2002 United League playoff MVP Todd Robinson on Fury Night with the Muskegon Lumberjacks. (Photo
by Derek Wong)
Muskegon’s
L.C. Walker Arena is barely a five-minute stroll from Lake Michigan. Its
artificial pond is practically an inlet of the lake’s basin.
The
Betten Baker Chevrolet-Cadillac-GMC dealership is a mere five-minute drive
straight north to the Port City Princess Cruises docks. Another 10-minute drive, tops, will take you to the town’s Lake Express terminal, where
Milwaukee-bound ferries arrive and depart.
Given
what is on the other side, the lake is not quite, to quote a tourism campaign,
pure Michigan. After all, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois all have a piece of
the slender waterway’s borders.
But
perhaps you can call it pure America. After all, it is the only one of the five
Great Lakes not touching Canada.
Yet
from this side, at least, it is the backdrop to a fountain of fondness for
various voluntary imports from the northern neighbor. Ditto a few from
overseas. They came and made things happen on the indoor pond, then decided
there were more reasons to stay than their laurels.
“I’ve
got my wife here, my kids,” Todd Robinson, a veteran of nine glorious seasons
playing, three coaching and now eight satisfying months of auto sales in
Muskegon, told Pucks and Recreation. “If hockey didn’t bring me here, none of
these things would be around. I enjoy being a part of a community here.”
Muskegon
is a modest mammoth of a town along Michigan’s “west coast.” Despite boasting
fewer than 40,000 residents, its size eclipses the eponymous state’s other municipalities
brushing the lake.
It
is thus little surprise to remember that, for exactly a half-century, this was
a stable minor-league hockey market. Here the original IHL’s Muskegon
Zephyrs/Mohawks/Lumberjacks won four Turner Cups over a 32-year run.
Afterwards, the Muskegon Fury of the Colonial/United/International League
nabbed four Colonial Cups.
The
pros have since given way to juniors, as they have in most medium Michigan
cities. But the affectionately dubbed Skeetown’s small side lends it a magnetic
grip that transcends the transition from athletic to “normal” careers.
Three
maple-leaf men became mighty Muskegon men upon making Walker Arena their
workplace in the 1990s and 2000s. As of the 2017-18 hockey season, they were
teammates again at Betten Baker.
One
former blueliner is now monitoring the bottom line as a finance manger for the
dealership. Meanwhile two one-time prolific forwards are still on offense,
scoring sales in the used-auto lot.
And
it is safe to ascertain that neither they nor the time-laden townspeople would
have it any other way. Case in point: Fury Night at the USHL’s Muskegon
Lumberjacks game this past November.
The
Lumberjacks averaged a respectable 2,168 fans per home game in 2017-18. But two
nights after Thanksgiving, they swelled that average by nearly 50 percent to
2,917 spectators.
Surely
the presence of Fury threads on the home skaters had something to do with that.
Even without that element, the ceremonious presence of former Fury fan
favorites had to have been the main thrust, right?
Not
if you ask Robinson. Having served as a USHL Lumberjacks assistant coach the previous
three seasons, he has the distinction of having participated in Muskegon hockey
at both levels. So naturally and forgivably, that residual, habitual hockey
humility will affect his assessment.
“It’s
not fair to compare,” he cautioned in a recent phone interview.
Indeed,
there are limits inherent to the junior ranks that are not enforced in the
pros. As a team, and with an age-based revolving door in play, the current
Lumberjacks can theoretically strive to match their forebears’ precedent. But
the individuals who played the game here in the past have their own legacies.
(Photo by Derek Wong)
Transition made
easy
Rearguard
Rob Melanson began his association with Muskegon in 1991-92. One year removed
from going to Pittsburgh’s pipeline in the fifth round of the NHL Draft, he was
promoted from the ECHL to the Penguins’ then-IHL affiliate, the original
Muskegon Lumberjacks.
After
the Triple-A Lumberjacks gave way to the Double-A Fury, Melanson stuck and rode
through the expansion club’s lean years to Colonial Cup contention. He left the
game with one ring in 2001.
Within
another 15 years, after career stops at two other dealerships, he was teammates
with Robin Bouchard again. Melanson transferred from crosstown rival Great
Lakes Ford in June 2016.
At
44, Bouchard is practically a player-assistant coach on a new team of 20. That
is, the 20 men and women listed and pictured under the used-sales heading on
the Betten Baker website. An eight-year dealership veteran, he has risen to one
of his division’s two management slots.
This
is the same Bouchard who logged four years as a player-assistant coach for the
Muskegon Fury, including back-to-back championship runs in 2004 and 2005. Who
gave all or part of 13 seasons to the Fury/Lumberjacks franchise, saturating
the scoresheets in the goal, assist and penalty columns alike. Who in the
twilight of his skating days reached a minor-league record career count of 683
goals, then added five more.
And
who, after spending his first 20 years of existence in Quebec, has since logged
more time in Muskegon. At the dusk of the previous millennium, he had spent his
mid-20s forging a new relationship for the next century.
By
the dawn of that century, Melanson had already cemented that adulthood
adoptions and moved on to his new field. Ditto veteran Russian striker Sergei
Kharin, who started working at Great Lakes Ford in 2001 and has been employed
at other regional dealerships since.
Meanwhile,
in 2000, the British Columbian Robinson began his own conversion from Canadian
to Muskegonite. As of his first non-hockey season, he has consummated that
conversion.
Make
no mistake, Robinson’s arrival at Betten Baker was not in the camp of Johnny
Upton’s lament, “(Expletive) Chrysler plant, here I come.” He had exhausted his
energy for formal involvement in his lifelong pastime. But he knew when and
where he wanted to start tapping into new pursuits.
“I
was transitioning,” he said. “Trying to find something else to do so I could spend
more time with my kids.”
He
added, “I never had a weekend off during the winter my whole life.”
Such
was the price of success and stability. Robinson’s otherworldly scoring output
in major junior’s Western League never translated to staying power in the
high-end professional ranks. But that production rate did translate smoothly to
Double-A for 15 seasons, nine of which he spent fully or primarily in Muskegon.
Of
those nine seasons, three culminated in a Colonial Cup championship. With
Robinson, Bouchard and other Muskegon mainstays constantly brushing their
ceiling, the Fury forged a rare modern-day minor-league dynasty.
In
his crack at coaching, Robinson almost recaptured that glory. His first USHL season
saw the Lumberjacks reach the Clark Cup Final. But they were swept by Sioux
Falls, and have not been back since.
Today
he is happy to limit his athletic involvement to volunteer coaching his daughter’s
youth basketball team. Even so, his competitive streak idled no longer than the
summer, just as it had for three-plus decades running. He joined the veteran
Bouchard in Betten Baker’s used-sales sector this past September.
Here
he had built enough familiarity with the town, the personnel and the
expectations to quell any qualms about entering an uncharted line of work.
“I
never really had many normal jobs,” Robinson said. “I was in the hockey world
my whole life…I didn’t know a whole bunch about cars when I started.”
But
Bouchard, five years Robinson’s senior in life and seven years in auto sales, “taught
me the ropes.” Ditto other ex-players who preceded him in the department.
When
they worked for rival dealerships, Melanson and Bouchard alike dangled a
reunion with Robinson as an eventual option. It was simply the thing to do for
Muskegon’s pucksters when they needed an occupation for the offseason or their
next professional life. And so, in Betten Baker’s case, Robinson joined
Bouchard and Melanson to complete what he calls “the trifecta.”
“There’s
some similarities (to hockey),” he said. “It’s competitive. They keep a
scoreboard every day.
“I’m
a competitive guy. I like to win at things, and the more you put in, the more
you get out.”
Determining
Betten Baker’s equivalent of the Fury’s treasure trove may be just as hard as
reaching it, though. The brand lasted 16 seasons, yet secured a spot on this
site’s top-10 list of the greatest defunct minor-league identities.
Swirling state of affairs
When
one rehashes minor-league hockey tales, Slap
Shot references can constitute a trap of triteness. But it works too well
when assessing Muskegon’s timeline.
From
the sport’s pre-helmet era through the country’s Reagan/Bush years, this town
was a fixture in a league one stride from The Show. The largely independent
development circuit had the Zephyrs/Mohawks/Lumberjacks partaking in scores of
feisty regional rivalries. At least four fellow Michigan markets — Flint, Kalamazoo,
Port Huron and Saginaw — were regular dance partners most years.
With
a nominal downgrade to Double-A came a similar brand of bus-league
spiritedness. Many of the same cities had undergone the same change, sustaining
or reviving classic feuds. And for anyone who went to a CoHL/UHL game in the
’90s or ’00s and has bothered to watch the first game scene of 2002’s Slap Shot 2, one experience likely
reminds you of the other.
Then
the Slap Shot franchise produced a
third movie in 2008, with a new Charlestown Chiefs team playing in the junior
ranks. It turned out to vaguely and inadvertently foreshadow what was to come
in Muskegon.
In
its 58th year of usage, Walker Arena has aged well. It began with the arrival
of the Zephyrs, and has housed the city’s whole hockey story since.
Once
pro gave way to junior in 2010, the building finished immersing itself in the
21st century. That summer the facility refurbished its locker and training
rooms and installed a center-ice video screen to replace the old scoreboard’s
rectangular LED message ticker.
The
building got younger in accordance with the VIPs it puts on its pond. But with
four Turner Cup and four Colonial Cup banners, its hallowed history is
indispensable. As long as a given entity is synonymous with winning, it suits
the snug, seasoned sports house.
Besides
its revolving door of Zephyrs, Mohawks, Lumberjacks and Fury players, Muskegon
can claim a few prominent hockey residents pre- and post-fame.
Native
son Justin Abdelkader (born 1987) was around for the better part of the Fury
dynasty. He was still attending and starring on the ice at nearby Mona Shores
High School the year of the team’s third Colonial Cup victory. After one year
out of state with the USHL’s Cedar Rapids Roughriders, he gradually moved eastward
to Michigan State, then Detroit, where he is coming off his 11th NHL season.
Jeff Carlson — Jeff Hanson from Slap Shot — finished his playing days after
the movie with parts of four seasons as a Mohawk. He subsequently settled in
Skeetown for a second career as an electrician.
And
with the current Lumberjacks refining aspirant collegians and NHL prospects,
there can always be more to come. But no one has directly represented the city
during his peak quite like Bouchard. Nor have many filled the same comparable
chronicles as Melanson or Robinson.
Bouchard’s
823 games for the city trail only the 888 outings Brian McLay aggregated as a
Zephyr and Mohawk. He was the lone constant through the Fury’s four
championships, making him the most ring-laden puckster in Muskegon history.
Like
the NHL team across the state, Muskegon’s Double-A franchise made six
appearances in their league playoff final between 1995 and 2009. Uncannily
enough, it too sandwiched its four championships with two runner-up statuses at
the bookends.
The
Fury arrived in 1992 as a replacement for the first version of the Lumberjacks,
who had caught their league’s big-city bug and moved to Cleveland.
Joining
the upstart Colonial League, the Fury felt their share of growing pains on the
ice in the mid-’90s. They failed to advance beyond the first round of the
playoffs in four out of five seasons, minus a run to the 1995 final.
Apart
from one full AHL season that year and portions of three others at the next
level, Melanson was a Muskegon mainstay through that time. A stay-at-home
specialist, he translated his aggression to 552 penalty minutes in 117 games
his first three Fury seasons. His 260 PIM fell three notches shy of the team
lead in 1995-96.
Meanwhile,
as a second-year pro, Bouchard led Flint with 107 points en route to the 1996
Colonial Cup. Over the subsequent Thanksgiving weekend, the Generals dealt him
to the Fury. It would be one of several midseason Muskegon imports that paid
maximum dividends at decade’s end.
Crowd-pleasers,
though, made for one measure of instant gratification. Jeff Carlson’s onscreen
and real-life brother, Steve, cited in a Slap
Shot 2 featurette the two developments in a hockey team guaranteed to
arouse applause. Namely, “When a goal is scored or a fight breaks out.”
Bouchard
promptly brought the whole package in peerless quantities. Despite only being
available for 52 of Muskegon’s 74 games in 1996-97, he placed second on the
goal chart (34), fourth in points (52) and first in the penalty-minute
leaderboard (220). He would start being voted most popular player in the club’s
annual season-end awards regularly.
For
Bouchard’s first full campaign in his new home, the league and the team
transformed. The Colonial League had rebranded as the United League. The Fury
added purple, then gold to their simple San Jose Sharks-like teal-and-black scheme,
giving them one of the loudest looks in the league. Meanwhile, their
straightforward tornado-and-puck logo morphed into a snarling stick-wielding
twister.
With
the mutated identity came one of the most extravagant pregame presentations in
the low-level minors. Atop a house-shaped tunnel, an inflatable rendering of
the new logo looked like Gumby just swigged the serum in Dr. Jekyll’s lab. A
crew set up the display at the Zamboni entrance as the building darkened and
pulled strings on each end, as if to simulate wind gusts.
The
arena sound crew complemented the visual by playing Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “The
House Is Rockin.” Then they cued up the era’s all-the-rage Michael Buffer/2
Unlimited mashup. And the Fury mascot (a Tasmanian devil named Furious Fred) and
players entered to the distinctive techno tune while four red lights and a
disco ball supplemented the spotlights from the scoreboard.
That
was about as much as the small-to-medium building could do in its
pre-videoboard era to rev up the audience. With that said, it wasted no assets
to that end.
The
franchise’s fortunes elevated hand-in-hand with the energy. For the second time
in six years of operation, the Fury made it past the first round of the
playoffs. Along the way, Bouchard was one of four forwards to break
triple-digit points. Although he placed three spots behind Kharin, a Russian
league, NHL and IHL veteran obtained from Port Huron the previous winter.
Among
other transactions, the hiring of a new coach and director of hockey operations
proved the last prerequisite boost. Rich Kromm came to Muskegon for 1998-99
with five years of Triple-A tutelage experience to his credit. As an assistant
on John Anderson’s staff, he had just helped the Chicago Wolves to the IHL’s
Turner Cup.
Under
Kromm, the Fury were slightly less ravenous on offense, but more efficient on
defense. For his part, Bouchard finished third on the team with 82
regular-season points. Melanson ran away with a leading 251 PIM.
As
a team, Muskegon finished first in the UHL standings, then followed up with a
Colonial Cup victory. The road included a seven-game semifinal triumph over
Bouchard’s old friends in Flint and a six-game vanquishing of the two-time
defending champion Quad City Mallards.
After
the Fury failed to repeat, Kromm enlisted a fellow Portland Winterhawks alum as
one of the drops of new blood for 2000-01. Robinson came to Muskegon after
spending his professional rookie season in the West Coast League.
Like
Bouchard and Kromm, he came with a proven winning pedigree, having co-piloted
Portland to the 1998 Memorial Cup. His 109 points that year led the team,
eclipsing even Brenden Morrow and Marian Hossa.
For
nine of the next 10 seasons, the exception being 2007-08, either Robinson or
Bouchard topped Muskegon’s scoring charts. As Robinson’s first impression, his
touch erupted to the tune of 100 points, 16 more than the runner-up Bouchard.
For
his encore, he topped the team chart again with 92 regular-season points, 23
more than the runner-up. By that point, his importance was magnified by the
aforementioned offseason retirements of Kharin and Melanson.
He
then ran away with another lead in the postseason, tallying 24 points en route
to the franchise’s second Colonial Cup. While the bulk of his output was always
in the assist column, he helped himself to the deciding play. In overtime of
Game 6 in the final round, he picked off the puck at center ice as the visiting
Elmira Jackals tried to regroup after a Fury clear.
Robinson
wasted no time bolting down Broadway and roofing a breakaway conversion. The
sudden-death strike ended what would be Muskegon’s only home-ice championship
clincher, after which he collected the MVP trophy.
By
entering a more interactive field this season, Robinson has afforded himself
bottomless opportunities to hear fans rehash that moment. “I get chills when I
think about it,” he said. “When people bring that stuff up it brings back great
memories. It’s near and dear to our heart for sure.”
Bouchard
had spent most of that 2001-02 campaign with the Central League’s San Angelo
Outlaws, but returned to Muskegon for the homestretch. His 17 playoff points
tied Brant Blackned for second on the Fury’s 2002 playoff leaderboard.
Bouchard
would lead the club in each of the next four seasons, including two more
championship campaigns in 2004 and 2005. Robinson was a close second in 2003-04
with 106 points. In addition, he tied Blackned for the playoff lead with 22
points in 2005, cementing the notion that his acquisition was the key to
ensuring a bona fide dynasty in Muskegon.
Robinson
reclaimed the regular-season throne with a career-high 123 points (his third
triple-digit season) in 2006-07, the year Bouchard played in Italy. Robinson
had his own year abroad in Denmark the next season. As he abdicated his regal
spot on the Fury leaderboard, the returning Bouchard tied Bill Collins for the
team lead while playing in six fewer games.
Upon
the tag team’s reunion, a change in management yielded a change in brand.
Though the switch to a new incarnation of the Lumberjacks met mixed reviews,
the Cup contention continued.
And
in their final year together, Robinson and Bouchard were a runaway one-two
punch with 109 and 101 points, respectively. When Bouchard broke the
minor-league goal record at home, an eight-minute ceremony put the game on
hold.
One
year after losing on a return trip to the championship round, and with Kromm
back behind the bench after leaving in 2001, the 2009-10 Lumberjacks fell one
win shy of reaching the yet-again-rebranded IHL’s Turner Cup Final. None other
than the Generals spoiled their swan song, winning Game 7 at Walker Arena.
Bouchard
struggled to keep his eyes dry upon meeting local news cameras afterward. It is
easy to ascertain why. He and Robinson are second and fifth, respectively, on
the Fury’s all-time games chart with 709 and 429 appearances. (Melanson is
fourth overall and second among defensemen with 439.)
Bouchard’s
919 points and Robinson’s 613 are good for the top two slots among anyone who
ever wore the sneering tornado crest. The next runner-up, Brett Seguin, accrued
a meager 366 points in his Muskegon career. And that was when the twister on
the team’s thread was non-anthropomorphic. Before Bouchard was obtained from
Flint over that Thanksgiving weekend in 1996.
In
their two years as Lumberjacks, Robinson racked up 221 points, Bouchard 168 and
everyone else double digits at best. Throughout its dynamic duo’s tenure,
Muskegon won at least half of its games and filled more than half of the 5,400-seat Walker Arena every year. It was a straightforward system of supply and demand,
and it worked.
“We
won most nights at home,” Robinson noted. “And if we didn’t win, there’d be
four, five or six fights. So even if we didn’t win, there was something to
cheer about.”
(Photo by Derek Wong)
Plenty left to
prove
For
their eight nonconsecutive seasons as ice colleagues, Robinson watched Bouchard
maximize his assets and block out bitterness.
When
the Lumberjacks retired his No. 32 jersey in 2012, Bouchard confessed his mild
regret over never having touched NHL ice to the Muskegon Chronicle. But
he also implied that he reached a point where this was the only city he could
live and work in, with or without skates on.
“People
in Muskegon are a simple kind of people, hard-working people,” he told reporter
Mark Opfermann at the time. “That fits me.”
Between
the Betten Baker “trifecta” of Fury alumni, Bouchard had the most meager stints
at the next level. He had played two games for Fort Wayne of the original IHL
in 1996-97, then four with Grand Rapids of the AHL in 2004-05.
Yet
he embraced his riches in a town blissfully oblivious to its gargantuan Lake
Michigan brethren in Chicago and Milwaukee. To that point, when he
theoretically could have continued his career when the Lumberjacks relocated to
Evansville, Ind., he stayed.
On
the flipside, he played five seasons strictly in North American Double-A and
overseas after last Triple-A sip of Joe. When he could have theoretically
conceded, he stretched his participation in pro hockey for as long as Muskegon
did.
“He
always wanted to do well as a player,” Robinson said. “When he got older, I
think he got better. He took care of his body and prolonged his career.”
Robinson
stretched his playing days by stopping in four more cities in as many years.
Beyond 40 games in Grand Rapids in 2004-05, he too never got back to the AHL.
But he added to his trophy case with the 2013 Central League champion Allen
Americans, then led the Tulsa Oilers with (surprise) 57 assists in his final
season.
That
helper’s instinct has served him well in his gradual crossing from playing to
post-playing to post-hockey altogether.
“I
think it’s just talking to people and being honest,” he said of the secrets of
successful sales reps. “There’s a stigma about them a little bit. But I try to
do things the right way, be honest with people.”
Hardly
any regular Walker Arena ticketholders, past or present, need convincing that
hockey players are far from hulking, huffing haymaker-seekers. More broadly, it
takes extra effort for a used-car hawker to contrast oneself from a Roald Dahl character. And no one in the field will be getting any help from Carvana
commercials.
Some
Betten Baker customers may develop into the equivalent of a Flint/Fort
Wayne/Quad City fan or player. But like when the ice chips settle on an intense
playoff series, one must be ready to seek and keep good relations post-sale.
That
has become the rookie Robinson’s mantra. He has his head up, ready to respond
constructively if and when a buyer comes back with complaints.
Anything
less on his part and “I wouldn’t be able to sleep well at night,” he said.
Even
if not every sale is an outright win, he will fight to set things right. That
incentive to ensure everyone always leaves with something to be pleased with
may never leave him.
