The New Jersey Devils are the National Hockey League's model franchise.
They are the defending Stanley Cup champions, with a homegrown roster and a payroll of $30.5-million (all figures U.S.), $20-million less than the Colorado Avalanche, their opponents in the Stanley Cup final, which begins tonight.
Yet 19 years ago, the Devils slunk out of Denver, bound for the swamplands of New Jersey, as the league's laughingstock.
"One of the things that did me in was something I said on Hockey Night in Canada with Dave Hodge," says Don Cherry, whose NHL coaching career ended after one season with the Rockies when he was famous for his public battles with his boss, general manager Ray Miron. "He asked my why the Rockies were going so bad and I said, 'It's tough to soar like an eagle when you're working with turkeys.' "
Known as the Colorado Rockies for the six seasons they spent in Denver beginning in 1976-77 after a year as the Kansas City Scouts, their best season was in 1977-78 when they finished with a 19-40-21 record. But the meagre 59 points was good enough for second place in the old Smythe Division, although the Rockies were quickly eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. It was their only trip to the playoffs during the Denver years.
Rocky Hockey, a term that was not endearing, summed up years of odd owners, bad trades and bad hockey. All of it was played at the old McNichols Arena, which even in the late 1970s was considered unsuitable for hockey.
"The only good thing about it was that we had a steam bath in the dressing room," said Rene Robert, now the executive director of the NHL Alumni Association, and captain of the Rockies when Cherry was the coach. "Nobody else in the league had a steam bath and we only had that because of the basketball team."
The Rockies' trading history was not a proud one. Lanny McDonald, the team's first star and the most popular athlete in Denver, was traded in 1981 to the Calgary Flames for veteran journeymen Don Lever and Bob MacMillan. The latter just happened to be the younger brother of the Rockies' head coach and GM, Billy MacMillan, who succeeded both Miron and Cherry. The Rockies were also known for trading their draft picks, which were usually in the top three, given their futility.
"Following Don Cherry was not the easiest thing in the world," Billy MacMillan said from his home near Charlottetown, where he manages a liquor store. "He was extremely popular with the players.
"Yes, we traded draft picks. We were in a situation where we had to get better fast in order to make a go of it."
In 1980, the Montreal Canadiens took Doug Wickenheiser first overall in the draft with a pick GM Sam Pollock got from Miron in 1976 for hockey immortals Sean Shanahan and Ron Andruff.
In 1981, the Rockies swapped first-round picks with the Washington Capitals, who used the third-overall pick to take Bobby Carpenter ahead of the Hartford Whalers, who wanted him badly but had to settle for a guy named Ron Francis. The Rockies used the Caps' fifth-overall pick to take defenceman Joe Cirella, ignoring Al MacInnis and Grant Fuhr.
Cherry went into Canada's living rooms after Miron talked then-owners Arthur Imperatore and his stepson Armand Pohan into firing him after the 1979-80 season when he only won 19 games. He has also made goaltender Hardy Aastrom the butt of many jokes about the Rockies since then, although both Cherry and Robert say the team was not that bad.
"I honestly felt that if Cherry were left alone that franchise would still be there," Robert said.
"We had something going there," Cherry said. "We had good young players but [Miron]wouldn't get us a goalie. We were doing good in goal with a guy named Billy McKenzie but then he hurt his knee and we had to use Hardy Aastron, the Swedish Sieve. He was a good guy. He just couldn't stop pucks.
"We used to outshoot everybody. If we'd had a goalie we could have done something. Once in St. Louis, we were up 10-0 in shots and one of their guys stepped over the red line, took a shot and scored on us. I look up at the shots, we had 10 shots, no goals, and [the Blues]had one shot, one goal. So I yanked him.
"I remember the Rocky Mountain News had a poll to see if I should be fired. Thirty-seven hundred people voted no and 52 voted to fire me. I said I didn't know Ray Miron had 52 friends," Cherry said. He admits comments like that hastened his departure.
Cherry also knew stability in Denver was not going to happen under Imperatore, a New Jersey trucking magnate who bought the team with an eye to moving it to New Jersey. But he wound up selling out to Buffalo cable television boss Peter Gilbert.
Gilbert was best known for calling Lanny McDonald "Lonny" in the television commercial for the team. Gilbert sold to John McMullen, leaving several debts in his wake.
McMullen took the flak for moving the team to New Jersey in 1982, but insists he was not the villain.
"I bought the team from the NHL," he said. "All of the details were worked out through the NHL. The team was in bad financial straits. I had nothing to do with the team leaving [Denver] There were some debts, but the league made Gilbert pay them all."
Cherry says he spent several years chasing Gilbert through the courts to get $45,000 that was owed on his contract, and Robert also lost some money.
One thing all of the former Rockies agreed on was that Denver was a better hockey city than what showed in those six years the Rockies were in town.
"We didn't win when I was there, but we had 2,500 more fans a game than after I was fired," Cherry said. "I remember my last game, everybody knew I was gone and as I walked across the ice, the players held up their sticks and crossed them, just like at West Point.
"I played it to the hilt. I wore a Stetson hat and cowboy boots and walked under the sticks. I got blisters from those boots. We had a lot of fun. I loved the people out there; they were great."