The sense that all would be forgiven occurred to me as I strolled across the University of Denver campus. Before me stretched a procession, resplendent in burgundy and blue, on its way to Magness Arena, which was playing host to the Colorado Avalanche’s Burgundy-White scrimmage Sept. 16.
Spotted among the march of the Avs fans — like the “penguins” of the popular documentary, en route to a sacred patch of ice — was a crisp Columbus Blue Jackets sweater. It featured the name and number of ex-Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote. This look seemed less like a fashion statement and more like an impassioned statement.
Go ahead. Take away my favorite game for 16 months. Jettison my favorite player. No matter. I will still cherish and attend thee.
Shakespeare would appreciate such an expression of unrequited love.
For all the ballyhoo over how the game will suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous chagrin, NHL hockey will not only survive, but also thrive in the wake of its 310-day lockout.
The NFL gave us replacement players in 1987, and the very next year the Broncos infected Colorado with Super Bowl fever. MLB cancelled a World Series in 1994, and the very next year the Colorado Rockies christened Coors Field. The NBA lost nearly 1,000 games during the 1998-99 season, and the very next year the Denver Nuggets debuted in the Pepsi Center.
Now the NHL returns from an extended leave, and a packed-to-the-gills Magness Arena crowd — for an intrasquad scrimmage, no less — as only a crowd could by knowing both the recent history and current events surrounding the franchise. The passion has endured.
Surveying the scene from his perch in the press box that night might have been the happiest person in the joint. Denver Post staff writer has been covering the Avalanche since the team moved to Denver in 1995. During the lost season, Dater reported everything from the Video Hockey League (in an attempt to lighten the mood created by the labor dispute, The Denver Post recreated the Avs’ lost season with the help of some preteens with joysticks) to prep tennis.
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| Post / Kent Meireis |
| In the that ran Wednesday, Avalanche reporter Adrian Dater recalled the top 10 moments in 10 years of Avs history. The moment captured above came in at No. 2. |
is back at it, too, as The Denver Post’s NHL writer and a columnist. During the lockout, Frei also found himself covering high school sports.
“There indeed was one weekend when Adrian and I both were in Pueblo,” said Frei. “Adrian covered a state tennis tournament, and I did a long Sunday feature on the oldest high school football rivalry west of the Mississippi, Pueblo Central vs. Pueblo Centennial in the Bell Game. It was one of the more enjoyable things I’ve done for the newspaper in a long time.”
But with the return of the Avs to regular-season action Wednesday, Dater and Frei have returned to regular hockey coverage. Dater, who witnessed , posts his on DenverPost.com each Monday throughout the 2005-06 season. Frei, who was in Philadelphia to cover on Wednesday, will resurrect his weekly NHL Report.
Frei admitted to missing the game, but not the minutiae of the lockout.
“I am hoping the game will be revitalized, and I am very interested to find out if it will be,” said Frei. “The travel, in regulated and reasonable doses, still can be exciting. We will be beginning the NHL Report on a weekly basis at a date to be determined, perhaps as soon as Oct. 9, and I always have appreciated the reaction I’ve gotten to that.
“Hockey is a different animal, and the horrible mistake some newspapers have made in the past is to try to subject it to a one-approach-fits-all-sports standard of coverage, and Adrian and I have been given latitude to step outside that envelope in the past.”
For easy access to that coverage all season long, simply set your bookmark: .
An online exclusive that runs each Friday, Wide State of Sports examines the memorable, less visible and lighthearted aspects from the High Plains to the Western Slope. DenverPost.com sports producer Bryan Boyle can be reached at bboyle@denverpost.com.
From the columns
“The league was smart enough to push all 30 teams into action Wednesday night and place a bouquet – THANK YOU FANS – in writing on the ice. For head-knocking effect, it was written twice, just behind both blue lines, visible every which way.”
From the mailbags
“The lockout was definitely a negative, no matter which way you analyze it. For the players and fans. But I like the way the sport is emerging from it. I think people like the new rules, especially the shootouts. There’s a fresher feeling to the sport, and the true hockey fans are all revved up again.”
From the message boards
“Sakic is the heart and soul of the AVS. I’ll boldly predict that Forsberg will have a poor season in Philly, likely even getting injured. Sakic will be strong for the AVS again this year. ” — BC Boy
From the online exclusives
The National Hockey League is not the only organization to add a shootout. Are you able to maneuver the hockey puck past our virtually shifty netminder? The rules are easy; the goals are not. Give it a shot in the Online Arcade!
A look back
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| AP / Jeff McIntosh |
| Avalanche goalie David Aebischer felt the sting of the NHL’s new rules, giving up a goal 27 seconds into in a 4-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton. All 30 teams played Wednesday night to welcome back the game, and with adjustments to allow more scoring after the lockout, there were 95 goals in the 15 games. |
