Although they’ve been receiving national attention, members of the Sarnia Legionnaires probably wish they weren’t.
The Legionnaires achieved the dubious distinction of going winless and pointless in the 2025-26 final regular season standings of the Greater Ontario Jr. B Hockey League (GOHL) with a record of 0-and-50. The 50-game winless streak has drawn the attention of major Canadian media outlets from coast-to-coast.
“It’s a streak that defies all hockey logic,” writes Scott Stinson in The National Post. “How does a team, even an over-matched one, go an entire hockey season without fluking its way into a win or two?”
How indeed?
According to Stinson, it sure didn’t help that the Legionnaires, who won a respectable 17 games last season, lost a ton of veteran experience prior to the start of the currently completed campaign. When their incumbent coach left the club for a job opportunity on the East Coast last summer, several holdover players decided to leave the team too and play elsewhere.
That left new coach Mike Bondy with a rookie-laden lineup, full of 16- and 17-year-olds with little or no experience in the GOHL. “Learning on the fly,” he told Stinson.
That said, Bondy was nothing if not optimistic. He said he saw “progress each and every day — through practice and learning the junior hockey game.”
If that’s true, the Legionnaires could see improvement in the GOHL standings as early as next season. The former Trenton Bobcats, then playing in the old Metro Jr. B League, won just one game during the 1986-87 season (1-32-4), then bounced back with 20 wins the following winter.
The Frankford Huskies, currently competing in local Jr. C playoffs, won just once in their expansion season in 2021-22 with a dismal record of 1-27-2. They were 15-game winners in the club’s much-improved sophomore season, and have since won at least 30 games in each of the past three stanzas.
Even if the Legionnaires don’t bounce back that rapidly, there is hope for the future of a Sarnia franchise that in its long-running history has won four Sutherland Cup titles as Ontario champions. Their current record may be the worst, ever, in Jr. B hockey, but at least the Legionnaires will have a chance for redemption.
A shot at redemption was never an option for the Battle Creek (Michigan) Rumble Bees. The what creek who, you might ask?
The Battle Creek Rumble Bees were a one-hit wonder (?) in the minor-pro Federal Prospects Hockey League, finishing their one-and-only season in 2019-20 with a miserable record of 1-45-2. A story on the woeful club written for ESPN by Chris Peters bore the headline: “The Worst Team in Professional Hockey.”
“Their record looks like a mistake in the standings for the FPHL, which represents the lowest rung of professional hockey in the U.S.,” wrote Peters. “But, it’s real. And the club didn’t just forfeit a bunch of games. The first-year team really played 48 times, and it really did lose 47 of them — 45 in regulation; two in overtime.”
The Rumble Bees were outscored 304-94 over the course of their 48 games and perhaps not surprisingly, drew the lowest home attendance in the league with a paltry average of 353 souls per game. Their overall record may have been even worse, except for the fact that their final nine games were cancelled due to the onset of the COVID pandemic and the club folded.
Shea Carey, a forward with the Rumble Bees, probably summed it up best in an interview with ESPN at the conclusion of the team’s sorry season.
“You could either laugh or cry,” he said. “I’ve done both.”
MAJOR DISASTERS
Here’s a look at the worst teams in the history of the four major sports leagues in North America:
NHL — Washington Capitals
Yes, those same Washington Capitals who won a Stanley Cup in 2018 and boast the most prolific scorer in hockey history with team captain Alex Ovechkin, were once the doormats of the NHL. In their expansion campaign in 1974-75 the hapless Caps won just eight games with a whopping 67 losses and five ties.
NFL — Detroit Lions
The Motor City crew have recently become serious Super Bowl contenders, but not in 2008. That forgettable season for long-suffering Detroit football fans included zero wins as the lame Lions limped to an 0-and-16 record.
NBA — Charlotte Bobcats
The 2011-12 Bobcats lacked claws — heck, they didn’t even have a snarl — on their way to a seven-win season with 59 losses.
MLB — Cleveland Spiders and New York Mets
The 1899 Spiders were 20-and-134. In the modern era, the 1962 Mets were almost as bad with 40 wins and 120 losses. Seven years later, however, the 1969 ‘Miracle Mets’ were World Series champs.
