By Brittany Burke

The Whale is making its comeback in Hartford, and while it may not be in the form of the NHL Whalers, the Connecticut Whale is a start.

The recent announcement that the Hartford Wolf Pack, the American Hockey League team for the New York Rangers, will be renamed the CT Whale has gotten mixed reviews. The diehard Whalers fans, and there’s still a lot of them around, are excited about the change while the majority of Wolf Pack fans have been against it since the beginning, personally I think everyone should get over their differences and embrace the change for what it is.

Now, I admit I may be a bit biased when it comes to the Whale, no I’m not one of the diehards, I root for the Whalers’ enemy, the Boston Bruins, but I did work for the company that just took over for the Wolf Pack, Whalers Sports and Entertainment.

I was lucky enough to see the things that fans only wish they could and given that I am confident that the Wolf Pack/Whale are in the right hands. If anyone can turn the team around it would be Howard Baldwin and his team at Whalers Sports.

The Whalers Fan Fest this summer brought 5,000 people to Rentschler Field and the Whalers Hockey Fest in February is already stirring up rumblings not just in the hockey world, but throughout the country. There has been coverage by Yahoo! Sports, ESPN and countless other publications and websites throughout the United States.

If he can do that without an organization behind him, wouldn’t you want to see what he can do with a team?

I think it’s funny that there are fans who are complaining about the Wolf Pack’s change to the Whale. Baldwin managed to do something for Connecticut hockey that the Wolf Pack haven’t, gotten people excited about the sport, which is what really matters.

The Wolf Pack have been dismal to say the least in the past few years, a change was needed and I would rather have the man who brought the Whalers to Connecticut and a proven history over anybody else.

This isn’t a matter of Sonar versus Pucky, it’s a matter of growing the sport, and if you love hockey you should be excited about the revitalization, so stop complaining.

I think it was a good decision not to use Whalers for the name, Connecticut Whalers wouldn’t have been right. That name should be reserved for the NHL, where it lives in infamy.

Personally, given what I saw this summer, I know the road to the NHL is a long one, and there’s a lot that has to be done in the state for Gary Bettman and the league to even consider bringing the team back. But it can be done, the CT Whale is just the start.

You have to get past the name and logo change, those are only things to get stitched on the front of the jerseys. What matters is whether or not the team is in the right hands, and now it is.

Every person in Conn. who owns a Whalers shirt, hat or jersey should be at the XL Center next to the Wolf Pack fans cheering for the team, because it’s not about the name it’s about showing support for the men out on the ice.