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High-level high hockey never should have left Belleville in the first place. The Bulls weren’t doing well, or drawing big crowds, when they packed up and left the city, but hockey has a heartbeat here and the patient didn’t appreciate it when the Bulls departed without warning.

People who grew up here and loved this city took it pretty hard.

“The unfortunate part was the way it rolled out,” said Christopher, who tried to push council to sign a long-term lease with the Bulls’ ownership group at the time. “I get elected and (the team is) gone in 60 days on a Sunday night. It was right out of the movies.

“And, I’m (saying) ‘OK, they elected to go west and that’s their right.’

“Well, if you fast forward to the conversation we’re having right now, who actually won on that deal?”

Ottawa Senators associate coach Marc Crawford, who is from Belleville hockey’s first family, had a sour taste in his mouth when the Bulls left town. He had been part of a large group of investors that tried to purchase the OHL franchise before it was sold to Andlauer.

“We definitely had a group that was ready to buy it,” Crawford said. “They just got a really good price for it, and that’s all they should have said was, ‘Hey we got a really good price for it and we’re selling the team,’ instead of saying, ‘There’s no hockey hope here.’

“I know a lot of the insides of what was going on in my hometown,” he said. “I knew there was tons of support for hockey. I also knew, if you promoted it, that you’d be able to do something well.”