Denver Post sports writer Adrian Dater posts his Avs Mailbag every Thursday during the 2007-08 NHL season on DenverPost.com.
To drop an Avalanche- or NHL-related question into the Avs Mailbag or visit DenverPost.com’s .
I understand the Avs have a policy where injured players do not talk to the media. However, can you give us any update on how our injured stars are doing?
— Jacyln, Littleton
Jacyln – Well, I guess I broke that policy yesterday, when I talked to Kurt Sauer for about 15 minutes after practice, and gave Joe Sakic a bunch of grief about my Patriots going to the Super Bowl – AGAIN.
The Avs like to think this is Russia, circa 1965 sometimes, with some of their media policies. I always hate to break the news to them that they are not TASS, the old Soviet news agency. On the other hand, there’s not a lot of reason to want to talk to injured players anyway.
Basically, the only thing I, like all of you, care about is: When are they coming back?
I’d say Paul Stastny is back by the middle of next week or weekend. Sauer is a couple weeks away still. Smyth is back my March 1 or so. And Sakic maybe by the first or second week of March. Sakic and Smyth have yet to resume skating, and because they have injuries to their lower bodies, it’s not going to be as easy to get back in the groove physically. If they had upper-body injuries, they could have been skating this whole time.
What’s up with the NHL not filling Stastny’s spot on the Western all-star roster with a member from the Avs? I thought the league made the pledge after the lockout to include at least one player from each team, regardless of fan voting. Is the remainder of our healthy players that lackluster?
— Jeff Osgood, Longmont
Jeff – Hey, your brother is having a nice year with the Wings.
It is recommended that a player from the same team fill an injured player’s spot, but it is not mandated. So, the deciders decided to skip the rest of the Avs’ roster following Stastny’s injury. Quite frankly, I can see their point, although I think Marek Svatos could have deserved a call. But his low assist total didn’t look good.
It was the first All-Star Game with no Avs player in it. Personally, I hate the NHL All-Star Game anyway. I know hate is a strong word, but man, is it boring to watch for a hockey purist. It’s just one long game of shinny, really. I liked the old ASGs, though, when there was some real hitting at times, and players seemed to care more which side won.
Adrian – As a former resident, big Avs fan and former attendee of games, I have noticed a big drop-off in attendance the last couple of years. I realize part of the reason has to do with the strike year and missing the playoffs last season. Where do the Avs rank in the league as far as ticket prices?
— Bob, Sparks, Nev.
Bob – I wrote about a week ago how there were only 16 people sitting in a section of 160 seats for a Avs game, and it didn’t go over too well with management. I got an earful, basically informing me that:
1. We’re in a recession.
2. The affects of the lockout still remain.
3. Attendance is down in many other cities, including “Hockeytown” – Detroit.
Yeah, I knew all that, I countered, when I wrote what I did. It was just a fact what I wrote, that’s all. Teams have to take the bad with the good, and not get mad when some of the bad is reported. Because, Lord knows they won’t report that themselves.
I do believe the local economy is having an impact on sports-ticket sales in Denver. Let’s face it, Denver is in a pretty big economic slump right now. Housing prices are flat, or down. Nothing is moving on the open market. Foreclosure rates are high in Colorado. You should see the foreclosure section of the Thornton Sentinel, the local weekly paper I read here at home. It’s unbelievably long, like 30-40 pages at a time.
I’m always very surprised at how poorly the Nuggets have drawn this year. They’re a first-place team with two of the biggest stars in the NBA. If fans aren’t supporting them now, when will they ever?
I’m not sure how much of the lockout excuse I buy anymore, though. It ended three years ago. I think that has become too much of an easy out for teams that aren’t drawing as well.
Here’s one of my theories as to why the Avs are starting to lag at the gate: Their lack of marketing over the years has started to catch up to them. In the glory years, they didn’t need to market themselves so much, because their play on the ice did it all. They had some of the game’s biggest stars, so they marketed themselves. But even after those big stars left, the Avs had a bit of an attitude – and maybe they’d deny this, but – that they didn’t need to increase the marketing
of their team still, because they were still the mighty Avs and always sold out, and that’s just the way it was. Well, they have started to learn the hard way that Avs fans can be just as fickle as everybody else.
When the stars left, I think a lot of the casual fans asked themselves: “Who are these guys?” The Avs compounded the problem, I believe, with a lackluster ad campaign coming out of the lockout that did little to re-introduce the team and the sport to people.
I have NO idea why the Avs don’t try to market guys like Paul Stastny a heck of a lot harder than they do. Why not buy some billboard-ad space, with a picture of Stastny smiling with his front teeth missing and some witty slogan above it? Something like, “Colorado Avalanche hockey – Pretty boys need not apply.” Something like that. Or, spend a few of Stan Kroenke’s many jillions of dollars on a fun TV ad. How about John-Michael Liles playing Ryan Smyth in a feisty game of bubble hockey? Most of the bubble-hockey games have it as the U.S. vs. Canada. Have an ad showing the loser having to sing the winning player’s national anthem as the price for losing. Are you telling me it might not be humorous seeing Smyth having to belt out “The Star-Spangled Banner” though his gapped teeth?
In other words, HAVE SOME FUN AND SELL YOUR PRODUCT, Avalanche! Don’t just announce a game time, throw the pucks out on the ice and expect 18,000 people to show up every time. Those days are gone, in case you haven’t noticed.
By the way, figures for this season haven’t been tabulated around the league. But according to Team Marketing Report, the average ticket price for Avs games last season was $38.48, which ranked 20th in the league for highest average price.
With all three stars injured, why don’t the Avs give a call to Chris Stewart?
— Charles Robitaille, New Brunswick
Charles – Good question. But, I’ve talked to some Avs management types, and the gist I get is that the best thing for his development would be to keep playing every night for Lake Erie, rather than come up to the Avs and maybe play 5-10 minutes a night at the highest level, then maybe lose some of his confidence if he doesn’t light up the nets. He’s still so young, and they just think it could be counter-productive to his development to be rushed up to the NHL. If things get truly desperate,
though, and if other injuries strike in the next few games, you could see him get called up.
I’ve been wondering if you could tell me what happened to the NHL in the last year. Everything is back to pre-lockout standards – lots of interference and trapping. I am a diehard Avs fan, but it’s been painful to watch this year … win or lose.
— Scott, New York
Scott – Rather than expound a lot here, I think I will point you to Terry Frei’s story on this issue, which ran on Sunday. I thought it summed up the situation nicely, and I agree with everything in it. (.)
Hi, Adrian. What ever happened to the Avs hosting a super-skills competition? It used to be a real highlight of the year, especially because all fans could get into it, not just season-ticket holders (even though I am one). I think if people saw how great our players were, they might be more likely to come to games.
— Rachel Polner, Denver
Rachel – Teams have shut them down, because GMs started to worry about guys getting injured. Some of those things, like fastest-skater competitions, resulted in the odd groin pull. Not only did the GMs not like that, but also the NHL Players Association grumbled a bit about them for some of the same reasons. Plus, it didn’t like the mandatory nature of it.
In essence, it was another day of work that didn’t really benefit them. Yeah, a lot of fans liked them. But how much would the fans of a team like them if their best player couldn’t play for a month afterward, from ripping an abdominal muscle skating around some orange pylons?
Adrian – I’ve been hearing a lot about Billy Sauer in Michigan. It may be a bit early to get really excited about him – I personally would wait to see how he does in Lake Erie – but he’s just tearing it up. Could he be the solution to the Avs’ goalie issues? Thanks.
— Thomas, Fort Collins
Thomas – Yes, he could, and we probably haven’t written as much on this kid as we should have. Look for that to change. He is having a great year for the Wolverines, and could turn out to be one of those middle-of-the-draft steals the Avs have been fortunate to get over the years. He was chosen 201st overall by the Avs in 2006.
Going into last weekend, Sauer had a 20-3 record, with a 1.68 GAA and unbelievable .937 saves percentage. Previously, he had never had a saves percentage over .900, though, so the question is: Is this going to be a fluke season or not? We’ll see, but I know the Avs are getting excited about this kid. He’s a pretty big goalie (6-foot-2) and moves well. So, we’ll just have to see what the future holds.
Hey, Adrian. I loved “Blood Feud” – what great memories. On the note of the Avs-Red Wings rivalry, I vaguely remember Joe Sakic being suspended for hitting Kris Draper a long time ago. It was the last game before the playoffs, and he earned a one-game suspension for Game 1 of, I think, a series against Edmonton. Ring a bell?
— Matt, Menlo Park, Calif.
Matt – Thanks for reading.
Yes, you remember correctly, and it remains the biggest travesty of justice to ever happen to the Avs. I’ll sound like a homer here, but I don’t care on this one and I’ve said it before: Brian Burke’s suspension of Joe Sakic for Game 1 of the 1998 first-round playoff series with Edmonton was and is the biggest joke of all time in the NHL.
In the last game of the regular season, Sakic and Draper collided at center ice. Basically, their knees got entangled, and both players went down. Somehow, Burke decided that the perennial Lady Byng candidate Sakic went after Draper intentionally – when replays of the hit clearly show him trying to get out of the way of Draper, who arguably was the one who initiated the hit.
Sakic himself, who never complains about anything, called the suspension the worst decision he’s ever seen in his career. Coming from him, that says a lot.
The suspension was even more absurd when the following is considered: Sakic had never had any previous trouble with the league, never any other suspensions. Where was the “Repeat Offender” consideration into his situation? Also, for Burke to suspend him for a playoff game would have seemed to require something a lot more egregious than that.
I did a story on this once, when Burke was the GM of the Canucks, and basically he remained defiant of his decision. I told him I was going to write that his decision was awful, and he said he couldn’t care in the slightest, but thanked me for at least getting his side of things in the story.
I actually like and respect Burke a lot. That doesn’t mean I always agree with everything he says or does, but he at least doesn’t take everything all personally when you rip him – and he’ll rip you right back, too, so you can’t take things personally from him either, I’ve learned.
But I think, in his quieter moments, he probably would say now that maybe the Sakic suspension was unwarranted. Of course, the fact that Draper was involved, just two years removed from the whole Claude Lemieux thing, probably played into it a lot. But the Avs lost that first playoff game, and lost the series in seven games to the Oilers. Would Sakic have made the difference in winning the series if he’d played Game 1? I guess we’ll never know, but that whole episode was, indeed, a joke.
Adrian Dater has covered the Colorado Avalanche since the team moved to Denver in 1995. To drop a question into his Avs Mailbag or visit DenverPost.com’s .
