NHL Cleveland Barons History

NHL GOES TO CLEVELAND
The California Golden Seals scrambled to relocate their franchise to Cleveland for the 1976/77 NHL season. The Cleveland Barons were a fast skating, fore-checking team with potential. Dennis Maruk, Gilles Meloche, and Al MacAdam were the talented nucleus of the Barons. But quickly shifting to a new city brought numerous challenges. The big question was - How would the team respond?
FRANCHISE PROBLEMS
After a few months, ownership was bleeding money and fans weren’t backing a losing team. The Barons were stuck at the bottom of the deep Adams Division - and their rink was placed on a desolate highway between Cleveland and Akron. The arena’s isolation only added more distance between the losing team, potential fans, and the the city of Cleveland.
UNPAID PLAYERS
Money problems surfaced in February 77 and the owner couldn’t pay the team. The players were united in their unhappiness and were set to stage a mass retirement. Eventually, the Players Association and the NHL loaned money to salvage the season.
BARON’S 77-78 SEASON
Miraculously, the Barons started a 2nd season. But, after 20 games, the team had a mere 6 wins. The Barons developed a pattern of inconsistent play and bad luck. By late December, the organization was struggling and desperate for quick changes - and a flurry of trades instantly sparked a few big wins.
END OF THE BARONS
But eventually, the Barons would keep losing games. A 13-3 loss against Buffalo seemed to kick the air out of the team. The Barons went on a 15-game winless streak. When the season ended, the Cleveland Barons merged with the Minnesota North Stars and were gone.
~
NOTE:
The past few years, I've been investigating and exploring the history of the Cleveland Barons' NHL hockey team. This video is a personal inquiry project and it is for educational purposes only. I do not own the artwork or imagery in this video.
ralphklassen.w....
~
Larry Hirsch (Barons Radio Voice)
was from an excellent interview from the
Hockey Time Machine KZbin channel.
Check it out:
• Larry Hirsch
~
Newspaper Imagery Source / Newspapers.com