The Hartford Whalers played their last game on April 13, 1997, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning, 2-1. Captain Kevin Dineen scored the game-winner. Dineen, one of the all-time great Whalers, had been traded to the Philadelphia Flyers during the 1991-92 season then deal back during the 1995-96 season.
I was at the game in Hartford. I had covered the Whalers from 1988 to 1995 for the Middletown Press and was graciously given press box access even after I was “reassigned” out of the sports department thanks to a spiteful editor.
