in the Midwest. Facing almost $1 million in debt, the Scouts' owners decided to sell the franchise after a season ticket drive sold only 2,000 tickets. A Denver-based group headed by Jack Vickers purchased the Scouts and moved them to Denver, renaming them the Colorado Rockies. The team would remain in the Smythe Division of the Campbell Conference. Continued struggles Despite a new name and a new city, the team's situation did not improve significantly. In their six seasons of existence, the Rockies made the Stanley Cup playoffs only once, in 1977–78. Even then, they finished with the sixth-worst record in the league, 21 games under .500. The Smythe Division was so weak that year that the team finished second behind the Chicago Black Hawks, the only team in the division with a .500 record. This allowed them to edge out the Vancouver Canucks for the last playoff spot by only two points (in those days, the division runners-up were guaranteed a playoff spot). The Rockies went down rather meekly in the first round, losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in a two-game sweep. They would never even approach the .500 mark during their six years in Denver, and the 1977–78 season would be the only one during that time where they even came close to a playoff berth. The Rockies did have some star players for a short time. Barry Beck set a record in his rookie year for goals by a rookie defenseman, and Hall of Fame right winger Lanny McDonald was picked up in a trade with Toronto. In addition, they at various times had such players as Chico Resch, Wilf Paiement, Rene Robert, Rob Ramage, and Bobby Schmautz. However, the team suffered a constant lack of overall depth, and trades tended to sacrifice quality for quantity. Plagued by instability, the Rockies had seven coaches in four years, none lasting more than one full season, and ownership changed hands twice in four years. Attendance was fairly respectable, considering that the team was barely competitive on the ice and unstable off it. Under Don Cherry One of the few bright spots in the franchise's history came during the 1979–80 season, when the flamboyant Don Cherry, a former Jack Adams Award winner, was named head coach after being fired by the Boston Bruins. Under Cherry, the Rockies adopted the motto "Come to the fights and watch a Rockies game break