Bleeding Green

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

Bleeding Green recounts the story of the Hartford Whalers NHL franchise. As the NHL struggled to compete against the rise of other professional sports, like American football and basketball, the NHL expanded the teams beyond the original six to include new markets. Hartford, called the Bermuda Triangle of sports between New York and Boston, carried the Whalers for nearly twenty years through growth and struggles, as well as playoff runs. This book recounts the people, trivia, and stats that made the Whalers a storybook franchise.

Likes: Full disclosure, I’m not one to read a book about sports. However, as a passionate Carolina Hurricanes fan who loves retro-Whalers night, I wanted to give this book a read. There were some interesting pieces of trivia and quotes from former Whalers players and staff. The stories were interesting and gave a glimpse into the world of hockey in the 70s and 80s.

Comments: I like the book. Never having read a sports book before, I didn’t see much of a story throughout. Bleeding Green is more of a timeline of trivia and quotes, which was fun.

Even though the team has not been in existence for 25 years, the Hartford Whalers still bring back great memories for hockey fans. This may sound puzzling since the team only won one playoff series during their 18-year history in the National Hockey League (NHL). Their unique logo – a whale tail placed strategically above a “W” in green, blue and white – makes Whalers vintage hockey merchandise the best selling items for any seller in that market. The history of the team, including their time as the New England Whalers in the World Hockey Association (WHA) is the topic of this book by Christopher Price.
Readers who are looking for a detailed expose on why the Whalers are so fondly remembered and why their merchandise sells so well won’t find it in this book. While Price does touch on that topic in the final chapter, the bulk of the book is a detailed history of the team both on and off the ice. This is the case for not only their NHL years, in which the Whalers became and still remain the only professional sports team base in Connecticut, but also their mostly successful years in the WHA.
No matter which era is covered, Price does a very good job of informing the reader of their on-ice success (or lack thereof), the moves made by the front office and the business side of the team’s operations as well. All three of these areas are covered in excellent detail. This is especially true of the latter because those stories were the most colorful. Part of this was due to the financial instability of the WHA – the Whalers were considered to be the most stable of the franchises in this league, but even they had issues, mainly due to needing to share the Boston Garden with the NHL’s Bruins.
There are many interesting aspects in the team’s history that seems to tug at the heart of Whalers fans. These include the trades of popular players like Ron Francis and Mike Luit, the team’s goal song “Brass Bonanza” and even how the community pulled together when the roof of the Hartford Civic Center collapsed and the team temporarily played its home games in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Those are just a few of the many aspects of the very interesting history of a hockey team that may not have enjoyed much success in the NHL (it should be noted that the Whalers won the first WHA championship in 1973 and faced the Winnipeg Jets in the finals in 1978) but certainly has won a place in the hearts of many hockey fans, especially those in Connecticut. This book is a very good source of information for the Whalers and is recommended for anyone who still has attachments, for whatever reason, to the team.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

If you're a big fan of hockey, this is the book for you.

I felt like the book lost some steam and got a little to bogged down in the description of the WHA era. I felt like a lot of anecdotes were a bit too long. It was a very heady time for the city of Hartford, and I appreciate how much civic pride increased with the success of the team. But a lot of the middle of the book talked repetitively about how happy everyone was to have the team. It took a little bit of effort to get through it.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who's a hockey fan or a fan of sports history in the Northeast.

How many books about the history of the Hartford Whalers are needed, especially if you don't live in Central Connecticut?

You'd think one would be enough. But now we have two.

"Bleeding Green" follows on the footsteps by about a year of "The Whalers," a 2021 release. Luckily for us, both of these books cover the subject quite well. 

To recap (again), the Whalers first entered pro hockey as Boston's team in the World Hockey Association in 1972. It didn't take long to realize that that part of the world was rather stuffed with pro hockey, so the team packed and moved about 90 miles to land in Hartford. They were the only team from the United States to survive the merger of the WHA with the National Hockey League in 1979. It's worth noting that of the four teams that completed that move, three of them wound up moving to American cities. Only Edmonton has stayed put. 

The Whalers had their ups and downs during a run in Hartford that lasted until 1997. That means they've been gone for 25 years, which probably explains the burst of books about them coming out of the Hartford area.

The team always was fighting an uphill battle during its time in Hartford. It was jammed between New York and Boston in New England, and had trouble getting attention. The arena was on the small side - at least when its roof stayed up - and it often wasn't filled with spectators. A playoff series win might have started some positive momentum, but that never came even though it was close enough to touch in a few cases. 

There are a few ways to tell a story about a defunct team. Here author Christopher Price relies mostly on interviews to tell the story of the team, although basic research about the Whalers' play is on display throughout. Price tracked down several people connected with the team. It's somewhat striking in hindsight how many people seem to truly enjoy their time in Hartford. This may be because of a theory that we often apply to Buffalo - it's a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there. In other words, the Hartford area was a good spot to raise a family. Those connections include players, coaches, front office members, reporters and fans. In other words, Price cast a rather wide net for input, and it works pretty well. There are some good stories told along the way that really elevate the book quite a bit. A book such as this really doesn't need to be bogged down in stats at the expense of the human element.

It all serves as something of a reminder that running a pro sports team is something like walking on a tightrope. It doesn't take much to fall off into the abyss of the standings - a bad coaching hire, a bad trade or two, a bit of luck on the ice, and so forth. We shouldn't be influenced by the fact that the Whalers moved to Carolina; we should be impressed that they stayed for so long against some long odds. 

The Whalers do live on in some ways, of course. Their booster club at last report was still active, and the team's logo is still sold relatively briskly on merchandise. In addition, there's the team's fight song called "Brass Bonanza." That probably was the team's biggest export, as it no doubt is serving as a ringtone on phones across the country. 

"Bleeding Green" worked a little better than "The Whalers" for me because of the people-oriented approach of the author. But the difference isn't too great, and you can't go wrong either way - - especially if you remember the Whalers well. It's nice to see such teams are honored in such a way.

Fabulous book on the history of the Hartford Whalers. I really appreciated this book being a Carolina Hurricanes fan it is great to read and be more informed on the history behind a team that once was. Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback!