Last year was a year of firsts for the Birmingham Bulls as they went through the ups and downs of an expansion team in its first year of play in the Southern Professional Hockey League.

The Bulls had to overcome several obstacles, but learned along the way both on the ice as a team and in the front office as far as promotions went.

By the end of the 2017-18 season, Birmingham had created an exciting product to watch that saw the Bulls vying for a playoff spot up until the final weekend of the season before they ultimately finished just six points shy of earning a spot in the postseason.

A big reason for that difficult ending to the year was really due to the start of the season.

The Bulls started the season with seven straight losses and eventually found themselves 16 games under .500 at 9-25 (including overtime losses) a little more than three months into the season.

At that point in time, Birmingham sat in last place in the SPHL.

While the Bulls had every reason to tuck their heads between their tails and give up on their first season, that was the last option on their mind.

Instead they went on a tear over the final two months of the season to battle for that final playoff spot. They went 13-2 over their next 15 games, before eventually falling back into a…

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