I kept hearing the voice, like something out of “Field of Dreams,” but this wasn’t a mystifying whisper from the heavens; it was a miscreant scream from a saucy and surly blond.
Each time the Minnesota Wild smacked around Colorado in Thursday’s opener, I heard the voice of wild Wild fan Alyssa “Snowflake” Nelson. She earned Internet fame when cameras caught her slapping the plexiglass during a playoffs kerfuffle and screaming: “Whoop his (expletive), Charlie!”
Thursday, man, the Avs were whooped.
Charlie Coyle and the rest of the Wild made the defending Central Division champs look like a junior-varsity squad scrimmaging the varsity.
Look, the NHL isn’t the NFL, in which starting 0-2 means looming doom. But after losing 5-0 at Minnesota, Colorado’s home opener Saturday, against the very same Wild, has more meaning than it normally might — it’s about as important as an October game can be.
The Avs set a tone for their historic campaign in last season’s opener, whooping the Anaheim Ducks as coach Patrick Roy . In a sport that is as psychological as it is physical, the Avs need to show well at home Saturday against the team that beat them in the playoffs — then beat them up Thursday. The Avs would be in a lot more trouble than just being 0-2, especially after an uninspiring preseason.
“We can’t just show up, put on the gear, go out and we’re (automatically) going to be a good team,” Colorado star Matt Duchene said Friday. “We have to put the work in. We got to do what we did last year — we came to every game with enthusiasm and hard work and excitement. Last night, we almost seemed tentative. … A lot of us didn’t want the puck.”
The Matt Cooke stuff lingered — and it still lingers. Fight the guy, not just to seek revenge on his dirty play in the playoffs, but to also simply get it over with and off their minds. Throw a haymaker during the anthem, for all I care, “Slap Shot”-style.
Coach Roy has proven he’s a good shrink when his team is shrinking. He’s going to tinker with the top lines, moving Jarome Iginla on a line with Ryan O’Reilly and Duchene at center — as one media member joked Friday, after a ghastly ghost performance by Iginla the night before, “I’m excited to watch Jarome play his first game with the Avs on Saturday.”
And to me, the most reassuring news came from the captain. Asked about the flight home from Minnesota, yet another flight from there after a loss, Gabe Landeskog said the vibe wasn’t that of blaming and shaming.
“Guys were talking on the plane, chitchatting about what really happened and what are we going to do to get better,” he said. “So, really, a lot of good feedback from the guys, and we were really having some good discussions on the plane and this morning in the gym, and I think that’s important.”
Friday, Avs veteran Alex Tanguay said of the 5-0 loss, “It can’t get much worse than that.”
Goalie Semyon Varlamov, he of the upside down , made saves to keep the onslaught in single digits. But a season can start to unravel fast — and here’s wondering what the plane ride would be like after a Saturday loss, as the Avs head to face the beasts of the East in Boston, the first of four consecutive road opponents.
There should be thousands of “Snowflakes” of all shapes and sizes Saturday at the Pepsi Center. On ice, we’ll see if the snowflakes in burgundy can become an avalanche, once again.
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or twitter.com/hochman
