This stings like a cheap shot. And it hurts worse than a low blow.
In the name of saving hockey, the NHL broke up the Avalanche and stole the old friends of Milan Hejduk, who stood Thursday morning in the Colorado locker room, looking very lonely.
“There’s not many of the guys left. Basically, it’s down to me and Joe Sakic from the old days,” said Hejduk, one of two remaining Colorado players who saw their names engraved on the Stanley Cup in 2001.
“It’s kind of sad to see those guys go. But I guess that’s going to be the new NHL. Teams won’t be able to keep their core group of success together forever. That’s the new salary cap. I guess we’ll have to get used to it.”
You don’t have to be an accountant or squint at the fine print to assess the damage the league’s new financial order did to the Avs during the past 15 months. To fix the sport he messed up, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman took a sledgehammer to Colorado, one of the few franchises in hockey that actually knew what it was doing.
Peter Forsberg. Gone.
Adam Foote. See ya later.
Rob Blake. Outta here.
Dan Hinote. Down the road.
Alex Tanguay. Au revoir.
It stinks.
It’s not fair to anyone who has made a long-term investment in Avalanche season tickets.
It’s enough to make a grown, strong and decent 30-year-old man cry for the way things used to be.
“I’m not really a big fan of the way teams are changing so much. We used to have a great bunch of guys here. And, all of the sudden, most of the team is young,” Hejduk said.
Sure, Hejduk likes what he sees in emerging Colorado stars such as 24-year-old Marek Svatos and 25-year-old John-Michael Liles.
Nevertheless, the Colorado locker room seems bigger and emptier than it once did, especially for anybody who recalls the glory years, when the Hall of Fame aura instilled by Patrick Roy and Ray Bourque filled the Avs with a sense of invincibility.
Granted, the NHL needed a salary cap worse than a shopaholic with three maxed-out credit cards needs a pair of scissors.
The mandated belt-tightening, however, has pinched much more than an inch of optimism in Colorado. Win the Cup? The Avalanche might do well to make the playoffs in the rugged Western Conference.
As training camp opens with the Avs looking to regain both their legs and their swagger, the best reason to believe could well be a seven-year veteran we fondly call the Duke.
Hejduk could have bolted on us, following all the other heroes out the arena doors, in a quest for more green and smoother ice elsewhere in the league.
But he acted with economic humility almost unthinkable in an era when money is the No. 1 way for pro athletes to keep score. A year ago, Hejduk happily gave the Avs a hometown discount, signing a five-year contract for $19.5 million, when nobody would have blamed him for demanding much more.
“I started in Colorado. And I would like to finish here,” said Hejduk. His loyalty to the Avalanche and appreciation for blue-collar fans stand as a modern tribute to the Original Six, when hockey was a family business and players fought like brothers.
That’s why it hurt so much to watch
Hejduk struggle last season, when both good health and sure shots were elusive for a winger who led the NHL with 50 goals as recently as 2003.
“We need Milan to fulfill the expectations we had going into last year,” Avs coach Joel Quenneville said. “He didn’t produce at the rate we would’ve liked or he would’ve liked. He had some stretches when he was the Milan we all knew. We need him to be that top guy that he has shown in the past.”
All the loose talk around in the league, in both English and French, is how much the Avalanche must rely on their brilliantly talented but notoriously unreliable goaltender, Jose Theodore.
Pledging devotion to Theodore as the head of the Avalanche household, however, is about as risky as taking Paris Hilton home to meet Mother. It’s begging for a broken heart, to say nothing of tsk-tsk frowns and told-you-so hindsight.
As a new leader to fill the emotional void left by Forsberg and Blake, I would much rather get in line behind the Duke.
“I feel more pressure. And I’m ready for it,” Hejduk said. “I will be one of the guys who will carry this team.”
We’ll take that as a promise.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
