By: John Humphrey, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Tilbury Times Reporter,Tilbury Times Reporter
While the Tilbury Bluebirds may have come up short of achieving all the lofty expectations that team management had heading into the club’s first season in the Northern Professional Hockey League (NPHL) the team did accomplish a few goals that should provide a solid foundation on which to build for seasons to come.
“We might have finished in last place in the NPHL’s South Division during the regular season, but we were definitely a better team than that if you look at the overall Metropolitan Conference,” said Bluebirds’ majority owner and general manager Joe Bryne. “The South Division was far stronger than the North Division this season.”
The Bluebirds record of 9-11 would have had them sitting just three points out of second place in the North Division and what’s more, the Bluebirds season mark had them only six points behind the North’s regular season champions, the Orangeville Blitz, who had finished with a regular season mark of 12-8
The Bluebirds slow start to the 2025-2026 regular season ended up costing them dearly when it came to their place in the South Division’s standing and the overall Metropolitan Conference ranking.
“We started the season out by winning just one of our first six games and that put us at a disadvantage right away because the regular season is only 20 games long and we weren’t very good at all for almost a third of the regular season coming out of the gate,” Bryne pointed out. “Some of our players became demoralized and that seemed to have affect the play of other guys.
“But we did eventually start to turn things around just before the holiday break and we continued to get better as the season progressed.”
The 2025-2026 season was the first for the NPHL as the team was one of a handful of clubs that left the Western Ontario Super Hockey League after playing in that circuit for the Bluebirds’ first three seasons of existence.
The Bluebirds’ 2025-2026 campaign came to an end after the club was eliminated in the first round of the NPHL playoffs after the club lost in six games to the Alvinston Killer Bees. The Killer Bees finished the regular season in first place in the South Division with a sterling 17-3 record and the Bluebirds taking them to six games in the playoffs was a clear validation of Bryne’s claim that his team played better as the season progressed.
There was also no shortage of noteworthy performances by Bluebird players in the team’s inaugural NPHL campaign.
“Both (team captain) Dylan Denomme and Jake Durham were not only among the league leaders in scoring but they came to play every game, every shift and they never took a game off regardless of other issues that they might have been dealing with,” said Bryne. “They both took charge for us not only on the ice, but off it too and they both were dominating players not only in the regular season, but in the playoffs.”
Other star players that came in for high praise from Bryne included defenceman Levi Tetrault and goaltender Ryan Polidori, who was among the Metropolitan leaders in terms of save percentage and wins for puck-stoppers.
The ‘other issues’ that Bryne referred to that NPHL players have to contend with is that the league is essentially a senior hockey league and players have to contend with real-life matters such as family life. Most players also have careers and/or jobs or school and those realities of life in the NPHL can force players to miss games at any point in the season.
“Most of the players in the NPHL are guys who have finished their junior or minor pro hockey careers,” Bryne pointed out. “And while they might be looking to advance in their hockey careers now, they still want to play competitive hockey at the highest level possible.”
Although Bryne’s main focus during the Bluebirds’ off season is to add more skilled players to strengthen the team’s on-ice performance, he also acknowledged that he would be dedicating significant time to enhancing the Bluebirds’ experience for fans and the Tilbury community as well.
“We are hoping to work with more local businesses for sponsorships next season,” Bryne claimed. “We want to make every home game a bigger event for our fans, whether that means holding draws where they can win prizes from local businesses or having contests where fans can test their skill or luck.
“We are going to have a more exciting team on the ice in 2026-2027,” he continued. “And our fans are going to have a more exciting time at the rink next season, too.”
