Opening Night: Victory!

Prior to the opening game of the 2010-2011 Colorado Avalanche season the 1996 Stanley Cup champion team was honored at the Pepsi Center. A video was shown recapping the highlights of the '96 win and then each member of the team was introduced one by one. The biggest applause, of course, went to Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy. A couple members of the team were unable to be present: Sandis Ozolinsh and Chris Simon are still playing in the Russian KHL and were not allowed to leave their teams, Craig Wolanin's father recently passed away and Scott Young's wife was due to give birth. Head coach Marc Crawford was present for the team dinner the previous night, but had to fly out to join his current club, the Dallas Stars for their opening game.

The atmosphere inside the Pepsi Center was awesome, the game was officially a sellout with capacity attendance of 18,0007. Despite the crowd featuring a lot of fans in Blackhawks jerseys, there were lots of cheers of "Let's Go Avs" and "Andy! Andy! Andy!" when Anderson made some good saves. The fans also did a lot of taunting Marty Turco. The players were also clearly excited to be back on the ice as they had some really excited goal celebrations when they scored.

The Avs got down 1-0 early in the first period, but they out-shot the 'Hawks and managed to tie the game up before heading to the intermission. The first goal of the season for the Avs came from Chris Stewart. In the second period, the Avs came out firing and got themselves to a 3-1 lead on goals from Matt Duchene and Paul Stastny. The 'Hawks added a goal in the second to make the score 3-2 Avs going into the third period. About midway through the third, the 'Hawks scored again to the game up. As time wound down the game, the Avs had a lot of chances late, but didn't score. Overtime came and the action went from end to end and the game ended when Paul Stastny added his second goal of the night, putting the puck in through Marty Turco.

From the pre-game ceremony to honor the 1996 Champion team (Denver's first professional sports championship) to the electric atmosphere in the Pepsi Center, a fan could not have asked for a much better start to the season. The Avs looked good and put a lot of shots on net, something they failed to do a lot last season and frequently in the preseason games. T.J. Galiardi looked good, with a couple of barely missed chances and Daniel Winnik looked like he fit right in with his new teammates. Craig Anderson was solid between the pipes and there was not a whole lot to complain about in the home opener. We can only hope to see more of the same from the Avs when they take on the Flyers in Philadelphia on Monday.

1996 Cup Team Reunion

Tonight is the night we've been waiting for. For nearly 6 months, we've been looking forward to when the Avs hit the ice again for the home opener. No more meaningless games, this is it. Tonight, Pepsi Center. Let's Go Avs!!!!!!!

That being said, the rest of this post will be pictures from last night's red carpet event at the Denver ChopHouse. The Avs current team and '96 Cup Team got together for a dinner celebration.















In order from top to bottom: The Chop House, Peter Mueller, Curtis Leschyshyn with Kyle Keefe, Paul Stastny and Patrick Roy, Patrick Roy and my autographed poster.

It's Almost Here!

We are now just over 48 hours away from NHL opening night! The Avs will be hosting the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks on October 7th as part of NHL opening night festivities. The Avs will be holding a reunion for the members of the 1996 Cup champion team which involves a dinner for the players on Wednesday night. Then prior to the game on Thursday, they will be doing a ceremony to honor the players.

The opening night action will be nationally televised on Versus (although I imagine the ceremony will not be aired since there will be a game on right before the Avs game). It has been 6 long months since we last saw the Avs play a game (give or take a week), so whether you are attending the game in person or just watching it on TV it will be good to see the boys in burgundy and blue back on the ice.

If the lines that were used during training camp and the Burgundy and White game hold true the top two lines should be Stastny-Stewart-Galiardi and Duchene-Hejduk-Jones (Jones in place of Peter Mueller who is out with a concussion...again). Milan Hejduk missed the end of the preseason with a back injury, but will hopefully be ready to go for opening night. Kyle Cumiskey missed training camp, but was back on the ice during the preseason.

The roster has been trimmed down to size with many players going back to their minor or junior teams. The open spot for the 7th defenseman has gone to Norwegian Jonas Holos. It will be interesting to see if Holos is on the ice for opening night in place of one of the other defensemen or whether he will be rotated into games occasionally. The two forwards who are still on the roster are Phillipe Dupuis (who played a few games for the Avs last year during injuries) and Mark Olver (who was drafted by the Avs in 2008). One of them may be cut eventually or else Peter Mueller will need to placed on the injured reserve to get the roster down to 23 players.