Another Guest Post About Our Beloved Team!

Steve from Sox & Dawgs originally wrote this post "The All- Whalers Team".  He has decided to share it with us, it originally appeared on Sox & Dawgs on November 22, 2010.

 

You can follow Steve on Twitter @djstevem 

With the re-branding of the Hartford Wolf Pack to the CT Whale just mere days away we would like to present to you the Sox& Dawgs All-Whalers team.  The only requirement for the team is that the players needed more than one year (more than 80 games played) with the franchise to be considered. 

 

As you may know the team started in 1972-73 as the New England Whalers in fledgling World Hockey Association (WHA) and proceeded to win the infant leagues first championship beating the Winnipeg Jets in 5 games.  The team played for one other WHA title in 1978 when Winnipeg returned the favor and swept the Whalers in the finals, 4-0.

 

Upon moving to the NHL the team would no longer enjoy the on ice success it had.  For many years they struggled only winning one NHL playoff series, a three game sweep over the Quebec Nordiques, in 1986 and only winning one Adams Division title in 1987.  The Whalers made the NHL playoffs only 8 times in 18 years and only got beyond the first round that one time.

 

But no matter what the on ice situation was, the team always had players we loved.  Some were great, some were average but they were our Whalers.  One thing you will see when looking at the list, there were some damn good players in Hartford.

 

The Sox & Dawgs All-Whalers team consists of 20 players, we picked 12 forwards, 6 defensemen and 2 goalies along with a general manager and head coach.  Unanimous choices by Ian and I are in bold green. Ties were broken on stats. Here is your team:

 

General Manager - Emile "The Cat" Francis

Head Coach - Jack Kelley

 

Centers (4)

Ron Francis

Ray Ferraro

Dave Keon 

Mike Rogers 

 

Left Wings (4) 

Geoff Sanderson 

Dave Tippett

Jeff O'Neill

Sylvain Turgeon

 

Right Wings (4)

Kevin Dineen

Blaine Stoughton

Gordie Howe 

Pat Verbeek

 

Defensemen (6)

Rick Ley

Ulf Samuelsson

Joel Quenneville

Mark Howe

Gordie Roberts

Adam Burt

 

Goalies (2)

Mike Liut

Sean Burke

 

The following players, coaches and general managers, in no particular order, also received consideration:

 

Centers 
Dean Evason
Mark Johnson
Andrew Cassells
Michael Nylander
Bobby Holik

Left Wings
John Anderson
Pat Boutette
George Lyle
Larry Pleau
Nick Fotiu
Mike Antonovich
Andre LaCroix

Right Wings
Scott Young
Tim Sheehy
Warren Miller
Jack Carlson
John McKenzie
Torrie Robertson
Stu Gavin
Robert Kron
Paul MacDermid
Ray Neufeld

Defensemen
Dave Babych
Glen Wesley
Sylvain Cote
Brad Selwood
Ron Plumb
Thommy Abrahamsson
Ted Green
Risto Siltanen
Alan Hansleben
Randy Ladoucer

Goalies
Greg Millen
Al Smith
Peter Sidorkiewicz

Coach
Jack Evans
Ron Ryan
Jimmy Roberts
Don Blackburn
Harry Neale

 

GM Jack Kelley
Eddie Johnston
Larry Pleau
Brian Burke
Jim Rutherford

 

#bringbacktheWhalers!

Did I mention that I love Keith Primeau? Did I mention that he has a younger brother, Wayne Primeau, who also was in the NHL? In the 1996-1997 season, Wayne Primeau played for the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres and the Whalers played on April 7th, 1997. In the 2nd period, at 17:00, the Primeau brothers took part in an epic fight. Here is a video from youtube:

This was towards the end of the Hartford Whalers. However, it is a memorable fight that will always be associated with the last games played at the Hartford Civic Center. I thought it would be nice to show some history of Whalers games that I remember and even those I don't.

I have a new topic that I would like to discuss now. I have began to use a Twitter account to try to gain some attention about bringing back the Hartford Whalers. Since I am fairly new at Twitter and receive notifications from my personal Twitter account on my smartphone, I unfortunately did not see some replies to a previous tweet until today. However, I received so many more responses than I initially expected from people interested in the Whalers returning to Hartford. I can't believe it! I am so excited now; we definitely will be able to get #bringbacktheWhalers to trend on Twitter. Who knows, maybe the NHL will recognize our requests and a team will consider moving back to Hartford. None of our efforts will hurt.

Brass Bonanza