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Carolina Thunderbirds Thread 2019-2020

Oh man where to start. Friday night - the Birds won 4-1 in front of 2,610 fans. Fan favorite Frankie McClendon was traded two days before the series started was brought in dueing the first period and was emotional after the game as his time with the Birds is probably done forever. We will address the chipiness later on. Saturday - The Birds won 7-2 in front of a sold out 3,310 fans. Now, Friday night was the typical game vs Mentor. They get outplayed in every aspect and resort to fighting. Nothing new. Everything was going fine on Saturday night until the end of the game. With 4 seconds left Mentor's Brody Duncan (goon) slap shot a puck hard into the Birds bench and was promptly jumped by Michael Bunn. You can see the video in the post above. Duncan was suspended for 15 games while Bunn got 5. Sunday - the birds went to Mentor and won in a SO in front of 568 fans. Nothing special about the game.

In my opinion the FPHL is close to becoming a real league aka not a goon league. If the FPHL got rid of Battle Creek and Mentor the league would be better off. Both don't win a lot of games and are probably losing a lot of money due to no one showing up to their games. I dont know how much more $$$ Mentor has left but if I was a betting man they fold at the end of the year and Battle Creek relocates to Bloomington.
 
The Birds dropped all 3 games this past weekend in Danbury. Game one they lost in a shootout and Game 2 & 3 were close games that came down to the wire. Overall, the Birds were outplayed all weekend and I fear this is how the FPHL Finals will play out come playoff time. The Birds will be back home this weekend for a 3 game set. Friday and Saturday vs Watertown Wolves and Sunday vs Columbus River Dragons. Tickets are normal for the weekend as of now, Friday will have about 2400 fans, Saturday will be sold out or close to it and Sundays afternoon game will be about 1600. So take the family and kids out to the Sunday afternoon game if you don't normally get out to the Annex.
 
The GM of the Thunderbirds Jimmy Milliken and the team have agreed to mutually part ways. Jimmy posted on facebook it's time to spend more time with his son but a GM leaving in the middle of the season means something bad happened.

POTENTIAL GMs for the rest of the season and moving forward - Kaitlyn Lusk (Dir. of Ops), Cat Pighini (Corporate Sponsorships), Andre Niec (Head Coach), and the Scott "Hockey" Brand (Former Birds GM and current GM of the Columbus Riverdragons). My choice would be for Cat to take over the GM roles. She has the experience and she has the enthusiasm for the team/city.
 
Hey all you cool birds and chicks,

It’s your favorite Sailor/Thunderbird fan. Sorry for the lack of updates but since moving aboard the ship I started working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Then the Rona happened. I just wanted to give everyone an update with the birds this offseason so far.

The FPHL cancelled the rest of the season just like every other sports league that was happening. Leaving the Birds as the unofficial official regular season champions for the 2019-2020 season. All the boys have made it home safely back their home countries and the ones who stayed behind have found work in the local community. The front office is working from home as per the governments orders but you can still reach them through email. There is still no official GM for the team and I suspect we won’t here anything until the summer but I think we’re all happy Jimmy is gone.

I’ll provide links below but a end of year survey is available on the website and 2021 season tickets will be on sale soon.

https://www.carolinathunderbirds.com/news/19-20-end-of-season-survey

https://www.carolinathunderbirds.com/season-mini-ticket-plans
 
Why are you happy Jimmy is gone? This was a championship-level team, right?
 
Why are you happy Jimmy is gone? This was a championship-level team, right?

Yes, however I think the Birds would have lost in the finals to Danbury in 5 this year. The GMs of the teams in the FPHL don’t really do much scouting they rely on the head coach/players on the team to tell them to sign players. I could have been the GM of the team and the results would’ve have been the same on the ice.

The Birds were set up so well by the previous GM, Scott “Hockey” Brand that when Jimmy came in he wasn’t as open to the fans. He raised prices on concessions, treated the local vendors poorly, and implemented a new re-entry policy (probably the city’s idea). On top of that the city implemented metal detectors even though there hasn’t been any incidents at the games to date that have warranted them being put in place. That’s not his fault but at the end of the day all these things add up and when people went to go complain he would rarely answer emails/phone calls and treated the fans like garbage. You could tell Scott wanted to be there every night where Jimmy just treated it as another job.

I hope that Cat or Kaitlyn become the new GM of the team because just like Scott you can tell they actually want to see the team succeed.
 
Sad news: Local native Michael Bunn is currently in the hospital fighting for his life against what the doctors believe is carbon monoxide poisoning. That’s all the info I have as now. Send the Ts and Ps to Michael and his family.
 
Via Michael’s mom: According to Michael's ICU nurse, he is purposely trying to move his right arm this morning. She says that it appears he is trying to remove his tubing. I told you he is a fighter!! She indicates that this is a good sign, but, they need for him to purposely move the rest of his body. He is still in an unconscious state. Please continue to pray with us that God will restore him fully.

I will facetime with him again today, and read to him all of your comments below. We are in awe of the outpouring of love and support from all of you, some of you I have never even met. I apologize if I do not respond to each phone call or text message. Please continue to come here for your updates. We are truly grateful for you!
 
Any idea how he got carbon monoxide poisoning? There are a few ways that I know of, cars in garages and gas grills inside of houses.
 
Any idea how he got carbon monoxide poisoning? There are a few ways that I know of, cars in garages and gas grills inside of houses.

No idea everything has kept pretty tight as far as how it happened. I will keep everyone posted as this progresses.
 
We have some good news today via his mom: Michael will probably kill me for this, but, I am too excited not to post! David and I just got off of face-time with him. At first, he was non-respondent. We started reading everyone's comments and about 15 minutes into it, he opened his eyes! He left them open for the next 30 minutes, as we talked. Every time I asked him to blink his eyes, he did!! He was definitely responding to the command.
God is moving! Keep praying!!
 
April 28, 2020: The ventilator is on the lowest setting today. The Dr. says he could take Michael off the ventilator but is concerned that he will not be able to cough or clear his airway on his own. So, they have scheduled a tracheostomy for Thursday. They will take the tube from his mouth, and insert a tiny hole in his neck in order to help him clean and remove secretions from his airway. They will also insert a feeding tube to make sure he gets proper nutrition.

Michael continues to open his eyes when we chat. They turned on the TV in his room today and put it on the sports channel. When the nurse asked him if that is what he wanted, she thought she got a positive response.

The Dr. says that Michael is strong from the neck down. The biggest concern is the amount of neurological recovery we will see. Thanks for all of your prayers about the breathing and getting him off the ventilator. That prayer has been answered. Please start praying hard about the neurological recovery. There is a severe brain injury due to loss of oxygen to the brain for an extended period of time. He does have age on his side. They keep telling me that this is going to be a long process, but let's pray together that his story has not been written yet!

Many of you have inquired about sending cards, flowers, and gifts to the hospital. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, the hospital will not accept anything. I will try to get a P.O. Box for those of you that would like to send a card. More to come...

Not being able to be with him, and touch him is excruciating. For those of you that are parents, I am sure you understand! Thanks for all of the support. You keep me going!😍
 
Here’s an update from Michaels mother.

May 8, 2020
Good News: Michael was moved to a room with face-time capabilities today. I was finally able to see him, talk to him and watch him pucker his lips when I said good-bye. 😍

Bad News: He was declined admission to Shepherd's Center in Ga. The reason was that they didn't feel that they could meet all of his needs. I don't really understand that answer, and it is discouraging, but I now need to focus on getting him rehab somewhere that can, and wants to meet all of his needs.

Please pray with me about where God wants him for rehab. I need to move quickly as he is not getting what he needs in the hospital.

This feels like a set-back, but I am believing God has something better for him. Thank you for your prayers, and for joining me in this journey.
 
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