If you haven’t already figured it out by now, the kids up in The Grading The Week offices can be a rather cynical lot. Like a lot of Coloradans, they trust dogs way more than they trust humans at this point. No agendas. Other than squirrels, no hate.
But every now and then, humanity finds a way to make those prunes beating inside our collective chests swell with pride.
Especially the humanity that showed up Wednesday night at Ball Arena for one of the most remarkable moments our crusty greybeards have ever seen.
Team GTW doesn’t like to kiss — and some of our crew haven’t been kissed in months — and tell, but our hockey correspondents had this exchange with a local television personality before Avalanche-Stars Game 3 as we watched Gabe Landeskog and Landy’s magic knees skate into history:
“Never seen anything like this,” they said.
“Really?” we replied.
“That much, just …joy. My hairs are standing up.”
Ours, too. Ours. Too.
Gabe Landeskog’s historic return — A
If your heart didn’t skip a beat at around 7:20 p.m. Wednesday on Chopper Circle, you might want to check and see if it’s still ticking.
Big, belated GTW props to the Avs for letting the Captain come out solo to start warm-ups, to let him have that dance under the Ball Arena spotlights to raise the roof and soothe the soul.
Landeskog was the best opening act to hit a Denver stage since Led Zeppelin warmed up the crowd for Vanilla Fudge at . Zep’s North American debut happened here, folks, and we’ve seen our share of ever since.
But Wednesday was easily the best time we’ve had with fans in burgundy and blue since that rally at Civic Center Park three long years ago. And even those cynics down the hall got a little misty-eyed when they saw Landy flipping pucks to his kids.
Bruce Brown’s Mile High love — B-plus
You can take Brucey B outta Denver, but you’ll never take the Denver outta Brucey B. GTW’s fave sixth man, ex-Nuggets champ and provocateur Bruce Brown, was back at Ball Arena for Game 2 of the Denver-Clippers series this past Monday. He even made a pit stop to hang with his old teammates in the home locker room. During the action, he told Altitude’s Katy Winge courtside that he’s never lost that lovin’ feeling for the Mile High City.
“I’m a free agent,” said Brown, who’ll hit the open market this offseason. “So if that opportunity (to return) presents itself, I’ll look over it. But we never know.”
Make it so, hoops gods. Make it so.
Rockies finding new ways to lose — F
Team GTW’s seen enough baseball to know that when things are bad all over, you plug one hole in the proverbial dike, another one’s inevitably going to spring a leak. Case in point? Your 2025 Rockies, who added to their ignominious 4-21 start to the season by dropping a 13th straight road contest, this one in Kansas City, to tie a franchise record for most consecutive defeats away from home.
The Rockies fired hitting coach “Bam Bam” Meulens after a historically flaccid April offensively late last week. The good news? From the 19th through the 26th, Colorado averaged 4.6 runs per game. Less good? They gave up an average of 5.9 over those seven tilts, posting a 1-6 record in the process. You know what they say: When it leaks, it pours.
The Rox’s new City Connect uniforms — F-minus
Excuse me, Mr. Monfort? Got a telegram here from a They want Preferably pressed. And fumigated.
