What a wonderfully strange picture. Especially if you’re one of those fans like me who were old enough to remember the last days of the Whalers, yet not so young that the first hockey memories would be of hockey on the beach and the NHL on FOX robots. The Hartford Whalers seem to be the American equivalent of the Winnipeg Jets, AKA an NHL team in a loyal traditional hockey market shipped to somewhere where Gary thought they could help make more Americans watch on TV.
For those who missed it I can give a a rough history of what you missed:
1. Nick Kypreos hung around here for a while to get his head punched in enough to be able to fit in with the Toronto media.
2. Ron Francis scored a measly 821 points in just under ten seasons as Whaler, with the GM being a good enough guy to trade Ronny to the Pens in time for two Stanley Cups.
3. Pat Verbeek not only inspired a wicked nickname (“Little Ball of Hate”), but also gave us a great way for people to refer to the nose (i.e. “Hey, look at the VerBEEK on that poor bastard!”).
4. The Brass Bonanza. It’s the attached audio file, and most likely you won’t know it by name. I heard Chicken Parm bragging about it a few weeks ago (he uses it on his radio show for The Team 1040 in Van-city) and immediately googled it to see what the hell gave him such a stiffy. It turns out I knew the song all along, because it was jammed into EA’s NHL video games (check at 2:10)!
As an ending note I’d like to say to all the actual former fans of the Whalers, click here for a little payoff for the injustice you’ve endured.
