Football season is in full swing and the baseball playoffs have caught national attention. Now, all of a sudden, hockey sneaks up on everybody.
So with the NHL and NCAA hockey seasons kicking off this week, there are some pressing questions in Colorado concerning local teams.
1. The Avalanche roster still lists “Sakic, Joe.” And Jose Theodore, former Hart Trophy winner as the league’s most valuable player, is in goal. So why have most national publications picked the Avs to miss the NHL playoffs?
2. In the no-longer-new NHL, the key to success seems to be an ability to squeeze as much production from rosters made to fit under the salary cap. The Avs, it seems, will rely on young players – Wojtek Wolski, Marek Svatos, Brad Richardson, Paul Stastny, John-Michael Liles, etc. – to play above their heads. Is there a better coach in the NHL than Joel Quenneville to make that happen?
3. How is it Colorado College was picked in a preseason poll of coaches to finish seventh in the 10-team Western Collegiate Hockey Association, yet was tabbed No. 15 in the U.S. College Hockey Online national poll and No. 13 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll?
4. Can Air Force – which learned Wednesday that Vic Heyliger, the Hall of Fame coach who kick-started the hockey program at the academy in 1968, had died at the age of 87 – start its season with an upset of Colorado College when the teams face off at the Cadet Ice Arena tonight at 7?
5. Can Denver, which inexplicably missed the NCAA playoffs last season despite a second-place finish in the WCHA, return to the Frozen Four?
6. Can the NHL possibly schedule any more Avs-Vancouver Canucks games? The teams play eight times this season, including a game Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Pepsi Center.
7. Why – for the second consecutive season – did the NHL not schedule the Avs to face Peter Forsberg and the Philadelphia Flyers in Denver? Hello, storylines?
8. Will the NHL season unfold, as it seems it might, to set up an Avs-Red Wings battle down the stretch for the last Western Conference playoff spot?
WEAK IN REVIEW
Joe Girardi gets the Marlins to play way over their heads, move from an 11-31 record in May to above .500 in September and become playoff contenders, despite a league-low $15 million payroll. And Florida management can’t wait to get rid of him? The Marlins, who hired Fredi Gonzalez to replace Girardi, deserve those ugly teal uniforms.
WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE …
Colorado, favored over Baylor in a game Saturday at Folsom Field, started the week giving four points. Then the line jumped to five points. None of this really means much, except the Buffaloes better win a game while they can or an 0-fer season will find them soon. Teams they could count on defeating in the past – read: Kansas – won’t be pushovers this year.
ON THE COUCH
Here we go again. The baseball playoffs have so much going for them – every game is exciting, every pitch is important, every hit could be the one that people remember. It’s just too bad Fox trots out Joe Buck every year. The Buck-Tim McCarver combo seen on Fox, which is sharing postseason duties with ESPN, saps the fun from games, with Buck the anti-Vin Scully. Fortunately, the games transcend their presentation. Judge for yourself when Fox airs Game 3 of the Dodgers-Mets series Saturday at 2 p.m.
OFF THE COUCH
Of course there are more important issues involved, something about breast cancer awareness and research funding. But for the record, the Denver Post Deadline Divas team entered in Sunday’s Komen Denver Race for the Cure 5K run/walk and family fun walk at Pepsi Center has raised far more than the team from the Rocky Mountain News. Just saying. But everyone’s a winner when it comes to wearing pink. And hopefully there will be even more people than the 60,000 or so participants who raced last year, when Denver’s was the largest Komen race in the nation. Check raceforthecure-denver.com for information or head to Pepsi Center on Sunday between 6 a.m.-9 a.m. to register in person.
AROUND TOWN
If there’s any celebration Saturday when the Rapids host the New York Red Bulls at Invesco Field at Mile High for a 7 p.m. game – a game with serious playoff implications for the Rapids – the cheering will be one of “good riddance.” Mile High might be the worst possible place for the Rapids to play, a stadium where noise goes to die. Have you ever seen what it’s like when 10,000 people go to a soccer game in a 76,000-seat stadium? Neither have we, because they all get lost in a sea of empty seats. But Saturday is the last home game of the regular season for the Rapids, and could very well be the last game they ever play in Mile High. The team next year moves to its own soccer-specific stadium in Commerce City.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Due to a reporter’s error, it should have said the Avs will not face the Philadelphia Flyers in Denver for a second consecutive season.
