Hartford Whaler Nation - The Official Web Site for Hartford Whalers Fans by Mark Willand

Whaler Profile: Jordy Douglas

Jordy Douglas knows all about less being more.

Man does he know.

After completing his junior hockey career in 1978 in the frozen tundra of Flin Flon, Manitoba, Douglas sought the best possible entry-level contract that he could find.

Much to his delight, Douglas was offered a three-year deal from the World Hockey Association’s Winnipeg Jets, whom he watched and worked for in the dressing room as kid while growing up five minutes from the Winnipeg Arena.

But Douglas soon got a call from his lawyer, Norm Kaplan, saying he had received another offer from a team 2,000 miles to the east, the New England Whalers, who had found out Douglas was talking to the Jets. Suddenly, Douglas and Kaplan had the bargaining power they wanted: two teams battling for the services of the high-scoring left wing.

The Jets had future Hall of Famer Bobby Hull as a recruiter and offered more money ($75,000 in a “big” signing bonus, plus $60,000 a year for three years guaranteed in case the WHA folded) for what seemed to be a perfect fit for the kid from Winnipeg. But Douglas decided to take less money for two reasons: He wanted to start his pro career without the added pressure and expectations of playing in front of the hometown fans, and the Whalers had future Hall of Famers Gordie Howe and Dave Keon and established former NHL veterans such as Johnny McKenzie, Rick Ley, Brad Selwood and Al Smith.

“I wanted to play with all those guys that I grew up watching on television, which was paramount,” Douglas said from his home in Winnipeg, where the often brutal winters make what Connecticut has had to endure the past few weeks seem like a passing snow shower. “Plus, I really didn’t want to play at home right away. I felt it would be tough enough to turn pro any way, but to play at home would be exceptionally difficult for a young player. And I always hoped and thought maybe I could get back to Winnipeg, but I needed to go somewhere to cut my teeth in the pro ranks.”

Bruce Berlet: Neufeld Has Fought Many Battles

Talk about pressure.

Forget overtime in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. Forget batting with two out in the bottom of the ninth and a run down in Game 7 of the World Series. Forget two free throws with two seconds on the clock and down one in Game 7 of the NBA finals.

No, that all would have been child’s play to Ray Neufeld.

When the Hartford Whalers traded Neufeld to the Winnipeg Jets on Nov. 21, 1985, the headline in a local Canadian publication screamed: Jets Trade Babych for “Stone Hands” Neufeld

As if that wasn’t blunt enough, the fourth paragraph of the story was downright cruel: Coming to the Jets is St. Boniface native Ray Neufeld, bringing with him an established reputation for his lack of finish around the opponent’s net and little else.

Nearly a quarter century later, in his acceptance speech upon induction into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009, four years after close friend Jordy Douglas, Neufeld even made note of “the most controversial trade in Jets history.”

Jets general manager John Ferguson, a noted tough guy himself in his playing days, gushed about Neufeld’s qualities when he announced the acquisition of a player whom he had sought for a while. Neufeld immediately fought for space for himself and his teammates, but it didn’t help that Babych, a gifted defenseman and point man on the power play who had been the second overall pick by the Jets in 1980, helped elevate the Whalers to the two best seasons in franchise history, their only playoff victory that season and only division title in 1986-87.

Bruce Berlet: Whalers/Bruins Legends Draw In Whale Bowl Alumni Game

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. – Hall of Famer Brian Leetch had just one regret.

“It went too fast,” the Cheshire native said.

Just one regret, too, for Enfield native Craig Janney, playing with Leetch for only the second time since the 1988 Winter Olympics.

“I had Brian for the winner at the end, and I screwed up,” Janney said with a smile. “I had him creeping in (off the point). It would have been a good Connecticut moment if I could have hit him with pass, but I’m a little rusty. I hit the side of the net with the darn thing.”

Instead, the fun-filled, 50-minute exhibition appropriately ended in a 4-4 tie between the Leetch/Janney Boston Bruins legends and Hartford Whalers legends in the opener of the Whale Bowl, the featured attraction of the historic “Harvest-Properties.com Whalers Hockey Fest 2011” at Rentstchler Field on Saturday.

Yvon Corriveau and Pat Verbeek gave the Whalers a 2-0 lead before Janney got the Bruins on the board. Ray Neufeld restored the Whalers’ two-goal lead, but Kenny Linseman scored twice and actor Cameron Bancroft gave the Bruins a 4-3 lead before Corriveau scored his second goal with 3:30 left. Corriveau could have won it on a penalty shot with 1:56 to go, but Cleon Daskalatis made a sprawling save to preserve the desired result.

For this was a day of stories and memories, mic’d-up referee Paul Stewart offering running commentary while telling jokes, talking to the players and “fighting” with the comical Hanson Brothers trio of “Slap Shot” fame who played in the second half.

Leetch and Hanson Brothers were the last players to exit the ice before the Connecticut Whale and Providence Bruins played the second outdoor game in the AHL’s 75-year history.

Did Leetch want to soak up as much of a rare charity appearance as he could?

“No, I was taking pictures with a lot of the people who were working out there and signing some autographs,” Leetch said.

Not surprising for arguably the best American hockey player in history. He was a main attraction, received a standing ovation when introduced before starting on defense alongside fellow Hall of Famer Brad Park.

Hartford Courant: Time In Hartford Memorable For Mark Howe

HARTFORD — —

As the director of pro scouting for the Detroit Red Wings, Mark Howe spends plenty of nights each year in NHL arenas across North America, many of which hold special memories from his 16-year career as a player.

But it's an American Hockey League arena where some of the warmest memories come flooding back for Howe.

Read the full article at Courant.com

John McKenzie, Fred O'Donnell, Terry Yake and Scott Daniels Added to Player Roster for Feb. 19 Whale Bowl

 Hartford , CT ...  Whalers Sports and Entertainment announced today that John McKenzie, Fred O’Donnell, Terry Yake and Scott Daniels have been added to the group of featured players for the Hartford Whalers legends vs. Boston Bruins legends game February 19, 2011 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford .

The legends game comprises part of the "Harvest-Properties.com Whale Bowl," the featured event of the two-week outdoor Whalers Hockey Fest spectacular at Rentschler Field that will include numerous collegiate, high school, prep school and youth hockey games.  The legends game will face off at 4:00 PM on February 19 and will be followed by the outdoor AHL game between the Connecticut Whale and the Providence Bruins at 7:00 PM.

McKenzie, a right wing from High River , Alberta , played for both the Bruins and the New England Whalers during a 21-year professional career. McKenzie was a part of two Stanley Cup-winning teams with the Bruins, in 1969-70 and 1971-72, and reached the WHA finals with the Whalers in the 1977-78 season.

McKenzie played in 691 total NHL games for the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers and Bruins from 1958-72, totaling 206 goals and 268 assists for 474 points.  His time with the Bruins spanned from January of 1966 through the end of the Cup-winning 1971-72 campaign and included 453 games-played, 169 goals and 227 assists for 396 points, and 700 penalty minutes.

He also competed in 477 WHA contests from 1972-79, scoring 163 times and adding 250 assists for 413 total points. McKenzie ranks seventh all-time in WHA games played, and his number 19 was retired by the Hartford Whalers.  McKenzie skated for the Whalers for the final two-and-a-half seasons of their WHA existence, logging 189 all-time games and totaling 57 goals and 76 assists for 133 points, along with 201 penalty minutes.

Whalers Profile: Paul Lawless

By Bruce Berlet

The saddest, most shocking day in the life of Paul Lawless ended up shaping his very existence.

When Lawless was 13 years old, his father, Bruce, died suddenly of a heart attack an hour before he was to have double bypass surgery.

“When you’re having a double bypass, you’re like an outpatient,” Lawless said. “But it was one of those freaky things that happen.”

It was especially traumatic for Lawless because his father got him started in hockey a decade earlier when he and a neighbor flooded the schoolyard next to the family’s house in Toronto every winter. Then his dad and friend would put a hockey stick between them to help Paul get his balance so he could skate between them.

After her husband’s death, Jean Lawless, Paul’s mother, immediately leapt into the job of being a dual parent, sitting down her son to discuss how they would handle the unexpected tragedy.

“My mother and I are still the best friends on the planet,” said Lawless, who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he moved in 2005 to get involved in real estate and now owns a ticket company, ProTix. “I can remember sitting there balling my ears out when my mother walked in my room and said, ‘There’s nothing we can do about what just happened.’ She did it in a very sympathetic way, but the bottom line was we could mourn for the rest of our lives or we could pull our bootstraps up and move on.

“Believe me, my father didn’t leave a whole lot of money behind. My mother had never worked, so she had to go get a job and paid for her son, me, to continue to play at the highest level. As a kid at the time, you don’t realize the expense, the cost and the time (of hockey). She could have very easily said we can’t afford to do this, so who knows where I would have ended up.”

Lawless said he owes everything to his mother…

“I had more fun with my life after my father died,” he said. “To this day, that’s always been my approach on life: We’re going to be dead a lot longer than we’re alive, so I look at life in a very different way than a lot of other people. That conversation with my mother has always stuck with me, and that’s what I live by.

“Losing my dad just numbed me. I couldn’t believe it. I know I lost a big piece of my life when he died, and I’ve made up for it by living my life to the most ever since. When my feet land on the floor every day, it’s going to be a great day. I’ve always been happy-go-lucky, and nothing has changed.”

Whalers Profile: Mike Rogers

By Bruce Berlet

At 5 feet, 9 inches and 170 pounds, Mike Rogers always felt he had to make heads turn throughout his hockey career.

Well, in 12 seasons in the World Hockey Association and National Hockey League with the New England/Hartford Whalers and New York Rangers, Rogers proved lots of people wrong.

In fact, all you need to know about Rogers is that he shares quite a distinction with NHL Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Peter Stastny: They’re the only four players to score 100 points in their first three NHL seasons.

Talk about making some so-called experts look bad.

“You always feel you have something to prove when you’re a smaller player, but that just pushes you that much more,” said Rogers, who has been a salesman for an oil company in his native Calgary, Alberta, since his retirement in 1987 and is about to start his 11^th season as color commentary for the hometown Flames on sports radio station Fan 960. “I came into the NHL when the Philadelphia Flyers won the Stanley Cup, and it was all about size. I came off a great junior career and was predicted to go high in the draft, and the next thing you know, I’m still kicking around in the later rounds.

“It was all size-related, so obviously when training camp started, the first thing on your mind was proving everyone wrong, that you are capable of playing at the highest level. Whether it was the WHA or NHL, both were professional leagues with great players. So if you talk to any small player, that’s kind of what really gets them going. Then you see players like Dave Keon, who was never big. Some of the greatest players in hockey were smaller players, so those are the guys that you want to be like.”

Rogers said everyone eventually forgets about size, but that didn’t stop giving him an incentive.

Whaler Profile: Dana Murzyn

By Bruce Berlet

 

Dana Murzyn got a quick indoctrination into a different phase of rookie hazing in the NHL.

Not long after starting his pro career with the Hartford Whalers in 1985, Murzyn earned the nickname Hank.

Before a third game in less than four days, a matinee in Philadelphia, the Whalers players were a bit tense in the locker room. Then one of his teammates --- Murzyn thinks it might have been Torrie Robertson or Joel Quenneville --- started asking everyone what their parents’ names were, drawing a chuckle from some of them, especially Murzyn.

“When I went to Hartford, I chewed tobacco, wore cowboy boots and came from Calgary (Alberta),” said Murzyn, who roomed with left winger Paul Lawless at the home of Jim Ellis, a retired school principal in West Hartford, during his rookie season. “So I guess all the guys on the Whalers kind of assumed after meeting me that I must be off a farm or something. But I grew up in a city, so it had nothing to do with that.

“My parents’ names are Hank and Helene, and they were coming in for the NHL All-Star Game (in Hartford) that season, so I think the guys were expecting to meet ‘Little House on the Prairie’ parents. My parents aren’t like that at all, so after meeting my folks the next day, someone in the room said, ‘Your dad doesn’t look anything like Hank. You look more like a Hank than he does.’ That stuck for the rest of my career until now.

“It was all in fun. I loved being around those guys.”

Murzyn was the Whalers’ first-round pick (fifth overall) in 1985 and named to the NHL all-rookie team, arriving in Hartford just in time for the best two seasons in franchise history. While paired mostly with Ulf Samuelsson, the Whalers won their only playoff series in 1986, upsetting the top-seeded Quebec Nordiques before losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens in overtime of Game 7 of the division finals at the Forum. It earned the team a parade through downtown Hartford, and a year later, the Whalers won their only division title but lost to the Nordiques in the first round of the playoffs. 

Whalers Alumni Profile: Alan Hangsleben

by Bruce Berlet

Alan Hangsleben had second – and third – thoughts about attending the first Whalers Summer Reunion and Fan Fest this summer.

“One of the saddest things in my life was being traded,” Hangsleben said, alluding to being acquired by the Washington Capitals for right wing Tom Rowe in the middle of the Whalers’ first NHL season (1979-80). “I loved the area. I loved the people. I loved the team. I had been with the Whalers for 51/2 years and really grew up in Hartford.

“When I first got there (in 1974), there was nothing there. The Russian Lady (bar and restaurant) wasn’t there. You didn’t even want to go downtown at night until the (Hartford) Civic Center was built…”

But after considering – and reconsidering – his return to the Land of Steady Habits, the 57-year-old Hangsleben decided it was time to revisit where his pro career began nearly four decades ago…

“I should have come back before, but it was really, really hard,” Hangsleben said. “Every time I thought about Hartford I got a lump in my throat. I had such great memories, but it was hard because I just kind of walked away from it and left the great memories, the way the people treated me, the camaraderie I had with the players and the charity softball games. It was good for me all the way around.”

The hard-hitting Hangsleben, who played defense and left wing, felt the most love after the 1977-78 season, when he was named Favorite Whaler and the team’s Unsung Hero. But 21 months later, he was headed to the Nation’s Capitol.

Hangsleben didn’t make it back for the Whalers reunion hosted by former defenseman Joel Quenneville and his wife, Boo, at their home in South Windsor three years ago. But Hangsleben finally figured he had been away from Hartford long enough. Plus, he learned this reunion was being backed by former Whalers managing general partner Howard Baldwin, the CEO of the new Whalers Sports & Entertainment group that is trying to revitalize hockey in the area with hopes of returning a NHL team to Hartford.

Whalers Reunion Arthritis Dinner on August 13

There's still time to get tickets for the Arthritis Foundation Whalers Reunion Dinner on August 13. Your donation will help ease the pain of adults and children suffering from arthritis. We will have a lot of special surprises that will be exclusive for this charity event. This is a great cause. Please join us. Call Heather Schold at 860-563-1177, Ext. 108