“Making a Relocation” is an eight-part series covering the (mostly untold) true story of how the Hartford Whalers left Connecticut.

It started one day when I got sick of hearing people who don’t live here say the Whalers moved because they were never supported. I thought I could tell the story in a few paragraphs and started back in the glory days of the late eighties (known locallly as “Whalermania”), when the Whalers were one of the most profitable teams in the league and favorites to win the Stanley Cup and worked my way forward.

I quickly realized that there was a lot of stuff I’d forgotten, twice as much that I’d never known in the first place, and that it was going to take a lot more than a few paragraphs to tell it. Three weeks and eight chapters later, it was done. The song of my people. An acquittal of the fans of Hartford, an indictment of the traitors among us and thieves who carried away our regional pride.

Say what you will about us – our city, our team or the people who live here – but no longer will it remain unanswered. This is our story.

• PART ONE: Who Killed the Whale?

• PART TWO: The Things That We Lost

• PART THREE: Four Years in the Wilderness

• PART FOUR: The Smoking Harpoon

• PART FIVE: The Hartford Patriots

• PART SIX: Dirty Deeds (Done for $45 Million)

• PART SEVEN: Dead Whale Walking

• PART EIGHT: Requiem For a Pipe Dream