Book Feature The Whalers (by Pat Pickens)

[Theokritos]

Related talk with Pat Pickens:

 

[Section 104]

None of those WHA teams in NHL cities worked out. Boston Whalers, New York Raiders, Toronto Toros, Los Angeles Sharks, Chicago Cougars…are gone in a couple years. I’ve read the Raiders had to deal with labor demands in Madison Square Garden…they refused to use less workers (and the NHL put an expansion team in the new arena 25 miles to the east). Did the Whalers have the same problem in Boston?
I also imagine good dates were scarce. Everyone wants Saturday night. I went to college in Buffalo in the mid 970s and the NBA Braves were upset the Sabres and various college basketball teams could get better dates.
I know Emile Francis has been at the retirement jersey ceremonies for Jean Ratelle and Vic Hadfield and he seemed lucid when he spoke to the crowd. Seemed pretty fit for his age. But that could be having some good moments. He certainly turned the Rangers into a contender after two decades of mediocrity, saved St Louis when it looked it they might leave (Purina bought him out but gave him a supply of cat food which his cat wouldn’t eat) and turned Hartford from a last place team in debt into profitable first place.

 

[Pat Pickens]

Yeah, I was disappointed I didn't get to speak Emile. I called him and asked for him and someone — I think his son — told me he was unavailable to speak, and I later heard that he's battling dementia.

And you're exactly right. The Whalers were third in line at the Garden in their second year in the WHA and that was after the Boston Braves of the AHL folded. Plus the circus always got priority when it came to town since it outdrew every sports team.

There's a whole section in the WHA chapter about the difficulty some WHA teams went through with arenas. The Blazers were barred from playing at the Spectrum and had to play over near UPenn — which is where the infamous orange-puck incident went down. The NHL teams, who were competing directly with the WHA rivals for ticket money, were not going to do any favors for the rival league teams.

 

[MadArcand]

Finished the book a few days back. Really interesting insights into the business side of things and into the local situation in Connecticut. Also some of the more detailed season/playoff stories (never knew I needed yet another reason to dislike Dale Hunter!), wish there were more. Also wish some small mistakes got caught by proofreading (like both Brad McCrimmon & Al Hangsleben are referred to as forwards, for instance). Overall a really nice and informative read, much appreciated. Thank you for writing it!

 

[Pat Pickens]

Ah. Disappointing to read about the small errors. They'll get fixed for the next run.

I fact-checked and proofread the entire thing — since you can't count on copy editors to know specific facts, especially hockey-related ones — and caught most of them before publish time. But at a certain point it's really, really hard to remember to quadruple check things like that, so I'm sorry those errors slipped through.

I'm glad you enjoyed the book though!

 

[Theokritos]

Pat Pickens was on the latest episode of Hockey Time Machine (together with Howard Baldwin, Chuck Kaiton and Mark Howe):

 

[kaiser matias]

I got a chance to read the book, and it was well-done. It stays fairly neutral about the team, showing both the good and bad, and why they were ultimately unable to stay in Hartford (and why that is not likely to ever change).

One thing I would have liked a little more is discuss of off-season moves, namely the draft and trades and so on. Some names show up without notice (like Sean Burke and Geoff Sanderson, two key players of the mid-90s Whalers), and Bobby Holik only gets mentioned for scoring a playoff goal or two (including one against the Whalers).

That said, it shows that there was a lot of material here to work with, and I wouldn't be surprised if the final product could have been twice as long (and certainly wouldn't have complained). Solid read, and good to have it out there.

 

[Bondurant]

Recommend the book. I read it last year. Had no clue there was a shortage but it makes sense given the state of things as of late. Mine was pre-ordered on Amazon months in advance.