Diehard fans hope to have whale of a time

"I mean, New York, they've got the worst fans anywhere," mused the 63-year-old Victor, a hockey fan, and specifically a Whalers fan, dating to the days when the franchise came to Hartford as a World Hockey Association entry in the 1970s. "We go to games in New York and they throw drinks at us, spit on us . . . hurl insults our way. The insults aren't so bad. Boston fans will verbalize, too . . . but, hey, that's all right. Boston is just safer. Go to New York and bad things happen."

Wherever he goes, Victor proudly wears the green-and-white sweater of the Hartford Whalers, the city's unforgotten, and still loved (be it in diminishing doses), NHL franchise. He hopes to be at the Garden Sunday, dressed in his favorite Gordie Howe sweater (official Whaler edition, of course), when the Carolina Hurricanes (nee Whalers) face the Bruins in Game 2 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series. Victor is the president of the Hartford Whalers Booster Club.

"Booster Club, Inc.," emphasized Victor, when reached by telephone at his New Britain, Conn., home yesterday afternoon. "I think it's going to be an awesome series."

Perhaps, but in some ways bittersweet for the likes of Victor and his 50-plus fellow remaining members of the HWBC, Inc., which, in its late-1980s heyday, numbered nearly 1,000 strong. The Whalers bolted Hartford soon after the 1996-97 season, leaving Victor and his hockey-lovin' pals to maintain their ties to the NHL via the Hurricanes, who have their home rink some 520 miles southwest of the Hartford Civic Center, home to the Whale during their NHL days.

For at least the next four games, and possibly as many as seven, the Hartford area will be dotted with households that will be pulling for Carolina, simply because the Hurricanes have strands of Whaler DNA running through the fibers of those blood-red sweaters. Glen Wesley was the last Hartford player to work on Carolina's roster, and the ex-Boston blue liner was there until last spring, keeping alive the Nutmeg-to-North Carolina connection for 13 years.

"Yeah, but you've got to put an asterisk next to his name," said Victor. "Good, solid player, Wesley, but I truly believe he was always a Bruin in his heart. Was he worth [Hartford] giving up three first-round draft picks? No way! Like I say, a good, solid, journeyman defenseman, but not in the class of a guy like Nicklas Lidstrom. And I always think of him more as a Bruin than a Whaler."

The Booster Club, led by Victor and vice president Marty Evtushek, keeps the light on for the NHL, hoping one day it will bring its brand back to town. The members never wanted it to leave and they'd take it back with arms opened wide enough to wrap a bear hug around Ulf Samuelsson (Boston fans would understand that bountiful extension of desire and faith). According to Victor, some 10,000 Connecticut residents have signed a petition urging the state legislature to work with state, city, and private enterprise to do whatever necessary to get the NHL back to Hartford.

"First thing we need is a new building," said Victor. "The fan base we have, but we need that new building, and of course we need an owner with deep pockets."

The Whalers' owner, Peter Karmanos, easily could have kept the franchise in Hartford, but bolted for the perceived bountiful riches of Raleigh, where the fan following has been passionate in good times (like now), torrid in winning times (including a Stanley Cup in 2006), but oftentimes, shall we way, fickle. Which makes Raleigh like many towns throughout the Original 30. Let us not forget, before the Bruins began pumping some oxygen into the Garden these last couple of years, the club's season-ticket base plummeted to a range of some 6,000.

"April 13, 1997," said Victor, noting the last time today's Hurricanes suited up as yesterday's Whalers. "I'll always root for them, obviously, but it's with mixed emotions. To this day, I'm not pleased with Mr. Karmanos. He had to do what he felt was right, but he could have stayed here, and the team would have had a nice new building downtown."

Thinking back a dozen years, Victor couldn't recall where in town that new arena would have been built, after initially recollecting that it was going to be erected near the Civic Center.

"No, I'm wrong about that," recalled Victor, bemused by his own error. "That would have been the building for the Patriots that we didn't get."

The Patriots' chapter in Hartford history remains yet another sore spot for the local landscape.

But for all the hits to the ego, and dreams packed in moving vans, Whalers fans still have their memories of the good times.

For an all-time favorite player, Victor holds dear Kevin Dineen.

"Never mailed in a single game in his entire career," recalled Victor. "Not once. Came back to the bench totally spent, left it all on the ice. First game as a Whaler, he got a gross misconduct - pulled a guy's hair out, I think."

And on the flip side, of course, an all-time villain.

"Ray Bourque," said the president of the Hartford Whalers Booster Club, Inc. "Because he always, always found a way to beat us. But you know what? I'm happy he got a Cup before he retired, and doubly so because it wasn't with Boston."

All the Black-and-Gold dislike aside, Victor likes what he sees of the 2009 playoff Bruins. Right now, he likes them more than the Hurricanes (not a word of that to his HWBC, Inc., brothers, OK?). If asked to go with head over heart in this series, he even thinks the Bruins will win in six games.

"They are playing the game right now the way I like to see it played," he said. "They finish their checks. They skate hard. They play for each other. Great hockey. Great work ethic. Fantastic talents . . . guys like [Milan] Lucic and [Patrice] Bergeron - I'm so happy to see that kid's OK again. Really, I like them a lot.

"And if they weren't from Boston, I could love 'em."

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com.