FLINT, Mich. – If the controversy that engulfed the Flint Firebirds in recent days had something in common with the team’s first game after said maelstrom, it’s this: Both were pretty much over before they began.
The players on the Firebirds did a great job of changing the conversation around their club by hanging four first-period goals on the Sarnia Sting, though things did get a little hairy before Flint emerged with a 4-3 victory in front of their home fans at Dort Federal Event Center. And, even before the contest, the partisans who took it in seemed ready to turn the page.
It’s been an emotional week for everybody associated with the Firebirds and it was a bit easier for coach John Gruden—who, for a brief time earlier this week, wasn’t the coach—to display his wit in the wake of a win.
“I’m back to 1-0 again,” he said while wearing a well earned half-grin.
For those who’ve been positioned under a rock the past few days, the short version of what went down here goes something like this: Almost immediately following a 4-3 shootout victory over the defending Memorial Cup-champion Oshawa Generals last Sunday, Gruden was fired by team owner Rolf Nilsen. At issue, it’s widely believed, was a gripe on Nilsen’s part that his son, Firebirds defenceman Hakon Nilsen, wasn’t seeing enough of the ice.
You can imagine how that played.
That very night, the Firebirds players—Nilsen included—laid their jerseys down in protest, stating they weren’t going to put them back on unless something changed. Hockey might not run this town the way it does in many Ontario-based outposts, but activity like that surrounding a team in its first year in a new home tends to attract attention.
“It was everywhere,” said Eric Woodyard, a sports reporter for the Flint Journal and a Flint native.
That hue and cry likely helped Rolf Nilsen re-locate his senses and, just 24 hours after his rash move, re-hire Gruden.
Saying all’s well that ends well is a simplistic stretch—Bush League doesn’t even begin to cover how grossly unprofessional this move was—but if there’s one thing the elder Nilsen has going in his favour, it’s that he’d already earned some good will before his woeful decision.
The Plymouth Whalers became the Flint Firebirds this season and the squad plays under a state-of-the-art video screen and prepares for each home game in a plush dressing room, both of which were part of a renovation program Nilsen invested seven figures into.
“This place didn’t look like this,” Woodyard said of the upgrades.
On Friday, if you walked into the arena about an hour before puck drop, you’d find season ticket holders like Linda and Dave Guigear milling about, waiting for the seating sections to officially open while a lad clad in a Firebirds jersey played music from a makeshift DJ booth and the first adult beverages of the night were tipped. Guigear, the township supervisor for nearby Mundy Township, says, for a moment, he was worried he might not have a team to watch. But those thoughts didn’t have to linger for long and, as another member of his party explains, most people seem willing to grant Nilsen a mulligan.
“We like to say that he just bumped his head,” said Chris Hamilton, who was sporting a pin that linked him to the Old Newsboys of Flint.
The Newsboys are a not-for-profit organization that helps ensure kids in need around Flint and Genesee County get a present or two during the holiday season. It’s certainly not breaking news to note that Flint, in general, has endured some rough times, the sort that dwarf a little tizzy around the local hockey team. That said—and without overstating it—sports is a welcomed distraction in these parts and while hockey might not be in the blood the way things like basketball are, the game certainly has a history here. The Flint Generals existed in different forms of the International Hockey League for decades and, prior to the Firebirds landing, Flint was home to a North American Hockey League Jr. A team called the Warriors.
You’ll never mistake Dort Federal for the type of scaled-down NHL facility you can find in a place like, say, London, but all the hockey staples are here, from Stompin’ Tom to chuck-a-puck. Announced attendance was 2,889 in a rink that looked just over half full, but the glass-half-full take on that is, if the 8-9-0-1 Firebirds keep showing some fight, a few more bodies may turn up.
The fact Flint had two goals before the game was four minutes old, it was suggested to Gruden, indicated his players had a little added incentive for this game. The coach did not disagree.
“I saw a little bit of fire in people’s eyes,” he said.
Even in the teeth of the storm, people admired how the players’ handled themselves.
“I was glad they stood up for their coach,” said Larry Jeffrey, attending the game in an orange Firebirds hoodie alongside his grandparents, Nancy and Hubert Jeffrey.
Given this is the town truculent former NHLer Tim Thomas calls home, maybe that kind of attitude should be expected. And, who knows, perhaps we’ll see more evidence of a resilient spirit on the ice.
“In some strange way,” says Woodyard, “I feel like it’s going to rally the team.”
For one night, at least, that logic held up.
