This Connecticut native has accepted the fact that there is pretty much no chance that this state will be getting an NHL team again. But for someone who has been watching Yale and Quinnipiac hockey since I started skating myself in 2003, I’m perfectly okay with that.
The Hartford Whalers didn’t last too long, only staying from 1979-97, and I was too young to even experience them. The only way for Hartford to get an NHL team is for the XL Center to no longer host a team and lose revenue because of lack of events and eventually get rebuilt to house a large amount of people for a sporting event like professional hockey or basketball. UConn hockey will play all Hockey East league games there for at least the 2014-15 season after making the move to Hockey East, but there are plans to renovate the school’s on-campus rink, the Mark E. Freitas Ice Forum. The Hartford Wolf Pack will be playing there as well after talks in the off-season plan to move the New York Islanders’ farm team, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, to the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, and the Wolf Pack to Bridgeport, all after the Islanders make the move to The Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the 2015-16 season. Nothing is set in stone aside from the Isles move to Brooklyn, but it’s only a matter of time before the XL Center loses these sporting events and maybe even loses the occasional UConn basketball game as well and will require attention, whether that be completely rebuilding or just getting rid of it. The state will have to make a decision, especially now that there are plans in place to build a minor league baseball stadium right down the street.
But you can’t say that Connecticut isn’t a hockey state. Of the four Americans to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, two are from Connecticut. Cheshire native Brian Leetch won it as a New York Ranger in 1994, and Hamden’s Jonathan Quick was awarded it in 2012 after the Los Angeles Kings hoisted the Stanley Cup.
Aside from the professional side, college hockey really rose to popularity in the state when Quinnipiac moved into the ECAC in 2005 and soon after got a new, state-of-the-art arena closer to the campus. Also around that time is when Yale started getting national rankings in the polls and also began hosting NCAA Regionals in Bridgeport. And you can’t forget the obvious newly formed Yale-Quinnipiac rivalry when the Bobcats move into the ECAC, especially with the two rinks being a short 10 to 15 minute drive down Whitney from each other.
The 2012-13 season had to have been the greatest for Connecticut in a long time, with the Bobcats skyrocketing to being the number one team in the nation without warning, and then to top it all off, Yale just barely getting into the NCAA Tournament and making a run to the National Championship game against the Bobcats, a game that would have drawn an even better crowd than Pittsburgh drew, had it been held in a Connecticut venue, like the recently torn down New Haven Coliseum, or the XL Center.
As mentioned before, UConn is making the jump from the Atlantic Hockey Association (the league Quinnipiac used to be apart of) to Hockey East this season. The fourth and final division one hockey team is Sacred Heart of the AHA, and the Pioneers haven’t quite found a winning stride yet. But the four teams intend to start coming together once a year, starting in 2015, in the Frozen Holiday Classic, which will be held in Bridgeport’s Webster Bank Arena. Because of scheduling conflicts, the Frozen Holiday Classic this year will feature Umass-Amherst as Quinnipiac’s replacement, and national champions Union being Yale’s replacement. Yale intends to join what looks to become Connecticut’s version of the Beanpot Tournament in 2015, while Quinnipiac is yet to confirm their participation because of the school’s season series with St. Cloud State that starts this season.
The chances of the Whalers, or any other NHL team for that matter coming to Connecticut is a long shot at best, but that certainly does not mean that there isn’t some exciting hockey going on somewhere in this state. With the college hockey here, I don’t think it’s a big deal if Connecticut gets an NHL team or not. The college hockey is good enough for me.
