The New York Raiders were an ice hockey team in New York City, and founding member of the World Hockey Association. Intended to be the WHA's flagship franchise, the team was unable to compete with the National Hockey League's established New York Rangers, and expansion New York Islanders. During its inaugural season, the WHA had to take over ownership of the team. A third owner took over and renamed the franchise the New York Golden Blades to start the second season, but remained in financial distress and moved to the Greater Philadelphia metropolitan area township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, on November 21, 1973, becoming the Jersey Knights, its third name and second home, under three different ownership arrangements, in less than two full seasons of operation.
Coached by Camille Henry, the New York Raiders had the second overall pick in the first WHA Draft in 1972, selecting Al Sims, who signed with the Boston Bruins instead.
The team was initially slated to play in the brand-new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island. However, Nassau County officials did not consider the WHA to be a major league, and wanted nothing to do with the Raiders. County officials retained William Shea, who had spearheaded the effort to return National League baseball to New York, to get an NHL team to play in the new building.
The next step was to convince Madison Square Garden, owner of the New York Rangers, to allow another NHL team to share the New York area. Rangers president Bill Jennings was skeptical at first. However, Shea and NHL president Clarence Campbell convinced Jennings that the Rangers would at least get compensation from another New York NHL team. On the other hand, the Garden would not see a penny from a New York WHA team unless it was included in a potential NHL–WHA merger. Jennings relented, and the NHL granted an expansion franchise to Long Island, the New York Islanders. The terms of the Islanders' lease with Nassau County effectively locked non-NHL teams out of the Coliseum.
The Raiders were thus forced to play at the Garden as tenants of the Rangers; no other arena in the metropolitan area was suitable even for temporary use. The situation rapidly became untenable, with an onerous lease and low attendance. During the season the Raiders averaged 5,868 spectators per game, which was far less than the NHL's Rangers (17,494) and the Islanders (11,996).[1] The three original owners defaulted, and the league ended up taking control of the team midway through the season.[citation needed]
Following the season, New York real estate mogul Ralph Brent bought the team and renamed it the New York Golden Blades. While they managed to acquire Andre Lacroix from the Philadelphia Blazers, he was essentially all the franchise had going for it. The team replaced their original orange and blue uniforms with purple and gold uniforms, and to coincide with the new identity, the team started the season wearing white skates with gold-colored blades.[2]
The situation improved very little from the previous season; at times, the Golden Blades played before crowds of only 500 people (in an 18,000-seat arena). Sinking in debt, Brent returned the team to the league in late November, just twenty games into the season, with a 6-12-2 record. Veteran player Harry Howell, who had been recently picked up by the Golden Blades after being released from the Los Angeles Kings, was elevated to player-coach, and ordered the team's white skates painted black.[3]
Realizing that the New York area was not large enough for three hockey teams, the WHA moved the team to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and renamed it the Jersey Knights.[4] The move marked a return of sorts to the Delaware Valley for the WHA, which had seen the Blazers move to Vancouver after only one season. WHA trustee Howard Baldwin was quoted as saying "Hopefully, we will be back in New York next season with a strong owner to compete in that market."[5] Despite this, the WHA would never return to New York, getting no closer than the New England Whalers in 1975, when that team moved from Boston to Hartford, Connecticut. Having been locked out of Madison Square Garden just prior to their move, the players were unable to take their Blades jerseys with them. The team reverted to the previous Raiders uniforms, with the original crest replaced with the new Knights logo.
The newly minted Knights soon discovered their new home, Cherry Hill Arena, had a slope in the ice surface, which forced visiting teams to skate uphill two out of three periods.[6] One drawback was that pucks would sometimes shoot upwards unexpectedly; one Knight was knocked cold when a would-be pass jumped up and nailed him between the eyes. Years later Ab McDonald said, "[The ice] was so high in the middle, the short guys almost couldn’t see the other end of the ice."[7] The arena in Cherry Hill was available because the previous pro hockey tenant, the Jersey Devils, had folded when the Eastern Hockey League went out of business at the end of the previous season.
The arena was also closely cramped, with players not having adequate changing and dressing facilities; visiting teams had to dress at their hotel. In addition, there was no plexiglass around the playing surface. The boards in the area from face-off circle to face-off circle at each end of the ice was bordered with chicken-wire as protection. The rest of the arena had no protection above the boards.
Rod Philips, the radio voice of the Edmonton Oilers for 37 years, ending in 2011, is quoted as saying of the Arena, "The press box in Cherry Hill, N.J. (across the bridge from Philadelphia) was so small that you couldn't stand up. The roof was only four feet high and you were all hunched over. When somebody shut the door, they cut off one whole end of the rink."[8]
Despite the questionable facilities, the Knights played over-.500 hockey and were in playoff contention before losing their last six games to finish 32–42–4, last in the Eastern Division. Within five weeks of the move, though, reports had already begun to state that the franchise would not stay in New Jersey beyond the end of the season, as it was clear Cherry Hill Arena was inadequate even for temporary use. Moreover, what little local interest existed in the WHA team disappeared with the nearby Philadelphia Flyers en route to their first of two consecutive Stanley Cup championships.
Baltimore businessman Joe Schwartz purchased the team in January, fueling speculation the team might move to there, or perhaps be re-incarnated as an expansion franchise in Cincinnati or Indianapolis.[9]
The New York Islanders are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, and play their home games at UBS Arena. The Islanders are one of three NHL franchises in the New York metropolitan area, along with the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers, and their fanbase resides primarily on Long Island.
The World Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) since the collapse of the Western Hockey League in 1926. Although the WHA was not the first league since that time to attempt to challenge the NHL's supremacy, it was by far the most successful in the modern era.
The Winnipeg Jets were a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. They began play in the World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1972. The club joined the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1979 after the NHL merged with the WHA. Due to mounting financial troubles, in 1996 the franchise moved to Phoenix, Arizona and became the Phoenix Coyotes. The team played their home games at Winnipeg Arena.
The Kansas City Scouts were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1974 to 1976. In 1976, the franchise relocated to Denver, and became the Colorado Rockies. In 1982, the Rockies relocated to New Jersey where they have since been known as the New Jersey Devils.
The Cherry Hill Arena was an indoor arena located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, built in 1959. It was originally known as the Ice House and renamed the Delaware Valley Gardens before assuming its most familiar name. The arena, which seated 4,416, was the home of the short-lived Jersey Larks of the Eastern Hockey League in 1960-61 and hosted occasional home games of the NBA Philadelphia Warriors. In 1964 EHL hockey returned to the arena in the form of the Jersey Devils, who would be the arena's longest-lasting tenants, surviving until the EHL folded in 1973. Early in the 1973–1974 hockey season, the New York Golden Blades of the World Hockey Association moved to the arena and played there as the Jersey Knights for the rest of the season. Sports Illustrated later described Cherry Hill Arena as "perhaps the worst facility" used by any WHA team, noting that it lacked showers in the dressing room for visiting teams, who had to dress at a Holiday Inn two miles away, and that the arena's ice surface was not even level, giving the home team a distinct home advantage as the visitors would have to skate uphill to the opponent's goal.
The Chicago Cougars were a franchise in the World Hockey Association from 1972 to 1975. The Cougars played their home games in the International Amphitheatre. During the 1974 Avco Cup Finals against Gordie Howe and the Houston Aeros, the team's two home games were played at the Randhurst Twin Ice Arena in suburban Mount Prospect. This was because a presentation of Peter Pan starring gymnast Cathy Rigby was booked into the Amphitheatre when the National Hockey League's Chicago Blackhawks and the National Basketball Association's Chicago Bulls had both entered their own playoffs, making the Chicago Stadium unavailable for either the Cougars or Peter Pan.
The Denver Spurs were a professional ice hockey team based in Denver. The Spurs began play in the Western Hockey League in 1968, and played at the Denver Coliseum. The Spurs became the first professional sports team in Colorado to win a championship in 1971–72. After the WHL folded in 1974, the team transferred to the Central Hockey League for the 1974–75 season.
The Ottawa Civics were a professional ice hockey team based out of Ottawa that played in the World Hockey Association. The team, which hastily adopted its identity in midseason when the Denver Spurs announced plans to sell the team and relocate to Ottawa, existed for approximately two weeks, folding after only seven games.
The San Diego Mariners were an ice hockey team based in San Diego that played in the World Hockey Association from 1974 to 1977 at the San Diego Sports Arena. Previous to being in San Diego, the team was known as the New York Raiders, New York Golden Blades, and Jersey Knights. After folding in 1977, San Diego Mariners' name was adopted by an unrelated franchise in the low-level, minor professional Pacific Hockey League (PHL).
Henry Vernon Howell was a Canadian professional hockey player and longtime star for the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He played in the NHL and then the World Hockey Association (WHA) between 1952 and 1976. After his playing career Howell briefly worked as a coach in both leagues, as well as the general manager of the Cleveland Barons in the NHL during the 1977–78 season. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979.
The Jersey Devils were an American professional ice hockey team based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Ralph Leo Klassen was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played 497 games in the National Hockey League. In Klassen's ten-year career, he played for the California Golden Seals, Cleveland Barons, Colorado Rockies, and St. Louis Blues.
The 1972–73 New York Islanders season was the first season in the franchise's history. At the beginning of 1972, Gordie Howe was offered the job as first head coach of the New York Islanders, but turned it down. The Islanders were coached by Phil Goyette (6–38–4) and Earl Ingarfield (6–22–2). Overall, the team finished in last place with an appalling 12–60–6 record, unable to qualify for the playoffs.
Gary David Kurt is a retired professional ice hockey goaltender.
The 1973–74 New York Golden Blades/Jersey Knights season was the second season of operation of the franchise in the World Hockey Association.
Robert Charles Jones is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played two games in the National Hockey League (NHL) and 161 games in the World Hockey Association (WHA) between 1969 and 1976. In the NHL he played with the New York Rangers and in the WHA with the Los Angeles Sharks, New York Raiders, New York Golden Blades/Jersey Knights, Michigan Stags/Baltimore Blades, and Indianapolis Racers. Jones' younger brother, Jim Jones, also played in the NHL.
Brian Morenz is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey Centre. He played professionally in the World Hockey Association (WHA) with the New York Raiders, New York Golden Blades and Jersey Knights franchise as well as the San Diego Mariners. He is a distant cousin of Howie Morenz, the Montreal Canadiens great.
The Islanders–Rangers rivalry, also known as the Battle of New York, is a local sports rivalry between the New York Islanders and New York Rangers of the National Hockey League. Both teams play in New York, with the Rangers in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and the Islanders in the Long Island county of Nassau near its border with Queens. They are two of the three teams that play in the New York metropolitan area, the other being the New Jersey Devils who play in Newark, New Jersey.
Professional ice hockey in Connecticut has a rich tradition dating from the mid-1920s. Most of these teams were NHL minor league affiliates located in New Haven, though with the closure of the New Haven Coliseum, minor league affiliates now exist only exist in Hartford and Bridgeport. Hartford had its own Major league team, the Whalers team that existed in Hartford from 1974-97. Independent hockey leagues teams have also been gaining a foothold in Danbury starting in 2004.
References
↑ Lautier, Jack; Polnaszek, Frank (1998). Same game, different name: the history of the World Hockey Association (Rev.ed.). Southington, CT: Glacier Pub. pp.269–271. ISBN0965031519.
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