Mudbugs Hockey Blog

A successful hockey team requires more than just talented players and behind the scenes management. It also requires a fan base.The Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs have that fan base.

On any given game day, one will find fans, Bernice Martin, Carolyn Dutton and Shirley Johnson in the stands, cheering on the players.

The ladies, all over the age of 50, may not look like the typical hockey fans, but their enthusiasm for the game speaks for itself.

Conversations with the ladies range from the best player, rules of the game, those “dumb” refeeres, to even the cutest player.

What can stop the ladies from making the trip to CenturyTel on game nights? According to them, nothing.

“We come to every home game unless we are sick,” Dutton said. “Even sickness has a hard time stopping us,” she laughs.

The season tickets holders are just three of the reasons that the Mudbugs fan base continues to grow.

“We tell everyone about the Mudbugs,” Martin said. “It’s just good entertainment.”

Martin and Dutton are from Shreveport and Johnson drives from Cotton Valley as much is possible.

At the end of the night, all three women breath a sigh of relief as John Madden has told the audience that he will not sale the team.

“That’s the right thing to do Mr. Madden. You did the right thing,” Dutton said.
As the ladies rush to get autographs on their jerseys, Martin yells out, “Can’t wait until next year.”
In the stands someone yells, me either.

© 2007 – 2009, Mudbugs Hockey Blog. All rights reserved. To Republish you must link back to the Original Article

I have finally emerged from the black hole I had crawled in after the Mudbugs loss Sunday night. Well, not really emerged, just peeking out a little more.

Looking around before game time, I was disappointed that there were not as many fans as I had expected. I came expecting CenturyTel to be packed with fans waving posters and getting the guys pumped for the game. Don’t get me wrong, what fans were there were great (Although I have to bitch about some guys behind us. Listen, this is hockey, not the opera. If others getting excited, standing up and screaming for OUR team bothers you, get over it. Stop moaning and groaning and get whatever is up your butt out and HAVE FUN)

To me the guys started out playing hard. Then it was like they slacked a little. Then they were at it hard again. When overtime hit, I don’t think the guys could have played any harder.
Sitting behind the guys, I could really see the emotion on their faces. These guys were tired, but they wanted it. They fought throughout the season and this was the make or break. Maybe if the refs had made better calls. Maybe if the guys had pushed a little harder. Maybe if this or that would have happened, I wouldn’t be writing this with a sad heart.

All-in-all I think the guys gave it their all. They were tired, but they showed up to play and that’s what they did.

Looking back there are so many memorable plays and memorable nights that I will always remember.

Thank you to all the players, coaches and staff for a great season. Myself and thousands of fans have you to thank for the memories. We laughed, we cried, we screamed, we cussed and above all else we cheered with you and for you. We are proud of you.
Thanks for the memories. I can’t wait to make more.

© 2007 – 2009, Mudbugs Hockey Blog. All rights reserved. To Republish you must link back to the Original Article

By Jennifer Pinson – Mudbugsinsider Staff Writer
Written Saturday, April 21st 2007

That’s what a friend of mine told me last year when I told him that I was going to a Mudbugs game.

If you were looking for me eleven years ago, you would have found me glued to the tube watching a hockey game. I’ll get to the “what happened all those years ago to draw you away” in a moment. But first let’s re-live the past.

If a game was on, I was watching it. It didn’t matter who was playing, just that they were playing. You see, I’m old school. My favorite players were Messier and Lemieux. I had the Penguins jersey and the Rangers jersey, and I sported those boys pretty much everywhere I went.

Times changed. Life jumped in and, unfortunately, hockey skated out. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about it anymore, but real-life was taking over and the free time I and no longer existed. College and career became priority and before I even realized it, what once was a religion became a once-in-awhile escape.

Jump forward to the present and I am back in it, baby. I talked a couple of co-workers into joining me for a game and not only did my love for the game exploded again, but I actually converted two girly girls into hockey fans at the same time.

The first game I was able to attend was amazing. The guys were kicking ass and before long the game was over. I remember looking at the clock as the last five minutes were counting down and thinking “play a little longer, please.” I didn’t want it to end.

Needless to say, it did end and I drove the one and a half hours back home thinking about ordering the tickets for the next game. The days flew by and once again, I was sitting in CenturyTel cheering on the Bugs. That was months ago and now I’m looking at not just the end of the game, but at the end of the season.

What am I going to do without being able to catch the Mudbugs every week? What on this earth can possibly keep me entertained like they do? As I write this the boys are playing Memphis and I am crossing my fingers that they kick ass tonight. Whether they win or lose, there will still be a game Sunday and I will be there. I know that the season has to end, but why when I am finally getting my hockey groove back on, so to speak.

It’s inevitable. It’s sad. Hell it just plain sucks. The season will end and I will be in hockey withdrawal. Curled up in the fetal position, hugging my Bugs shirt and whimpering, begging for October to hurry and get here.

So if you pass me on the street one day and I’m looking a little disheveled, just offer up one word of encouragement: October

© 2007 – 2009, Mudbugs Hockey Blog. All rights reserved. To Republish you must link back to the Original Article

Could this team have an Identity Crisis?

Looking back on the Mudbugs in the 2007 playoffs I must wonder if the players and coaches are as lost and frustrated as the fans are? I mean let’s face it the Bugs did get past the Wichita Thunder in the first round 4 games to 2 yes , but I have to really say in all honesty that series could have easily went either way?

Nevertheless the Mudbugs were able to muster enough of whatever they needed to get the wins they needed, the two overtime Mudbug wins proved to be the difference makers in the series. Jason Williamson was the hero in game two, and ex-Thunder Ryan Fairbarn turned out to be the hero in game five.

© 2007 – 2009, Mudbugs Hockey Blog. All rights reserved. To Republish you must link back to the Original Article

This may very well be the toughest series the Bugs have ever played in. I know the typical response to that notion is Huh! Allow me to explain.

The Mudbugs are a very storied and proud organization, hockey players in general are a very proud group of men. Their whole life is based on and focused on competing to be the best, at any level.

For the CHL to use a format that removes the urgency robs the players of focus and a vision of what to play for. But that’s the hand they are dealt and the must find a way to win in spite of it.

Ultimately all they are playing for is whether to be seeded 1st in the next round or 4th. But does it really matter? The series schedule usually sets up with the bottom teams earning 3 of the first 5 games of the series in their barn anyway. Win one of the first 2 games away and all of a sudden you have home ice advantage.

That’s the way the Bugs made their way to the Finals last season, so I don’t believe that that will be an issue whatsoever. So where is the motivation going to come from? You could say pride in oneself after all hockey players are a proud bunch of men, you could say pride in the sweater, fans and organization they play for, they are all very good reason’s to play for and should be.

But when it really comes down to it, any team has a hard time taking their game to the next level as a group when the next level is already given to them as a constellation prize. We all in life need something to focus on, a goal, it’s the very thing that makes be at our best and challenges us to perform better or perform better than we may have thought possible.

The Mudbugs play their best hockey when their backs are against the wall giving them a purpose to what they are trying to achieve, it has always been that way and probably always will. Through most of the first five periods of playoff hockey the Bugs looked like they had nothing to play for, no desperation or intensity and without them there can be no focus.

They must rally around the pride of taking care of their own business and leave the silliness of the format to everyone else. The Bugs are a fast team, they are a talented team. They have arguably the best goaltending tandem in the playoffs, but if the team in front of them is not at their best, then it will undoubtedly be a long night for any netminder.

I look for the Bugs to be more focused playing on the road, and come back to Bossier City with either the series lead, or series victory in their pockets. As much as the players like playing in front of their own fans, going on the road in this particular situation may just turn out to be the needle in the haystack of craziness they need to put it out of their minds.

They will focus more on the game as well as each other, and that will translate into a better performance on the ice. I look for the better team to start being the better team in this series which became a five game series after the Bugs squeezed out the win in overtime in game two to tie the series.

Heading to Wichita down 2-0 in the series would have been disastrous, having said that, Jason Williamson may have scored the biggest goal of the series. I know it was one of the biggest of his career and to earn it while his proud parents were in attendance just made things that much sweeter.

History says you always should stick with the hot goaltender, I say I would much rather see the hot team in front of either goalie that plays, because both are very capable of getting the job done when the team in front of them is the team we saw climb all the way from the bottom of the Northeast Division to the Governor’s Cup.

It will be interesting to see if the Bugs come out in attack mode and dictate the play with speed, quickness as well as their killer transition game.

I’m not trying to take anything away from the Wichita Thunder, because they were the team that came out with a purpose in this series and played well and the Bugs for the most part did not. On one hand if not for the excellent play of Thunder netminder Jon Horrell or the overtime win in game two this series could have been very different for either team.

© 2007 – 2009, Mudbugs Hockey Blog. All rights reserved. To Republish you must link back to the Original Article