The skinny guy with the dark hair was Joe Sakic.
In case the Avalanche fans outside the Pepsi Center on Saturday morning didn’t recognize him, the Colorado captain wore a name tag as he walked down the ticket-purchase line, saying hello, shaking hands and signing autographs.
A handful of his teammates – including Rob Blake, Steve Konowalchuk, Milan Hejduk and Alex Tanguay – plus the coaching staff and general manager Pierre Lacroix joined him. Inside the ticket office, five more players – Dan Hinote, John-Michael Liles, Bob Boughner, Andrew Brunette and Ian Laperriere – stood with ticket sellers behind the windows and greeted the fans.
If someone had brought a hammer and nails, it would have been symbolic.
In the wake of the lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season, the Avalanche was mending fences, starting with the fans seeking the single-game tickets Saturday morning.
“It’s good to see them and show our appreciation,” Sakic said. “They’re coming back, and we know we didn’t do the most popular thing in the last year – both sides.”
The single-game sale began at 10 a.m., and because tickets also could be ordered by telephone and on the Internet, and also at Ticketmaster outlets, the fans in line at the arena represented only a small sampling of those trying to make their purchases Saturday.
At the Avalanche exhibition game against Dallas on Saturday night, Kroenke Sports executive vice president Paul Andrews said the single-game sales on the first day surpassed previous records. He said about 92 percent of the Saturday sales came on the Internet.
The Avalanche has the longest sellout streak in the NHL, dating to the fall of 1995. In the Pepsi Center, the team has capped season-ticket sales at 15,500. There has been some attrition, Andrews said, attributing much of it to the brief time between the July labor agreement and invoice due dates.
In the arena Saturday morning, about 400 seats had yellow pieces of paper taped to them, announcing to prospective season-ticket purchasers: “This seat is available.”
The Avalanche also has some 14-game packages still available, Andrews said.
Because the new collective bargaining agreement ties the salary cap to league revenues, teams and players have been talking about “growing the game” and a new partnership between the two sides.
Was the Saturday visit to the fans in line the beginning of that?
“The most important thing is that we put a good product out there,” said Sakic, the only Avalanche player who has been with the team during its entire stay in Denver.
“With the new rules, we think we can do that.”
Staff writer Terry Frei can be reached at 303-820-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
