Earlier last week, the Thunderbirds office sent out an email to season ticket holders. Part of the letter explained why the TBirds were having a game on a Thursday this week:

“This rare Thursday game was originally scheduled to be played on Friday, Halloween Night.  Prior experience has indicated that a Halloween Friday Night was not the best night to attend a hockey game…hence the change!”

They may have been talking about attendance but Halloween has been pretty scary for the TBirds record. Since becoming the Thunderbirds in 1985, they have played 5 games on this holiday:

• October 31, 1986 vs Kamloops. Lost 8-5
• October 31, 1992 @ Portland. Lost 5-2
• October 31, 1998 @ Portland. Tied 3-3
• October 31, 2003 vs Kamloops. Lost 3-2
• October 31, 2009 @ Medicine Hat. Lost 11-2

As you can see, only 1 point to show for out of those 5 games. That’s more like gross Circus Peanuts than delicious fun-size Snickers bars.

The 2003 game at KeyArena drew a little over 2500 on a Friday night, meaning almost 9000 people came dressed as red seats. No wins and the possibility of a small crowd is a spooky combination, indeed. And given the result of last night’s game, I doubt we’ll see a game on Halloween again anytime soon.

(Special thanks to Scott Sepich for his research help for this post.)