A Few Dozen Hockey Fans Leave Game In A State Of Disbelief After Watching Home Team Set Hockey Back Several Decades

York Plagge
Feb 3, 2022
6 min read

Updated: Dec 22, 2025

Sure... we look happy, but this was before the Macon Mayhem bombarded our hockey souls with some of the worst hockey we have ever seen.

When we have no personal stake in the outcome of a hockey game, we tend to cheer for the home team. We just couldn't make that happen, as the four of us were a bit jaded as visitors to the greater Macon area (dump of a first campground; had a gun pulled on us). Our early experience inside Macon Coliseum didn't make us want to cheer for the Mayhem either, so we became de facto fans of the Ice Flyers in the first period. That worked out swimmingly.

W/W's Five-Hole Fanatics Hockey Tour

Game #2: SPHL Regular Season Game (3/3/22)

Location: Macon, GA (Macon Centreplex)

Score: Pensacola Ice Flyers (8) Macon Mayhem (2)

W/W Team: Pensacola Ice Flyers

W/W Fan Record: 2-0

Player Of The Game: Weiland Parrish (Ice Flyers)

Weiland Parrish, a Bloomington, MN native who is currently in the midst of a fantastic first season of professional hockey, looks like a genuine contender for SPHL Rookie of the Year. A point-per-game player who was electric on the ice this particular night is the nephew of a former NHLer and current league broadcaster, Mark Parrish. A willing passer, Parrish is among the league leaders in assists.

I know it might be hard to see, but you have to trust me when I tell you, Weiland Parrish is in this picture (he is taking the face-off for the Ice Flyers)

Weiland had his fingerprints all over the scoresheet tonight. Assisting on the game's opening goal by Brennan Blaszczak, he also assisted on Dylan Carabia's late first-period goal that put the Ice Flyers up 2-1 and added another assist on Doug Elgstam's second-period goal. Running his season assist total to 32, Parrish also scored his own goal in the very early in the third to cap off his four-point night.

Weiland may not be a future NHLer, but after watching his performance in Macon, it doesn't seem like too far of a stretch that he has the skills to make his way up the professional hockey ladder a rung or two before hanging up his skates. If not, Parrish has put the SPHL on notice and would be a welcome addition to any of the league's franchises.

Favorite Player: Dylan Carabia (Ice Flyers)

There were multiple reasons we liked Dylan Carabia. First off, when he was sent to the penalty box at the 14:14 mark in the first period, we heckled him a bit (by pounding on the Macon Centreplex glass; a real sin we quickly found out). As a disgruntled and pathetic coliseum employee lost his mind, Carabia just turned a bit, smiled, and gave a cheers-like motion with his stick.

Dylan Carabia looked like a man among boys on the ice during the game.

Carabia, standing 6'3" and weighing 200 lbs., Dylan has the size to be physically dominant at the SPHL level and certainly made his presence known on the ice. Still in his first professional hockey season, Carabia may already be among the elite defensemen in the league and may be in line for honors at season's end. Dylan isn't limited to just the defensive end, which was made evident when he sent home a blistering 40+' slap shot home near the end of the first period to give his team a 3-1 lead.

The defenseman is a willing and skilled passer compared to the other blueliners on the ice. With youth on his side, it isn't hard to imagine his career progressing beyond this professional level in the near future.

We Came To See... What The SPHL Is All About

As passionate hockey fans, the Four Nomadic Hippies are always looking for a reason to go to a hockey game. With our travels heading south, we knew we would have opportunities to catch some SPHL games. Admittedly, we didn't know much about the league itself, but we were keenly aware that there was a team that called Macon home. Why not give it a try... Secondhand ticket sites had a glut of available tickets, but, very much unlike our usual M.O., we decided to walk up and buy at the ticket office. What a risk...

After entering and looking at the sea of unoccupied blue seats all over the arena, we wondered if the Macon Mayhem was going to close up shop before the end of the second period.

With no (and I mean no) issues getting tickets at the box office mere minutes before puck drop, we were greeted by fewer than a couple of hundred fans on hand to watch the game. In fact, a couple of hundred might be an exaggeration. Official attendance was announced at 638, but that was an outright and blatant lie. A large portion of those in attendance had to be season ticket holders who refused to sit anywhere other than their assigned seats... despite the fact that there were hundreds and hundreds of remarkably better spots to choose from. With the small crowd on hand, let's just say it was an intimate setting.

Members of the arena/game crew did not recognize us, and several took the time to come over and talk to us during period breaks. When a game puck came flying our way and ended up under the bleachers, one staff member summoned his son (who was one of the official statkeepers) to crawl under our seats to retrieve it for us. A front office staff member spoke with us on the way out and all but apologized for the team's play. He also conveyed his hope that we might take in another game in the future. Not going to see this type of interaction at the NHL/AHL levels, so that's something the SPHL has on them.

Dickhead Move Of The Night: Getting Reamed For Pounding The Glass

Anyone who has sniffed a hockey game at any professional level will see the idiocy in this. Early in the first period, Pensacola defensemen Dylan Carabia was sent to the sin bin for tripping, putting the Mayhem on a power play. With the game tied 1-1, it was an early, pivotal moment for Macon. Thinking the crowd would have gotten excited, and still working under the assumption that we would most likely fall in line with cheering for the home squad, I made the cardinal sin of hockey in the Macon area... I pounded on the glass. Huge mistake.

This usher, who never got up from his seat, lacked a grasp of how the live hockey experience works.

This grievous error led to an immediate reprimand by what I can only describe as the laziest usher in the history of sports venues. Shouting at me (without getting his lazy a** out of this seat) in an arena with dozens of comatose fans, I was told, "We don't do that here." Pound on the glass...? I think that is my God-give right as a hockey fan. I audibly laughed... which was matched by a stern look. At this point, I was almost hoping he would kick me out...

The kids were aware enough at this point to know something was happening, and inquired why the man in the blue shirt, who was playing on his phone more than watching the game, yelled at me. I responded (loud enough for him to hear) that I was in trouble for pounding on the glass. My kids were bewildered... and exclaimed that fans at hockey games pound on the glass. Defending their father against such injustice, they began to openly (and quite loudly) criticize the usher. As a parent... I had two choices. Reprimand my children for their comments about an adult, or just let them go because that usher was an idiot. I took the low road on this one.

This May Be Of Interest...

The idea of the dreaded offside call can be a bit tricky for hockey novices, but a full grasp comes pretty quickly with consistent viewing. I can only assume it is one of the first things that youth coaches work to get young players to understand, and if a player progresses and even gets a sniff of college-level play (or beyond), that rule must be locked in there adequately. The blueliners for the Macon Mayhem proved otherwise.

Dual purpose for this photo: it shows the blue line... one of the two lines the Mayhem had a hard time navigating when the puck was in the opponent's zone... and the official pictured took trauma to their manly area and the sparse Macon crowd unfortunately thought it was hilarious.

The Macon Mayhem participate in professional hockey as a part of the SPHL (Southern Professional Hockey League), which is the fourth tier of professional hockey in the United States. The players in the SPHL are paid (not all that well), and most come to the league with a college background and have racked up hundreds of games of experience. They undoubtedly have been thoroughly exposed to the intricacies of offside-related rules.

The Mayhem defensemen worked very hard to dispel this notion all night, and to our surprise, they continually set up on the wrong side of the line and received the puck there. Then, passing or skating the puck back in the zone, they repeatedly put their team offside. It wasn't like this happened once or twice... no... these "professional hockey players" made this fundamental mistake over and over again. After the conclusion of the game, Elizabeth and my best guess was that this cardinal sin of hockey took place around ten times. The lack of a crowd at the game made much more sense.