Colorado Rockies (NHL)

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 completed 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 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 Denver fans did not consider the WHA a major league, and stayed away in droves. By December, rumors that the NHL was preparing to move the Seals or Kansas City Scouts to Denver led Mullenix to conclude he could not survive in Denver. Out of desperation, he moved the Spurs to Ottawa almost halfway through the season. However, the renamed Ottawa Civics lasted only two weeks before folding. The Seals 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. Of all the teams rumored to be relocating during this period, only the Penguins would remain in their current city after being sold, to shopping mall magnate Edward J. DeBartolo, Sr.; over time Pittsburgh would become one of the NHL's stronger markets.^[1][2]

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' owners decided to sell the team after a season ticket drive sold only 2,000 tickets. The team was sold to a Denver-based group headed by Jack Vickers, who moved the team to Denver as the Rockies.

Continued struggles

The team's situation did not improve significantly. In their 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. 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. Indeed, they never even approached the .500 mark during their six years in Denver.

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 picked up in a trade with Toronto. In addition, the team at various times had such players as Chico Resch, Wilf Paiement, Rene Robert, Rob Ramage and Bobby Schmautz. The team suffered a constant lack of overall depth and trades tended to trade 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.

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 was adept at motivating 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. Cherry was hired as an analyst for the CBC's Hockey Night in Canada program not too long afterwards.