‘Whalers Night’ may be a hit in Carolina, but it still stings for Hartford hockey fans
The old white, green and blue sweaters hit the ice, that gorgeous, now world-famous logo donning the front.
‘Brass Bonanza’ blared from the arena loudspeakers.
Pucky the Whale roamed the concourses.
The Whalers were back.
“It might be balmy here in Raleigh tonight, but it’ll feel like Hartford, Connecticut,” Hurricanes play-by-play announcer Mike Maniscalco declared to open the game broadcast on Bally Sports South.
About 600 miles north, in Hartford, Connecticut, hockey fans came streaming into the XL Center to watch their Wolf Pack take on the Providence Bruins. It wasn’t balmy, not 65 degrees, but it was warm for February. There was still a slight chill in the air. Hockey weather.
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/CsCMOLUpbj
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) February 10, 2024
To the Connecticut sports fan, watching the “Whalers Night” spectacle in Raleigh, put on by the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday during their game against the Devils, felt both patronizing and disorienting.
Here was the franchise, once Connecticut’s only major-league professional sports team, after having decided to pack its bags and leave nearly 27 years ago, now suddenly lionizing Hartford and its hockey glory days. It was parading around the old Whalers logo it still profits off of, playing old highlights, giving its fans a history lesson on that wacky, cute, surely-always-doomed franchise that birthed the Carolina Hurricanes, almost as if Hartford hockey was meant to die so that hockey in Raleigh could live.
“It feels wrong for someone else to be putting the Whalers jersey on when the Whalers brand is only being used by the NHL to collect money, they don’t really care about it. They don’t care about Hartford,” said Kevin Campbell, a Beacon Falls resident and lifelong Connecticut sports fan. “It’s annoying that they’ve put up all this fight to keep the Coyotes in Arizona. But yet they did nothing to keep the Whalers in Hartford.”
Cooperalls are SO back pic.twitter.com/BUVEKyWUuY
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) February 10, 2024
Especially aggravating was the thought of Hurricanes center Jordan Staal skating around in a No. 11 Whalers jersey when No. 11 hangs in the rafters at the XL Center to honor Kevin Dineen, a Hartford legend who scored the final goal in Whalers history. ‘Brass Bonanza,’ which is still played at Hartford Wolf Pack, Athletic and Yard Goats games, is Hartford’s song, Campbell said, and shouldn’t be co-opted either.
The Hurricanes pulled out all the stops for Whalers night, from players wearing the old-school, blinding-green Cooperall pants during warmups to the logo slapped everywhere in the arena and on the TV broadcast. Former Whaler Ted Drury, father of Jack, who currently plays for the Hurricanes, read out the team’s lineup before the game. There were Whale puns all over the team’s social media accounts, and an interview with Whalers and Hurricanes equipment manager Skip Cunningham. Even referee Dan O’Rourke announced a penalty on “Hartford” during the second period.
He’s not wrong. He mentioned the right city https://t.co/pAzrZ979Qd
— Hockey Night in Hartford (@HockeyNightHFD) February 11, 2024
To Hurricanes fans, ”Whalers Night’ might have felt like a whimsical dress-up party. It’s fun to look at the old logo, laugh and admire the Cooperall pants, marvel at the fact that there was once an NHL franchise in little old Hartford, Connecticut.
But for fans in Connecticut, it still stings, even all these years later. Even if there may be something wonderful about seeing the Whalers logo back on the ice in an NHL game, to most fans it feels wrong. Hartford isn’t some lost city like Atlantis. It still exists, there’s still a Whalers booster club, and there are still plenty of fans who don’t need to a history lesson to remember the team.
Pucky. Is. Here. pic.twitter.com/7DDsWOjbwG
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) February 10, 2024
Let's rock!#CauseChaos | @voodooranger pic.twitter.com/LUbREocnGs
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) February 11, 2024
The ‘Whalers’ defeated the Devils, 1-0, on a goal from center Sebastian Aho with 1:20 left in overtime, to cap off Saturday night’s festivities. Born in July 1997, he’s only known the Whalers to play in Carolina.
He’s not wrong. He mentioned the right city https://t.co/pAzrZ979Qd
— Hockey Night in Hartford (@HockeyNightHFD) February 11, 2024
Back up north, the Wolf Pack spent the weekend honoring alumni ahead of that franchise’s 2,000th AHL game, which just so happened to take place Friday night at the XL Center as the team faced the Bridgeport Islanders. The ‘Pack are the 10th AHL team to have played that many games in the same location, a testament to the hockey fanbase that continues to exist in Hartford.
On Saturday, while the Whalers skated hundreds of miles away, the Wolf Pack lost to the Bruins, 4-1, in what could be seen as a more fitting on-ice tribute.
Pucky wasn’t there. Nor were there educational videos to inform fans about the city or the team that used to play there.
But ‘Brass Bonanza’ still blared through the loudspeakers. There were plenty of Whalers jerseys, both in the stands and in the rafters.
Hockey goes on in Hartford, as it has for 27 years, regardless of what the Hurricanes are calling themselves.