Jack Lautier Dies of Lung Cancer At 53

May thee R.I.P. :*(

For those of you who have no clue who Lautier was...he was the author of two of the greatest Hartford Whalers books and sources of history ever penned. And I know how great Fifteen Years of Whalers Hockey AND Forever Whalers are, being quite fortunate to own them as part of my Ron Francis/Whalers and Canes hoard.

How do you obtain those books? Well, as I posted in response to the above linked Score Boards thread...

Unfortunately, you cannot get Forever Whalers or Fifteen Years of Whalers Hockey through Amazon/Borders or B&N. I don't know about Forever..., but Fifteen Years... was a Hartford Whalers-only promotion that was sold at the Whalers Team Store(s) and advertised throughout the Whale's 1989-90 home game programs (AND briefly mentioned in the 1990 Hall of Fame program, for which Lautier did a couple-few write-ups).

Your best bet for both books is eBay, where I've gotten my copies of both. To this day, I'm still amazed that I did not get into more of a bidding war for those books...but I seem to recall getting a bid after four or five bidders on each book. Good luck to all on finding auctions for what are indeed must-haves for any hockey/sports/Whalers/Canes buffs AND winning them.

And really, I cannot express enough how everyone who is a Canes fan and/or collector should own what are valuable resources and just plain good readin' about the team's years in Connecticut.

Current Music: "Closing Time" by Semisonic