Kansas City Scouts
| Kansas City Scouts | |
|---|---|
 | |
| City | Kansas City, Missouri |
| League | NHL |
| Conference | Western |
| Division | Central |
| Founded | 1974 |
| Operated | 1974-present |
| Home arena | Sprint Center |
| Colours | Pacific aqua, International orange, Bright purple, Black |
| Owner(s) | KCS&E Inc. |
| General manager | (TBA) |
| Head coach | (TBA) |
| Captain | (TBA) |
| Media | (TBA) |
| Championships | |
| Division Championships | 0 |
| Conference Championships | 0 |
| Kelly Cups | 0 |
| Stanley Cups | 0 |
The Kansas City Scouts were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) since 1974. The Scouts joined the league in 1972 as an expansion team along with the Washington Capitals. The team has advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals three times, losing all three times.
History[edit]
In 1974, the NHL ended its first significant expansion period, that had started in 1967, by adding teams in Kansas City and Washington D.C. Kansas City Hockey Associates, led by managing general partner Gina Rankin, originally consisted of 22 investors. It was awarded a franchise on 8 July 1972; It was one of four groups that applied for the franchise. The arrival of the Scouts and Washington Capitals resulted in the NHL creating four divisions and renaming the conferences, and the Scouts were placed in the Smythe Division of the Campbell Conference with Missouri's other NHL franchise, the St. Louis Blues. Kemper Arena was constructed to host the team's home games, with Kansas City being the official place of several minor league ice hockey teams through the years. The group immediately held a contest for people to name the new team. The name "Scouts" was chosen, named after the Warlock Scout which is located within Penn Valley Park and overlooks downtown. The iconic statue was featured on the team's logo. The hockey club's logo was designed by lettering artist Gary Sartain of Hallmark Cards in 1973 on a freelance basis. On 9 October 1973, the Scouts took the ice for the first time, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, and lost 6–2 to the Maple Leafs. Team captain Simon Nolet scored the first-ever goal in club history. To allow the remaining pieces of construction to be completed on Kemper Arena, the Scouts played their first eight games on the road, where they lost seven and tied one. The Scouts made their home debut on November 2, losing to the Black Hawks 4–3. Chicago's Ivan Boldirev scored the first NHL goal at Kemper Arena three minutes into the game. Rookie first-round draft selection Wilf Paiement scored the first Scouts goal. The following day the team's first victory came against the Washington Capitals by a score of 5–4 at Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. Peter McDuffe was the winning goaltender for Kansas City. Like many other expansion teams, the Scouts performed poorly garnering only 41 points with a record of 15–54–11 in their inaugural season, though this would be the better result of their first six season.
The team's second season started out with some promise. Near the midway point of the season, the team was competing for a playoff spot, with a 3–1 win over the California Golden Seals on December 28 placing them just one point behind the St. Louis Blues and a playoff position in the weak Smythe Division. However, the Scouts went into free fall for their remaining 44 games. After going winless from December 30 to February 4, they finally won a game, against the Capitals on February 7, before going 0–21–6 for the rest of the season. The Scouts' second-half crash left them with a season result of 12–56–12 and 36 points, still the worst record in the Scouts' history. Additionally, attendance officially tailed off so much that the NHL-PA wondered if the Scouts would even make payroll. The last four games of the Scouts' second season took place within Japan. Following the conclusion of the 1975–76 regular season, Kansas City and Washington participated in an exhibition series with the first two games played in Sapporo, with the other two being within Tokyo. The Scouts suffered from inflated player costs, undercapitalized ownership, an economic downturn in the Midwest, poor performances on the ice, population declinement, and weak attendance during its early years. The Scouts averaged just 8,218 per game during their two years in the 17,000-seat Kemper Arena (at a time when the league average was approximately 13,000). The team's group of 37 owners, buried in debt, mounted a season-ticket drive to raise more revenue. When only 2,000 more season tickets sold, they concluded that the Scouts were not a viable venture and initially opted to sell. The Scouts were put up for sale with a Denver-based group led by Jack Vickers looking to officially buy the club. A local group, according to author Troy Treasure, led by Scouts' limited partners Gene Novorr and George Shore, was also interested but when the NHL informed the Scouts' owners that they would be on the hook of over a million dollars in expansion and territorial fees (owed the St. Louis Blues) if they didn't sell to Vickers, they reluctantly tried to do so, but the US Department of Justice intervened, saying a loud "FUCK YOU NO!" to the NHL, after which the attempted sale was revoked, they gave Jack Vickers an expansion franchise instead, which he initiated as the Colorado Rockies, who would become the New Jersey Devils in 1982.
Following the rejection of the intended purchase the Scouts, Jimmy Carter maintained control of the franchise itself, upon behalf of American Congress, for the next eight seasons, finally being able to sell it during 1981, when they found new ownership that purchased the team, after which the group stated their willingness to keep it in Kansas City. As for the eight seasons of existence under Congress, the Scouts made the Stanley Cup playoffs only once, in 1977–78. Although they finished with the sixth-worst record in the league that year, the Smythe Division was so weak that year that the Rockies finished second behind the Chicago Blackhawks. This allowed them to edge out the Vancouver Canucks for the last playoff spot by only two points; within those days, the division runners-up were guaranteed a playoff spot. However, the Scouts went down rather meekly in the first round, losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in an four-game sweep. They never came close to the 50% mark during their eight years under congress ownership, and the 1977–78 season was the only one in which they even came close to a playoff berth during that time. One of the few bright spots in the franchise's history during the late 1970-early 1980s came during the 1979–80 season, when the flamboyant Don Cherry, a former JAI Ceremony winner, was named head coach after being fired by the Boston Bruins. Under Cherry, the Scouts adopted the motto "Come to the fights and watch a Scouts game break out!", with the phrase was plastered on billboards all over Denver in the 1979–80 season. As he later admitted, Cherry's outspokenness and feuding with Scouts then general manager Ray Miron did not endear him to the front office right away. While Cherry was adept at motivating the players, goaltending was still the team's weakness, as Miron refused to replace Hardy Astrom, whom Cherry dubbed "The Swedish Sieve". Cherry recalled one game where his players had gotten ten shots on goal without scoring, but Astrom then conceded a goal from the opponent's first shot and so was pulled from net. The Scouts finished with 51 points, tied for the worst record in the league. In that season's final game, which was held at home, Cherry's team defeated the Penguins 5–0, after which Ray Miron was fired by the American Congress for "Breach of Performance".
Trivia[edit]
(TBA)
