Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna reacted to the Vermilion County Bobcats not showing up to their scheduled game against the Quad City Storm of the SPHL.
Frank Seravalli: Mike, what caught your attention from around the hockey world over the weekend?
Mike McKenna: I rode the buses for 20 years of my life, between Juniors, College, Pro and I gotta tell you I’ve never seen anything like this. Over the weekend in Danville, Illinois, a city that I used to play junior against occasionally, their team didn’t show up. In the SPHL, the Southern Professional Hockey League, which is a Single A league. It is a reputable league, players go there, and they get paid, not a lot, but it is a league.
It’s been around for a long time. The home team just straight up didn’t show. The visiting team, Quad City shows up they skate warm-ups, they line up for the anthem, a player takes a lap and they salute the crowd and win a 1-0 forfeit victory. And get this, it was supposed to be a skate with the team night in Danville. The visiting team stuck around to skate with the fans of Danville, the fans of a team that may or may not even exist any longer.
This is right out of Slapshot (1977), this is Joe McGrath saying I’d like to sell the jacuzzi, the massage table, our bus, this is it in real life. And it happened over the weekend in Danville, Illinois.
Frank Seravalli: Unbelievable, I love how you were selling the SPHL. Like, “it’s a league, it’s a real league” and I was like okay good. Well, now that we saw that it was just amazing to see them stick around and take the lap with the fans. The clip is epic and it’s peak minor league hockey, I’m sure you’ve got a ton of stories from your time traversing the country on the buses for 20 years.
Add it to the list, Danville, Illinois and Quad City, what a game.
You can watch the rest of the episode here…