Victoria Salmon Kings

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Victoria Salmon Kings
Founded	1988 (as the Erie Panthers)
Home ice	Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre
Based in	Victoria, British Columbia
Colors	Navy Blue, Gold
League	ECHL
Head coach	Tony MacAulay
General manager	Dan Belisle
Affiliates	Vancouver Canucks (NHL) Manitoba Moose (AHL)

The Victoria Salmon Kings are a professional ice hockey team in the ECHL which began play in the 2004-2005 season. They are based in Victoria, British Columbia.

[edit] History

While the Victoria region has had a long and distinguished hockey history - the Victoria Cougars won the Stanley Cup in 1925 - the region was left the largest Canadian region without either professional or Major-Junior hockey when the WHL Victoria Cougars (a team with no connection to the aforementioned Cougars) moved to Prince George in 1994. This was a crippling blow to Victoria hockey fans, whose only remaining local team was the Tier II Junior 'A' Victoria Salsa.

By this time, it had become evident that the 50-year-old Memorial Arena, seating only 4,000 for hockey, would have to be replaced if Victoria expected to be able to attract a new hockey club. After several years of discussion, the construction of a new arena was approved by Victoria voters in a 2002 referendum, with one key condition being that its construction was dependent on Victoria securing a WHL team.

When the private-sector partner, RG Properties, was unable to secure a WHL club, the company bought the rights to the defunct ECHL Baton Rouge Kingfish, formerly the Erie Panthers, a charter member of the ECHL, and announced that Victoria's new team would be named the Salmon Kings. Reaction in the community was somewhat mixed; while securing a club was good enough for construction of the new arena to begin, many were troubled by the perception that they would be receiving a lesser quality of hockey than that seen in the major-junior WHL. In addition, the ECHL was virtually unknown in Canada; Victoria was to be the first Canadian team in league history. In response to all this, the Salmon Kings began marketing efforts to convince Victoria residents that the Salmon Kings and the ECHL would offer a high quality product. Controversy remains about whether or not the ECHL is a better fit than the WHL. While many have embraced the third-tier professional hockey, believing it to be superior to the WHL, others - including many Salmon Kings season ticket holders - say they would prefer the WHL if they had a choice. And, to that end, local businessmen and former NHL'er Len Barrie has made overtures about bringing a WHL franchise to nearby Colwood, to compete head-to-head with the Salmon Kings for the southern Vancouver Island market. In the summer of 2006, it was announced that the Salmon Kings would become the ECHL affliate of the nearby Vancouver Canucks. While this move will have Canucks prospects playing for the Salmon Kings, only time will tell if this partnership will create more interest in the club, as WHL alumni take to the ice, and the Canucks can travel a much shorter distance to attend their prospects' games, compared to their previous affiliate, in Columbia, South Carolina, in the United States, where the Inferno was well used as a player development team for the Canucks in their five seasons as an affiliate. Time will tell if the Canucks will use the Salmon Kings in the same way as they did with their previous affiliate.

The original logo of the Victoria Salmon Kings lasted for one season. It is rumoured that the logo needed to be changed as the Los Angeles Kings took exception to this logo.

It became clear as the 2004-2005 ECHL season approached that Victoria's new arena, now called the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, was not going to be ready in time for the season. In response, the ECHL scheduled the Salmon Kings to begin their inaugural season with an unheard-of 14 game road trip. Unfortunately, even this was not enough time for the arena to be completed, and in the summer of 2004 the Salmon Kings were forced to secure ice time in the Bear Mountain Arena in the suburban community of Colwood, which had been constructed with the needs of the junior 'A' Victoria Salsa and the Victoria Shamrocks lacrosse club in mind.

Despite all this, the Salmon Kings took to the ice in their first regular-season game on October 22, 2004, in Bakersfield, California, against the Bakersfield Condors. Former University of Alberta player Ryan Wade scored the first goal in Salmon Kings history. Unfortunately, they lost this game 7-2; the Salmon Kings would struggle during their 14-game road trip, only winning 3 games, losing 10 games in regulation and one in a shootout. Their first victory came at the expense of the Fresno Falcons on October 24th, which the Salmon Kings won by a convincing 5-0 margin. David Brumby, the Kings' starting goaltender at the time, turned away 37 shots for the shutout.

As the NHL lockout progressed, Dale Purinton and Dan Blackburn of the New York Rangers and Mark Smith of the San Jose Sharks played for the Salmon Kings. Purinton, an enforcer, was suspended twice by the league, the first for a career-ending check into the boards of Condors player Krzysztof Wieckowski, and the second for returning to the ice to fight after being ejected during a bench-clearing brawl involving the Kings and the Falcons. After the latter suspension, Purinton was suspended indefinitely by the Salmon Kings and did not play again that season.

After the grueling 14-game road trip which lasted for over a month, the Salmon Kings finally played their first home game on December 5th, 2004, Victoria hockey fans packed the tiny Bear Mountain Arena for the first professional hockey game to be played in Victoria since the Victoria Maple Leafs left in 1967. Unfortunately, the Kings lost this game 4-3 in overtime. They would continue to struggle during their first season, going only 15-52-5 over 72 games; notably, they set an ECHL record for a continuous winless streak, going 0-18-2 between December 31, 2004 and February 4, 2005.

[edit] List of head coaches

• Tony MacAulay 2006-
• Troy Ward 2006
• Bryan Maxwell 2004-06

[edit] Season Results

[edit] See also

• List of ice hockey teams in British Columbia

[edit] External links

• Salmon Kings official site
• Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre
• Victoria Sports Authority Discussion Forum