Colorado Rockies (NHL)

This article is about the former NHL ice hockey club. For the current Major League Baseball club, see Colorado Rockies. For the mountains, see Southern Rocky Mountains. For other uses, see Colorado Rockies (disambiguation).
Colorado Rockies
Founded 1974
History Kansas City Scouts
1974–1976
Colorado Rockies
1976–1982
New Jersey Devils
1982–present
Home arena McNichols Sports Arena
City Denver, Colorado
Colors Blue, red, gold, white

                   

Stanley Cups 0
Conference championships 0
Division championships 0

The Colorado Rockies were an American professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) that played in Denver, Colorado, from 1976 to 1982. They were originally founded as the Kansas City Scouts, an expansion team that began play in the NHL in the 1974–75 season. The Scouts moved from Kansas City, Missouri to Denver for the 1976–77 season. The franchise moved to East Rutherford, New Jersey, for the 1982–83 season and was renamed as the New Jersey Devils. The NHL would not return to Denver until the Quebec Nordiques moved there to become the Colorado Avalanche following the 1994–95 season.

Franchise history

Bringing the NHL to Denver

Ivan Mullenix, owner of the Central Hockey League's Denver Spurs, had been awarded a "conditional" NHL franchise for the 1976–77 season. With McNichols Sports Arena already complete by 1975, he looked to enter the NHL a year early, and the league attempted to broker an arrangement by which he would acquire the struggling California Golden Seals franchise and move them to Denver in lieu of an expansion team. At the same time, the Pittsburgh Penguins would be sold to a Seattle-based group that had also won a conditional franchise for that city.

The proposed arrangement fell through, and with the continuing franchise difficulties, the NHL called off the 1976–77 expansion. The Spurs then elected to move to the World Hockey Association (WHA) for the 1975–76 season, but low attendance, financial difficulties and rumors that the NHL was preparing to move the Seals or Kansas City Scouts to Denver prompted Mullenix to move the Spurs to Ottawa almost halfway through the season. The Ottawa Civics lasted only two weeks before folding. The Seals ultimately relocated to Cleveland for the 1976–77 season, where they played for two years as the Barons before merging with the Minnesota North Stars prior to the 1978–79 season.

Meanwhile, the Scouts were on the verge of collapse despite having entered the NHL only two years earlier. Although they suffered a 12 win season in 1975–76, they had fared somewhat better on the ice over their first two years than their expansion cousins, the Washington Capitals. However, their ownership group lacked the resources and patience to handle the typical struggles of an expansion team. Additionally, the Scouts were hobbled by an economic downturn in the Midwest. Facing almost $1 million in debt, the Scouts mounted a season ticket drive to raise revenue. However, when they only managed to sell 2,000 tickets, the Scouts' owners decided to pull up stakes and get out. The team was sold to a Denver-based group headed by Jack Vickers, who moved the team to Denver as the Rockies.

Continued struggles

Unfortunately, the situation did not improve significantly. In six seasons in Denver, the Rockies made the Stanley Cup playoffs only once, in the 1977–78 season. Even then, they finished with the sixth-worst record in the league, 21 games under .500. However, the Smythe Division was so weak that year that the team finished second behind the Chicago Black Hawks, the only team in the division with a .500 record. This allowed them to edge out the Vancouver Canucks for the last playoff spot by only two points (in those days, the division runners-up were guaranteed a playoff spot). The Rockies went down rather meekly in the first round, losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in a two-game sweep. They would not make the playoffs again until 1988 – their sixth year in New Jersey. They not only never had a winning record in their six years in Denver, but never even approached the .500 mark.

The Rockies did have some star players for a short time. Barry Beck set a record in his rookie year for goals by a rookie defenseman, and Lanny McDonald was traded to the Rockies by Toronto. In addition, the team at various times had such players as Chico Resch, Wilf Paiement, Rene Robert, Rob Ramage and Bobby Schmautz. However, the team always had a lack of overall depth and traded such quality for quantity. The team was also plagued by instability. In four years, the Rockies had seven coaches, none lasting more than one full season. Ownership changed hands twice in four years. Attendance was fairly respectable, considering that the team was barely competitive on the ice and unstable off it.

Under Don Cherry

One of the few bright spots in the franchise's history was during the 1979–80 season when the flamboyant Don Cherry, a former Jack Adams Award winner, was named head coach after being fired by the Boston Bruins. Under Cherry, the Rockies adopted the motto "Come to the fights and watch a Rockies game break out!" This could be seen on billboards all over Denver in the 1979–80 season.

However, as he later admitted, Cherry's outspokenness and feuding with Rockies general manager Ray Miron did not endear him to the front office. While Cherry did much to motivate the players, goaltending was still the team's weakness as Miron refused to replace Hardy Astrom, whom Cherry dubbed "The Swedish Sieve". Cherry recalled one game where his players had got ten shots on goal without scoring, but Astrom then conceded a goal from the opponent's first shot and so was yanked from net.

The Rockies finished with 51 points, tied for the worst record in the league. In their final game, which was held at home, Cherry's team defeated the Penguins 5–0. As it was already known that Cherry would not be back next season, he wore a cowboy hat and cowboy boots for what would be his last NHL game. After the final buzzer sounded his players formed two lines for him, with sticks raised to form an arch to walk between while he acknowledged the cheers of the crowd.

Move to New Jersey

In 1978, New Jersey trucking magnate Arthur Imperatore, Sr. bought the Rockies with the intention of moving them to northern New Jersey. However, the NHL vetoed the move because the Brendan Byrne Arena, where Imperatore intended to have the team play, was still under construction, and there was no arena in New Jersey that was suitable even for temporary use.

Finally in 1982, after a bid by an Ottawa-based ownership group intent on moving the Rockies to the Canadian capital fell through, Imperatore sold the Rockies to another New Jersey multi-millionaire, shipping tycoon John McMullen (who at the time also owned the Houston Astros.) He announced that he had "big plans" for the franchise, but they involved making the long-awaited move to New Jersey. The team was relocated for the 1982-83 season and renamed the New Jersey Devils.

Legacy

The last active NHL player who had played for the Rockies was Joe Cirella, who retired from the NHL following the 1995–96 NHL season and played his final professional season for the Cologne Sharks in Germany. In that season, incidentally, Colorado saw hockey return to Denver as the Quebec Nordiques moved to the city and became known as the Colorado Avalanche. As well, Rockies draft pick Bruce Driver played in the NHL until 1998, but did not join the team until 1983, after their move to New Jersey.

Two other former Rockies, Paul Gagne and Rich Chernomaz, played until 1999 in the Swiss and German leagues, respectively.

The 2001 Stanley Cup Finals pitted both teams that had called Colorado home in their histories, with the Avalanche defeating the Devils in seven games. The Avalanche won game seven in Denver, and the victory enabled Ray Bourque to retire as a Stanley Cup champion (to that point, he had yet to win the Cup).

The Rockies are credited as being the first team to use the Gary Glitter song "Rock and Roll, Part 2" at a sporting event. The team played it after every goal scored by a Rockies player. Other NHL teams picked up on this practice, as did teams in other leagues.[1]

The NHL Colorado Rockies should not be confused with the Major League Baseball team of the same name that began playing in the National League in 1993.

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Season GP W L T Pts GF GA PIM Finish Playoffs
1976–77 80 20 46 14 54 226 307 978 5th in Smythe Division Out of playoffs
1977–78 80 19 40 21 59 257 305 818 2nd in Smythe Division Lost in preliminary round (Flyers), 0-2
1978–79 80 15 53 12 42 210 331 838 4th in Smythe Division Out of playoffs
1979–80 80 19 48 13 51 234 308 1020 6th in Smythe Division Out of playoffs
1980–81 80 22 45 13 57 258 344 1418 4th in Smythe Division Out of playoffs
1981–82 80 18 49 13 49 241 362 1138 5th in Smythe Division Out of playoffs
Totals 480 113 281 86 312 1426 1957 6210

Team captains

First round draft picks

Note: This list does not include selections as the Kansas City Scouts.

Colorado Rockies individual records

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "The Vibes Of Victory", Sports Illustrated, 30 November 1992

External links

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