Trevor Gillies

After my freshman year of college my parents, just like everyone else’s, were on my case about getting a part-time summer job to get me out of the house. Of course I was looking around for jobs but I couldn’t find much, my sister on the other hand had been working for the Islanders in Game Ops and her boss at the time told her that he had an opening to be one of the Sparky the Dragons.

Say what you want about being a mascot, but it was so much fun and because I took that job that summer it enabled me to get the internship in Bridgeport and through these two experiences I have had to honor to meet many players, most who are great guys but some stand out more than others.

Here is my list of the top five players that were not only good hockey players but, they are guys that you want to root for.

At the end of the season in 2006 or 07, Jeremy Colliton cleaned out his locker and headed home. He had a long drive ahead going from Bridgeport, CT to Blackie, AB. Twitter was not created until March of ’06 and didn’t launch until that July but Facebook was available and Jeremy used it to chronicle his long drive home. His periodic status updates about which George Strait song he was listening to, or how he could not wait for the taste of Canadian beef, eased the pain that I and other hockey fans experience when the season ends. Today it’s Twitter that provides that catharsis.

Several of this years’ Sound Tigers club use twitter and most posted something about their journey. It was obvious from reading each of them that, though sad to leave, they were happy to be home. Kevin Poulin said he was glad to have some ‘home cooking’ and wished teammates Rhett Rakhshani (driving solo to California) and David Ullstrom (flying home to Sweden) well. Ullstrom was in touch with both Casey Cizikas and Trevor Frischmon about having them come to visit him over the summer. John Persson (remember this kids’ name) also from Sweden did not return home. He instead returned to his Canadian billet family in Red Deer, Alberta where he has the most adorable five(?) year-old blonde alarm clock.

The Bridgeport Sound Tigers have just completed their worst weekend of the year. Playing the second of two consecutive three (games) in three (nights) series, they were only able to capture 5 of the 6 points available. The one point missed occurred on Friday night in a game won by the Springfield Falcons in the 7th round of a shoot-out.

The team returned home to the Webster Bank Arena on Saturday for the 2nd game of the 3 in 3 weekend and through 15 minutes of the second period looked nothing like themselves. Poulin in goal was not having his best night. Snipers Ullstrom and Cizikas were playing in the National League and Rhett Rakhshani was still out injured. Tomas Marcinko was also unavailable serving the 2nd game of his 3 game suspension and the team was losing 0-3 with five minutes left in the second period. But there are four lines in hockey and winning teams get production from all four.

It is difficult to explain how after a loss I was so upbeat leaving the arena. The Bridgeport Sound Tigers needed a win to match the franchise record 9 game win streak set in February 2002 and matched in November 2003. We lost. It was not because we had taken a very good St. Johns Icecaps team (with a ridiculous 15-2-2-1 road record) to a shoot out. We lost. It was not because we had played 60 minutes of solid hockey, because we didn’t. And we lost. It was all about the fan experience at The Webster Bank Arena.