent
Registered User
- Jan 23, 2007
- 38
- 4
I was at last night's game. Entertaining game, and great to see the Prowlers clinch on home ice. It was also great to see a decent-sized crowd at McMorran again. Any time there's around 1800+ in that old barn, it gets LOUD in there.
If you take the FHL for what it is (a generally unstable league that's the lowest level of minor pro) and factor in that Port Huron likely can't draw enough per game to keep a team in a higher-level league (IE: ECHL, OHL, USHL), it's not that bad. Definitely better than I was expecting, and better than what Lapeer had in 2010.
Port Huron World ChampsRe: FHL expansion: Do they require arenas to be able to make real ice or is synthetic ice acceptable?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_ice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_ice
Cyclones Rock
Registered User
- Jun 12, 2008
- 10,601
- 6,526
The FHL makes no sense from an economic or competitive standpoint.
I've attended games for the past 4 years in Dayton and the quality of the product gets worse. I'll bet if I went to the best beet league games in Cincinnati that I'd see more skill. Retired ECHLers and NCAA div I players are better in their mid 30s than the FHL "talent" more than likely. The quality in Dayton has been such garbage over the past 2 years that I've only attended 3 or 4 games in that span-just one this year.
Nobody goes to any of the games in any of the cities. Every team is guaranteed to lose money. No one is going to affiliate with these teams. There's no hope in their business model. That's been obvious for several years.
MOD
I've attended games for the past 4 years in Dayton and the quality of the product gets worse. I'll bet if I went to the best beet league games in Cincinnati that I'd see more skill. Retired ECHLers and NCAA div I players are better in their mid 30s than the FHL "talent" more than likely. The quality in Dayton has been such garbage over the past 2 years that I've only attended 3 or 4 games in that span-just one this year.
Nobody goes to any of the games in any of the cities. Every team is guaranteed to lose money. No one is going to affiliate with these teams. There's no hope in their business model. That's been obvious for several years.
MOD
Last edited by a moderator:
From what amateur leagues are they getting guys worse than beer leaguers and retired ECHLers? Did they even play junior or college hockey?
I'm still salty about the Williamsport fiasco. But I hear people talk about the MAHL days which is a good comparison, and they say the play wasn't great but it was sure fun. I wish my college town would get a team just for how much like Slap Shot it is.
The Port Huron Prowlers won the Commissioner's Cup in the Federal Hockey League and thanks again to Mike "Doc" Emrick for mentioning the championship win on his national hockey broadcast. Again, fun season and I hope for the same next year. St. Clair Shores Michigan is talked to be an expansion city next season for the FHL. The arena is about 45 miles from McMorran Arena in Port Huron.
royals119
Registered User
I looked at hockey db a while back to check that out. There were players with various backgrounds, but some had played only a couple games at a div 3 college, or part of a season of bantam's. Looked like they were literally signing guys from the local rec leagues. That wasn't every player, but there were lots of them.
I am quite certain that those who post negatively about the FHL come from outside the FHL markets, likely most anyway. The FHL fills a void for hockey fans hailing from small cities or larger towns unable to operate higher levels of hockey, or having since been abandoned from higher levels of hockey or in population decline. The idea is great, what's not so great is stories of players and arena operators not getting paid. If the economics aren't working then don't launch a team or stop the bleeding quick before young men, team staffers, and local community business people get stiffed. It's too bad the FHL cannot operate a little more like the stable SPHL but I am sure it fills the desire of hockey fans who enjoy going to the games, sport the logos of a hometown team, and gives someone an opportunity to get some compensation to play a game they love. It's sad to see Danbury having been beaten down as a market. Danbury was the foundation of the league, and even Berkshire last season appeared to show potential.....The FHL has some fixing to do if it wants to shore up its future.
That's worse than i thought. I was thinking D3 or club college players. I figured it couldn't be CHL third or fourth liners or CJHL second or third liners who had used up their CIS eligibility or finished school as the quality of play would be much higher.
royals119 I looked up every player on the Prowlers roster this year. Every player had Junior hockey experience. Almost every player has muliple year Pro hockey experience at a higher level than the FHL.
210
Registered User
Can you point those players out to me?
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0074412016.html
SemireliableSource
Liter-a-cola
Keep in mind the Prowlers won the championship. They finished the regular season with 102 points (FHL used the three point system this year) with a record of 29 wins, 7 OT wins, 1 OT loss, and 18 regulation losses. Teams like Brewster and Berlin had just over half the amount of points Port Huron did and Port Huron actually finished the regular season in second place.
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