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Another great piece from one of the best hockey writers on the planet in Kevin Paul Dupont.

Been 17 years now...hard to believe.

Their annual commiseration will be Sunday afternoon, here in a downtown restaurant, and there is no telling how many will attend. The proud members of the Hartford Whalers Booster Club will gather around a table or two at the Black Bear Saloon on Allyn Street and reminisce over the team they still love, the one that played its final NHL game at the Civic Center on April 13, 1997, and then made tracks south for Raleigh, N.C.

At some point during their annual Whaler Fanniversary, with nearly two decades of Sundays gone by, they’ll once more play a tape of that last game. They’ll chitchat about their beloved Hartford players and conjure up their favorite moments in Whaler history.

“I ardently believe they’re coming back, and it could be as early as next year,’’ Victor recently told a reporter who visited his home in New Britain, some 10 miles southwest of the Civic Center. “My bet’s the Islanders. If you look at everything, it really makes the most sense.

“They’re leaving Long Island, and I know the deal is that they’re going to Brooklyn. But someone could get in there now, just pay whatever it takes to break that Brooklyn deal, and bring that team to Hartford.’’

A few Booster Club members, noted Victor, have gone so far as to place $100 deposits at a local bank for season tickets — for a team that doesn’t exist. Some of that money, he said, has been in the bank since 2006.
“Our hope,’’ he said, “is to hand the new owner the deposits and then pick out our seats.’’

There is no cover charge Sunday at the Black Bear Saloon for the 17th Whalers Fanniversary. There is also no agenda. The day is meant only for friends of a not-forgotten franchise to gather once more, maybe enjoy a beer or a burger, reconnect over old games, autographs, memories.

Cortesa, 55, said she’ll brace herself for the annual showing of the final game.

“I can’t watch it without crying,’’ she said. “Really, 17 years later and I still cry. We all do. The team’s gone, but our hearts are still there. We bleed green.’’

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/20...sMP/story.html