Playoff series won, in the whole history of the club: April 1986, against Quebec, in three games.
The market
Hartford is a small city in Connecticut, between New York and Boston, and its television audience was shared with both. The Whalers came into the league in 1979 from a rival competition that had folded, and they never had the money the older clubs had.
They made the playoffs eight times in eighteen seasons and won one round. In 1987 they finished first in their division, which was the only time, and lost in the first round.
The song
Brass Bonanza was a piece of library music, written for a production company and picked up by the club in the seventies. It played when the team came out and every time they scored.
It is cheerful in a way that no other sports anthem is. Opposing players mocked it. Broadcasters mocked it. It is now the only part of the franchise most people outside Connecticut can name.
The move
The owner, Peter Karmanos, asked for a new arena. The state made an offer that he judged insufficient. In May 1997 he announced the club would move to North Carolina, where it became the Hurricanes and, in 2006, won the Stanley Cup.
After
Whalers merchandise still sells, thirty years after the club stopped existing.
Brass Bonanza is played at college games, at minor league games, and at the arena in Hartford. It is a goal song for a team that does not exist.