A work colleague shared this story with me from the Toronto Star, in which her former boyfriend and semi-pro hockey player, Dave Williams, was interviewed about his team, the Wightlink Raiders in Ryde on the Isle of Wight in the English Channel. (I had no idea they played hockey in that part of the world.)
In any case, the Raiders are so bad, they make the Chicago Blackhawks look champions. How bad are they?
* They won only three games out of 43 this season and six games all last season.
* Opponents average 80 shots on goal a game.
* The team is often on the losing end of double-digit scores – 12-2, 11-0, 10-1, and 15-0.
* They average 700 fans per home game in a 1,200-seat arena that is old and deteriorating.
Their home ice rink measures 165-by-65 feet compared to the NHL standard 200-by-85. It is so tiny, Williams says, “You can step out from behind your own net, take a shot and have a legitimate scoring chance. The game is so fast you can shoot from practically anywhere and have a chance to score.”
The Raiders won four championships in the early 1990s, but fell on hard times as other teams became more competitive. The league has no salary cap, so the small-market Wightlink Raiders lost many of their best players to other teams with better funding.
So Hawks fans, relax. Things could be a lot worse.
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