Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy were in the house. For one night only, hockey ruled Denver again, and the Avalanche rocked like it was 1996.
“Some of those players are like gods to me,” 19-year-old Avs star Matt Duchene said Thursday. “Growing up, they were my hockey idols.”
But after Paul Stastny scored a goal in overtime that gave Colorado a 4-3 victory against Chicago, the truth came out. Yesterday’s gone. What really matters is today.
“You’ve got to look to the future,” Duchene said. “You can’t sit on the past.”
The reigning Stanley Cup champions were in the Pepsi Center, but only because the Blackhawks came to town to open a new NHL season.
It seems like only yesterday that Adam Deadmarsh, Mike Keane and the rest of us had sand between our toes and goofy smiles on our faces as we watched the sun come up over the Atlantic Ocean in the hours after the Avalanche beat the Florida.
“Next to the birth of my children and my marriage, seeing this team win the Stanley Cup in 1996 was as good as it gets for me,” said Charlie Lyons, who, as chairman of Ascent Entertainment, played an integral part in bringing the NHL back to Colorado and giving Denver that championship feeling in a major-league way for the first time.
The business of hockey, however, changed forever in 1997, when on a summer evening, as Lyons was driving home from work, the New York Rangers made a predatory offer of three years and $21 million to Sakic. The deal was heavily front-loaded with cash for one simple reason: To make the Avs bleed.
“I remember,” Lyons said while standing in the concourse of a beautiful arena that is part of his legacy in Colorado. “I remember you calling me on the telephone and saying, ‘You don’t want Joe Sakic to go to New York, do you? You’re not that dumb, are you, Charlie?’ “
In fact, Lyons was savvy and agile enough to prevent New York from stealing Sakic. Lyons would move to California to make movies, while Colorado would go on to hoist the Cup again in 2001. The NHL and the Avs, however, were on an inflationary spiral that had to end.
Stan Kroenke, our town’s sports mogul for the 21st century, pushed to restore a semblance of financial sanity in the NHL. In the process, however, Avalanche dominance slowly died. Colorado turned in its bully card and signed on for an austerity program.
So here we are today. It’s 2010. We crane our necks to see if Duchene can grow into a player to rival Sidney Crosby of Pittsburgh. Stastny gives ticket-buyers a solid’s night work, although nobody confuses him for Forsberg. Craig Anderson can stand on his head, but imitating Roy is a trick too difficult for any goalie.
Rebuilding is just another word for cutting costs.
Joe Sacco has done a marvelous job as coach in developing a young roster. But let’s be honest. Roy might well be running this organization now if the Avalanche had been willing to meet his contract demands.
The Avalanche barely spends the $43.4 million minimum required on payroll required by the collective bargaining agreement. At today’s going rate for NHL superstars, it might cost almost $30 million just to pay Sakic, Roy and Forsberg in their primes.
When chronic concussion problems shelved Peter Mueller, rather than searching for a way to shore up the power play, Colorado decides the answers must come from within the organization.
There are no guarantees this edition of the Avalanche is a playoff team. When the meanest guy on defense is 39-year-old Foote, who skated from a lineup of the ’96 champions to be with his young teammates before the puck was dropped against Chicago, you know this rebuilding project has a way to go.
When the Blackhawks scored a power-play goal to tie the score midway through the third period, a cheer echoed in an arena painted with the red of too many hockey fans wearing Chicago sweaters.
The Avs must know this is true: Nostalgia is a cheap way to forget things aren’t so hot these days.
But nostalgia can’t pay the bills all season long.
Will people pay good money to watch Duchene grow up?
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
