Reunited, the Avs stand.
Divided, they fall … into the garden-variety hockey team category.
How do you like your Avalanche in fourth place in the Northwest Mounted Police Division?
In the newly resurrected NHL
Will the Avs become a bust?
Glory to ashes,
Two Cups to dust.
In Pierre we trust.
We must.
We must.
This, for Pierre Lacroix, is his most Laproblematical Laconundrum – putting 8 pounds of players in a 1-pound bag.
What about a fans vote? You get two from the $6.5 million class, one from the $5 million group, two from the $3 million type and 15 from the $1 million-and-under bunch.
Who you got – Adam Foote or Rob Blake? Teemu Selanne or Paul Kariya or neither? Riku Hahl or John-Michael Liles? Milan Hejduk or David Aebischer?
Peter Forsberg? Joe Sakic?
Come back, Patrick.
Lacroix has to do the right thing first.
DO NOT BREAK UP FORSBERG, SAKIC AND FOOTE!
There. I’ve said it.
The remelding of the three original Avs must be Lacroix’s priority. Sakic remains under contract, but Forsberg and Foote are unrestricted free agents. You know they want to finish their careers in Denver. Lacroix just has to massage their feelings and rub the numbers.
Eventually, the Avalanche will have to move on, but Forsberg and Sakic, especially, and Foote are needed as the NHL and the Avs try to develop a bond again with the few fans (in comparison) they had before and attract a new crowd.
The song in the movie “High Noon” said it all for the Avalanche: “Do not For-Sak Me, Oh My Darling.”
Forget Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.
Remember For-Sak and Foote back.
Lacroix has just under $40 million he will be able to spend. He can do wonders. We’ve seen it in the past.
Unlike that other guy with the Rockies who takes $40 million and gives Denver a team of Double-A and Triple-A players and whines about altitude and attitude and latitude and how he is the greatest GM product since the 1957 Chevy.
Lacroix will be creative.
Every “hard” salary cap in sports has a soft underbelly. Lacroix will read the 100-page collective bargaining agreement and discover ways to beat it like a Turkish rug. Ask Mike Shanahan if you can’t get around a salary cap. Or Kiki Vandeweghe, who has an office just down the hall from Lacroix.
Salary caps are just guidelines.
Nevertheless, Lacroix’s major tactic with his unrestricted and restricted players and free agents from other teams will be:
“Would you rather play in Denver – where you can play golf 300 days a year and there’s no humidity and it’s a wonderful place to party and raise kids and you can be in the mountains in minutes and the building is sold out for every game and people care about hockey and the team has won two Stanley Cups – or in Nashville, which has country singers and about 12 people who attend games?”
New Jersey or Colorado? I’d take $8 a week from the Avs over $8 million a year from the Devils.
The Avalanche may have to jettison Blake with a buyout, but he never has been the face of the Avalanche.
Truth is, the club can’t afford the luxury of Forsberg, Sakic and Blake. This league is now about scoring and offense. You can’t get rid of two of the top 10 scorers in the league. Blake will be a Hall of Famer, but Forsberg and Sakic are all-world. And both should finish their careers in Denver. Forsberg got the Swedish experience out of the way, and he’s all about returning to Denver. Sakic is the captain.
Foote and Hejduk are the next level. And I’d bring back Dan Hinote and Alex Tanguay. Then, the Avs have several youngsters from their years of drafting smart, and you filter them into the system.
And there will be dozens, if not hundreds, of free agents from other teams to choose from. Including a sprinkling of solid veteran goalies and defensemen.
Pierre Lacroix and the Chocolate Factory.
The (proposed) rule changes will indeed help the reconstructed Avs if Butch and Sundance are together again. (No Lone Ranger.) Just imagine Sakic and Forsberg in a shootout. Avs win. Avs win. Avs win. Just imagine Sakic and Forsberg with freedom to move. Avs win. Avs win. Avs win. Just imagine no red line so Sakic and Forsberg can pass and dance and shoot and score. Avs win. Avs win. Avs win.
You don’t split George and Gracie, Ben and Jerry, Felix and Oscar, Mick and Keith, Chang and Eng, Joe and Peter.
Peter Forsberg is the most beautiful player to watch in pro hockey. Joe Sakic is the most.
If Lacroix can prune instead of chopping down, the Avalanche will be just fine and dandy in the Second Coming of the National Hockey League.
The previous rinky-dink league will be healthier, maybe wiser and probably will make money for owners and provide players comfortable incomes.
The NHL no longer is the No. 4 sport, if it ever was, and has to capture the attention of youngsters and the TV audience. The rule changes may help, and a cable network devoted entirely to hockey could educate and serve as a nightly outlet for NHL games.
Finally, the Avalanche and Stan Kroenke must follow the lead of other NHL teams that have lowered ticket costs. Avs supporters are loyal, and they deserve to have a 10 percent reduction in season-ticket prices, and they deserve to have Forsberg, Sakic and Foote together, not apart.
Woody Paige’s column appears in The Denver Post on Sundays. He can be seen weekdays on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNews on “Around The Horn,” “Cold Pizza” and “1st And 10.” He can be e-mailed at wpaige@denverpost.com.
