As a Colorado College hockey player from 1983-87, Rick Boh awoke every winter morning admiring the snow-capped Rocky Mountains and the Colorado climate. It reminded him of the Canadian homes he was raised in at Dawson Creek, Chilliwack and Kamloops, British Columbia — except the closest NHL team to Colorado was a plane fight away.
Boh was keenly aware of the state's deep history in NCAA hockey, the existing infrastructure of youth hockey from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins, and wondered if the NHL would someday replace the Colorado Rockies hockey team, whose six-year run ended in 1982.