Colorado Rockies (NHL) - Legacy

Legacy

The last active NHL player who had played for the Rockies was Joe Cirella, who left the NHL in 1996, the year that the newly relocated NHL team, the Colorado Avalanche won their first Stanley Cup Championship. The Avalanche had played 23 seasons as the Quebec Nordiques. Two other former Rockies, Paul Gagne and Rich Chernomaz, played until 1999 in the Swiss and German leagues, respectively.

The Colorado Avalanche and the New Jersey Devils met each other in the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals, with the Avalanche winning the series and the championship in seven games; the deciding game was in Denver. By this time, former Rockies head coach Don Cherry was now with Hockey Night in Canada. The Devils have been far more successful as a New Jersey team than before the move to New Jersey, having rivalries with the New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, and to a lesser extent the New York Islanders (all but the Flyers play in the same metro area as the Devils).

The song "Rock and Roll, Pt. 2" (AKA "the Hey Song") was first played in a sport setting at Rockies games in the late 1970s and was later played in most North American hockey games to celebrate home team scores for the better part of 25 years.

The NHL Colorado Rockies should not be confused with the Major League Baseball team of the same name that began playing in the National League in 1993.