Welcome to another edition of Into the Sin Bin!

It has been a rough twelve months for hockey fans in Evansville. It started in late November when Evansville IceMen owner Ron Geary announced the team would need a new lease in order to continue operating.

After two months of negotiating with the City of Evansville (largely in the public domain) and league deadlines, the two sides could not come to an agreement, and it was decided that April 2nd would be the final home game at Ford Center for the IceMen. The ending was both awkward and difficult to watch from in the arena and elsewhere.

But from a bad situation came new hope.

In April, Mike Hall, the City of Evansville and the Southern Professional Hockey League announced a new franchise would be born in October...called the Thunderbolts.

In just six months, Hall, Pyle and a skeleton staff have worked hard to put together the team, which hits the ice this Friday night.

Recently, The Sin Bin's Mike Finazzo caught up with Hall and Pyle to see how things were progressing, what fans can expect from the team and more.

Stay tuned to the site for complete coverage of opening weekend in the SPHL. We will have previews for each team and editor Mike Campos will be on-site in Southhaven, MS tomorrow night and Evansville, IN Saturday night.

Be sure to catch the premiere episode of the Inside the SPHL podcast, debuting Tuesday! Our first guest will be Peoria Rivermen goaltender and Olympic Gold Medalist, Shannon Szabados.

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