Dallas – A good example of the camaraderie on this season’s Avalanche team was demonstrated Monday morning outside the visitors’ dressing room at American Airlines Center.
Before taking the ice for the game-day skate, a group of Avs stood in a circle, kicking a soccer ball. Those players who couldn’t keep the ball from touching the ground were razzed with laughter.
It’s not the kind of activity seen around previous Avs teams. It was the brainchild of left wing Antti Laaksonen, who used to organize such soccer scrums as a player with the University of Denver, kicking it around with former teammates such as Erik Andersson and Sinuhe Wallinheimo.
“At first, we had only a couple of guys here doing it,” Laaksonen said. “Now, we’ve got a lot of guys. So we’ve had a lot of recruits. The guys have fun, and we make fun of everybody. If they get better I tell them, but if not I tell them that, too.”
Captain Joe Sakic has joined the game-day kick-around. His status as a likely future Hall of Famer doesn’t spare him his share of verbal abuse.
“Joe, he needs a little practice. He’s got a little skill, but he’s learning the game,” said Laaksonen, a huge soccer fan.
Keeping promises
In the early games of the NHL playoffs, officials are whistling – as promised – obstruction and interference infractions with shrill regularity.
During the regular season, that trend was part of the celebrated “New NHL” as the league aimed to loosen play and open up scoring with a crackdown on clutching and grabbing. Some players remained skeptical, however, that grind-it-out playoff games would be officiated just as tightly.
So far, they have been. In Game 1, Colorado took three hooking penalties and one interference call. Dallas took two interference penalties along with three hooking calls – and those illegal screens and tugs helped the Avalanche dial up its power play.
“The league’s done a great job of setting the tone of what’s going to be called throughout the playoffs,” Colorado defenseman John-Michael Liles said. “Look around the league in the playoffs, they’ve been calling everything they called in the regular season. So they’re staying true to their word.
“And everybody would rather have that than have them change going into the playoffs.”
TV or not TV
The NBC television broadcast of Saturday afternoon’s Game 1 drew better ratings in Denver than in Dallas. The local Nielsen ratings for the broadcast on KUSA-TV was a 5.6, considerably higher than the 3.2 average for the limited number of NBC broadcasts during the regular season. The rating in the Dallas-Fort Worth area was 3.1, and the average for regular-season NBC telecasts was 1.4.
The other game on NBC at the same time, the New Jersey Devils vs. the New York Rangers, drew a 2.8 rating in the New York area.
Scratches
The Avalanche went with the same lineup as in Game 1, and the three scratches were Bob Boughner, Cody McCormick and Brad May.
