| HARTFORD WHALERS FAN SOUND-OFF BOARD |
The "Other Side" of the Stanley Cup Quest by Janet Sayer (An article written for the Hartford Whalers Booster Club website on June 4, 2002) Since the Hurricane's run in, and their eventual clinching of, the Eastern Division last week, there has been sudden interest by the media in the Hartford Whalers Booster Club, as well as interest in how Whaler fans feel about the Hurricane's accomplishment and if we support the team. Because of this coverage, the Booster Club's general mail box has been filled with emails covering a spectrum of comments and opinions. Some emails are from people that have read about the Booster Club and who are surprised that it is still in existence. They would like membership information and/or just want to express their joy because we are still around. (People, you just didn't look hard enough for us! But not to worry, we are glad to know that the word is finally out!) Many emails have commented positively on Al's "journal" of the team's journey to the cup. They say they are happy for the Canes and glad to see that Al and the Booster Club are supporting the team. (Before some of you get upset, you must remember this: Sometimes people forget that the Board of Directors and members of this club are expressing their own opinions in the articles and columns they write for our website. Their opinions, however, are not representative of the club as a whole. ***You can only print that darn disclaimer so many times...***) We have received many emails from people questioning how in the world the Booster Club, its members, or even Whaler fans in general, could support the Hurricanes after season ticket holders and fans alike have been treated like garbage by Karmanass, and other comments were received along those lines. As keeper of the Booster Club's e-mailbox, I've had the opportunity to read them all: good, bad, or indifferent. So what is my personal take on all this sudden media "hoopla"? Well, most of what has been written by the press of late give the impression that most Whaler fans, and in some cases all Booster Club members, are happy and ecstatic about the Hurricanes feat. So I have decided that I would take the time to dispel this myth. Most of the Booster Club members and Whaler fans that I know are a mixed bag of emotions and have been since April 13, 1997, if not before. Some are angered and disgusted. Some are bitter. Many have given up on the NHL as it now falls in the same category as the NBA, MLB, and the NFL - leagues of GREED! Most have been left feeling screwed by an owner, by a commissioner, and even by their own governor (current and past). Most see through those so-called Carolina fans aka the "BANDWAGONER" fans. Most hurt like a person hurts when a family member has been taken away from the---Someone must be held accountable for their "death". Many of them can be heard, five years later, screaming #@$%!!! at the whole situation. These fans are anything but happy and joyous about the Hurricanes making it to the Stanley Cup finals! All this recent interest create by the press has made me realize something. Fans like me, who are not happy or ecstatic about the Hurricanges Stanley Cup run, need a place to vent. Somewhere to publicly post our thoughts and opinions freely. A place aside from the many Whaler mailing lists that exist and are kept alive by diehard Whaler fans. So I came up with a solution to our problem. I have put together a web page for those of the "opposite opinion". It's a place where I can post your thoughts about the Hurricanes. A plase to have your voice heard, without any static from others. As a novice, this page is very basic, so I apologize up front! I have already posted a few submissions and you can find them at http://www.geocities.com/whalers4ever_1997/No_Canes.html . (I will try my best to keep it current.) Anyone wishing to sound off and have their opinion posted can email me at whalers4ever@excite.com . DISCLAIMER TIME: This website is not sponsored by nor is it run by the Hartford Whalers Booster Club. Opinions expressed are those of the owner. While I would like to wish the former Whaler players luck in the finals, I can't. Rather, I won't! I will NEVER, EVER wish them luck while they work for THAT despicable owner! Just a view from the other side. Janet |
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| UPDATE (June 10, 2002): Since I originally wrote the article above, the Booster Club's web-master, who was thinking along the same lines as I was (with respects to a general place to post comments about the Whalers), has added a message board to the Booster Club's website and has asked me to post my article there as a message instead, which I have now done. I have also decided that it would work out better if I let you Sound-Off via my guest book, in lieu of sending me emails. I will try to post on this front page any posts of interest. |
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| From Scott Gray via http://www.wtic.com/cgi-bin/grayonfly.pl Posted on June 4, 2002: One of my most heartbreaking experiences was watching the 1986 NHL All Star Game from the Civic Center cat walk with Ron Francis. In a cast and on crutches, Francis was forced to miss his one chance to play in an all star game in front of his Hartford fans after being voted to the team. His pain was quite apparent. When Ronnie was a Penguin, playing against the Hurricanes in their first game in North Carolina, he waited for a long time in the locker room for reporters to leave to have a personal conversation with the Courant's Jeff Jacobs and me, and once, when it appeared Jeff and I might be snowed in in Pittsburgh, he offered to put us up at his home. I'd have no problem with Ronnie winning this year's Stanley Cup. There aren't enough words to define my affection for Chuck Kaiton, "The Voice of the Whalers", perhaps the greatest Whaler of them all. He deserves to call his team to a Stanley Cup title. For three decades Skip Cunningham has been one of the hardest working men in hockey. An original Whaler, the green and blue will never drain from the blood of the only equipment manager the Hurricanes have known. I could be happy knowing Skip has a Stanley Cup. Paul Maurice was always a class act as coach of the Whalers turned Hurricanes. He stood tall through lean years and never lost his temper with the media, always treating us with respect, taking the trouble to learn our names and establish individual relationships. A straight shooter, who patiently developed into a great coach, Paul Maurice deserves to win the Stanley Cup. Jim Rutherford is a man of high principles. The night before Peter Karmanos pulled his vicious trump card on Connecticut I had a personal conversation with Rutherford that affirmed our mutual respect and, in retrospect, served as evidence Rutherford had no idea what Karmanos was up to. He was here to run the hockey operation, others were brought in to handle Karmanos' other agenda. Even after the team moved he continued to call me at home. It would be fitting for Jim Rutherford to reap the Stanley Cup reward now. Sami Kapanen, Glen Wesley, Jeff O'Neill, Bates Battaglia, guys who were Whalers when Karmanos turned them into Hurricanes, were fine people who never gave me any reason to wish them anything but success as they battle for hockey's greatest glory. I hold all in high regard and will always remember them as Hartford Whalers, men who did our city and state proud. Then there's Peter Karmanos. The thought of that lying, cheating, back stabbing river pirate who stole our team gaining from that theft the one thing that would make him almost as happy as finally conning Gary Bettman into letting him pull a familiar stunt in Raliegh and move his team to Detroit, winning the Stanley Cup against the real Detroit team, is more than I can stand. As long as he owns this team, as much as I would take pleasure in Ron Francis, Chuck Kaiton, Skip Cunningham, Paul Maurice and Jim Rutherford basking in the glow of hockey's greatest spotlight, I just can't bring myself to root for them. Go Red Wings. With a comment from the threshhold of the Stanley Cup final, I'm Scott Gray. |
| Noteworthy news items and in posts I'd like to share... |
| From Badge313 - May 29, 2002: Now that it's clear that the Canes have won, never will I see the Whale with my young son. I wished and wished that they lost, I'm not sure why I had no cause. What we would have done to be in those shoes, but year after year we just watched them lose. To think of Canes fans cheering out loud, while I sat there with nothing, nothing to be proud. Hartford, Connecticut the mighty Whale fought, never to give us what we all desired and sought. Thinking of the Mall, and how it would have been, to have this happen marks the end. I use to convince myself that Carolina was our team, last night I learned, that we forever lost our Blue and Green. RIP Hartford Whalers. |
| From Stellamac - May 29, 2002 When Peter Karmanos first talked about moving the Whalers, I developed a theory. Last night, as the Hurricanes defeated the Leafs to move on to the Stanley Cup, I realised that at least for my own perceptions, that theory has come true. It goes like this- put the money aside. Everything Karmanos has done, everything he does now concerning the hockey club, is about ego. At the time, my theory was pretty simple. Karmanos would never allow the team to stay in Hartford because as long as it did, it would never really be his team. The Hartford Whalers were bigger than Peter Karmanos. The Hartford Whalers were about the hockey club and about the fans. History taught us this was true. Owners came and went, after all. Players came and went- and wrote their names on the Stanley Cup. Roofs came and went and came back again. Even the league the team was born into passed on. But the Hartford Whalers and Brass Bonanza stayed behind. They were a part of us and we became a part of them. My theory was that Karmanos would never be able to live with this, that he could not stay in Hartford where he would be just another owner, just another piece of an ever-changing puzzle. No, this was not his style. He was determined to be the franchise, to rewrite its history so that he was, for all intensive purposes, the founder and the focus. This was no short-term project. Even when he pulled up the stakes and left town, with nowhere to go, I personally couldn’t allow him to hijack the franchise. Part of that was that the Hartford Whalers were a sort of small town phenomenon. They were part of the community. We interacted with this team, with the players, if not the entire organization. Bobby Kron once served me dinner. Jeff O’Neill invited me to his house to watch Monday Night Football. These players were people. They had faces and voices and we knew them. I admit to being ambivalent at first about the Hurricanes. I sat in the Fleet Centre and rooted for them to beat the Bruins in the playoffs. These were still in some sense, our Hartford Whalers. The fact that they had been taken from us was emotionally mixed with the hour after that last game when the players stayed on the ice, unsure themselves of what was happening and how to deal with it. I couldn’t figure it out, so I cheered for the players and forgot the owner. As players left, as the wounds started to heal, my hatred of Karmanos overcame everything, even Ronnie Francis’s return to the franchise. I resent Karmanos for that. It’s not in my nature to hate, but I do hate him, because he is, quite simply, a liar, and by extension, a thief. He’s still lying- to the people of North Carolina. He can’t play straight with the numbers or even tell them what the numbers are because that is his basic nature. Still, when Mats Sundin scored that goal and my heart leapt, I had to question myself. How could I hate the team so much that I was rooting against Francis ? Against Artus Irbe, who’s hardly bigger than I am. Hadn’t Jeff O’Neill and Brind’amour and the rest played exactly the sort of gritty disciplined hockey I like ?Maybe part of it is that I’m half-canadian, that I hate what the league has done to Canada- the defection of the teams, the economic inequalities that aren’t properly addressed, the dismissal of hockey’s heartland.But that wasn’t it. No, it was Karmanos. And that was when it came home to me. He has gotten exactly what I felt he always wanted. It’s all about him. I can’t see past him to like the players, to like the team, to find ESPN’s ingratiating constant praise of the franchise as anything but bitter poison. It’s that way for a lot of Whalers fans, I imagine. I won’t say former Whalers fans. As long as the memory lives on, so does, in a strange way, the franchise. They still play Brass Bonanza on ESPN. The major media outlets still mention in every story about the Hurricanes playoff run that they are the team that was formerly the Hartford Whalers. No one has forgotten yet. But Karmanos- he has what he wants. It’s all about him, even the way the fans in Hartford feel about the Hurricanes. At least that is my perception and I don’t think I’m alone. Sad, isn’t it? |
| From Channel 8 Interview that took place on June 8, 2002 http://www.WTNH.com/Global/story.asp?s=812708 Whalers fans cheering for their former team (Manchester-WTNH, June 8, 2002 10:00 PM) This is a difficult time for hockey fans in Connecticut as the team formerly known as the Whalers plays in the Stanley Cup finals. Some fans say that while they see the red-and-white uniforms of the Carolina Hurricanes they still see the green-and-blue of their Whalers. Others just see red. "They are still my guys. They probably always will be my guys," says Marty Evtushek. Take a quick look around Marty Evtushek's living room and it's pretty easy to see his guys are the Hartford Whalers. Evtushek is the vice-president of the team's booster club still going strong five years after the Whalers final game in Hartford. Evtushek says,"It's been unbelievable. Everyday we're getting calls and e-mails." They come from all over the United States and Canada, a renewed interest, thanks to the success of the Carolina Hurricanes, the former Whalers. Evtushek's collection has a place for Hurricanes memorabilia. "The famous Carolina shelf. That's where they are now and that's where I'll be Monday," says Evtushek. Evtushek will attend game four. He is still a fan. Janet Sayer is not. Sayer says,"I love the players that were here. They were great. They were family. It's because of the owner and from that perspective I don't want to see that team succeed." Sayer is the Booster Club's secretary, a Whaler fan who did not follow the team South and hasn't stepped foot inside the Hartford Civic Center since April 13-th 1997. "That was my family. When the team died, I died. With that building. So I will not go to that building," says Sayer. Sayer is one of the many faithful fans who felt betrayed by team owner Peter Karmanos' decision to take the team to Carolina. But she stays active with the booster club, which donates to many of the local charities the Whalers used to support. "We all believed in the Whalers and believed that they should still be in Connecticut and are trying to keep their memory alive so that we can get a team hopefully back in the state sometime," says Sayer. Although they're not rooting for the same team now, both Marty Evtushek and Janet Sayer agree a new team in Connecticut should be an expansion team. Neither wants to see another city lose its team like Hartford did. |
| The Stanley Cup has been awarded for 2002. Congrats go out to the Detroit Red Wings. We sympathize with the former Whaler players. We DANCE WITH JOY knowing that Karmanass will not be touching Lord Stanley!!! |
| Congratulations go out to Ray Ferraro! We wish you all the best at ESPN. (Sadly, another Whaler has retired. }3) From: http://espn.go.com/nhl/news/2002/0802/1413556.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, August 2 Updated: August 5, 11:00 AM ET Ferraro will join ESPN as hockey broadcaster -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press ST. LOUIS -- Center Ray Ferraro, who overcame his small stature to become a star in the NHL, retired Friday after 18 seasons to join ESPN as a hockey broadcaster. Ferraro, who was an unrestricted free agent, ended last season with St. Louis after Atlanta traded him in March to give him a chance to finish his career with a playoff team. The 37-year-old Ferraro, drafted in 1982 by the Hartford Whalers as a 5-foot-9, 165-pound prospect, scored 408 goals and had 490 assists in 1,258 career games with six NHL teams. Ferraro had at least 50 points in nine seasons, his best coming with the New York Islanders in 1991-92, when he scored 40 goals and had 40 assists. He also scored 41 goals for Hartford in 1988-89. Ferraro was having the worst season of his career with only eight goals when he was acquired by St. Louis. Blues general manager Larry Pleau was Hartford's GM when the Whalers -- now the Carolina Hurricanes -- first gave Ferraro a chance in the NHL. Ferraro played seven seasons with Hartford. In 15 games with the Blues, Ferraro had six goals and four assists despite playing the end of last season with a torn knee ligament. He also had three assists in 10 playoff games. In 76 games last season with the Blues and Thrashers, Ferraro had 14 goals and 23 assists. "When he first came into the pros, when he was drafted, everyone thought he was too small,'' Pleau said Friday. "He proved everyone wrong, and he earned his way in this league.'' Messages left with Ferraro and agent Steve Bartlett were not immediately returned Friday. Ferraro also played for the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings. Before joining the Blues, Ferraro had missed the playoffs during the previous three seasons -- twice with the Thrashers, once with the Kings -- and worked as an analyst for ESPN's playoff coverage. |
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| Sad news to report. Former Whaler Goalie, Al Smith, passed away on August 7, 2002. Information can be found at the Hartford Whalers Booster Club website. |
From: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news/ap/20020907/ap-bluejackets-dineen.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blue Jackets sign Dineen to one-year contract September 7, 2002 COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Right wing Kevin Dineen has signed a one-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets for what he says will be his final season in the NHL. The 38-year-old Dineen will make a base salary of $500,000 from the contract he signed Friday. This season will be his 19th in the NHL. Dineen has played with Hartford, Carolina, Philadelphia, and Ottawa before joining the Blue Jackets for their expansion season in 2000-2001. He has 355 goals and 405 assists in 1,184 games, including five goals and eight assists in 59 games last season. |
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