100 Things Avalanche Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die (100 Things Sports Fans Should Know...) - Softcover

Dater, Adrian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1629371718 ISBN 13: 9781629371719

Verlag: Triumph Books, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

Most Colorado Avalanche fans have attended a game at the Pepsi Center, seen highlights of a young Joe Sakic, and were thrilled by the team's run to the Stanley Cup in its inaugural season in Denver. But only real fans know how many players have had their numbers retired or why the team's name isn't the Rocky Mountain Extreme. 100 Things Avalanche Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is the ultimate resource guide for true fans of Colorado hockey. Whether you're a die-hard fan from the days of Marc Crawford and Patrick Roy or a new supporter of Gabriel Landeskog and Matt Duchene, this book contains everything Avalanche fans should know, see, and do.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Adrian Dater covered the Colorado Avalanche for 20 years for The Denver Post, before moving on to become the lead NHL columnist of Bleacher Report. Dater, who started out at the Concord Monitor was also a lead NHL writer for Sports Illustrated from 2011-13. He is the author of seven books. He lives in Thornton, Colorado. Joe Sakic led the Colorado Avalanche to Stanley Cup titles in 1996 and 2001. The team's long-time captain won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1996, the Art Ross Trophy in 2001, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2012. His number was retired by the Avalanche in 2009. He is currently the team's executive vice president of hockey operations. He lives in Colorado

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

100 Things Avalanche Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

By Adrian Dater

Triumph Books LLC

Copyright © 2016 Adrian Dater
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-62937-171-9

CHAPTER 1

May 24, 1995: The NHL Returns to Denver

I still remember the phone call from Paul Jacobson, the media relations director for COMSAT Video Enterprises. It came at about 7:00 pm on May 24, 1995.

"The team is ours," Jacobson told me.

The team was the Quebec Nordiques, and it had just been sold to COMSAT, a company whose main business was the burgeoning advent of movies-on-demand, particularly in hotel rooms. COMSAT also owned the NBA's Denver Nuggets, and now they had another tenant to play at McNichols Sports Arena.

I knew this wouldn't be a pure scoop for my newspaper, the Denver Post. While I got the original (front-page!) scoop on February 18 that COMSAT had put in a $75 million offer for the Quebec Nordiques, the actual sale went down on the night of the 24. With no viable Internet then, you had to hold on to any breaking news until the paper went to press in the wee hours of the morning. Yes, kids, that's how things used to be done.

Jacobson said it was only fair that he also call reporter Curtis Eichelberger of the rival Rocky Mountain News, who had been my competitor on the story for the previous few months. I was a stringer for the Post, paid by the story (usually no more than $40, which is what I got for that front-page scoop in February), and Eichelberger was a full-time staffer at the News, but that was fine. I had a feeling I'd become a full-time staff writer myself soon, and thanks to the Post's sports editor, Mike Connelly, that's exactly what happened on June 6, 1995. Connelly could have hired some experienced NHL beat writer and just told a part-time, no-benefits kid like me "Sorry, but you're not ready yet," but to my everlasting gratitude, he gave me the shot.

For the next 19 years, I would cover the soon-to-be renamed Colorado Avalanche as the regular beat writer. More important, on May 24 the good citizens of Colorado got an NHL team again. The growing economy of Denver, the good geography of the state, and a league that had good momentum in the US all were big factors in the city getting a rare second chance at NHL hockey. From 1976 to 1982 the city had a team called the Colorado Rockies, but it was a tire fire from day one. Bad trades, bad draft picks, and short-pocketed ownership led to the sale of the team in 1982 to John J. McMullen, and a transfer to the New Jersey Meadowlands, where they were renamed the Devils.

One of the first quotes I got from an anonymous NHL executive (and I don't even remember who it was now) after the sale was, "Denver is going to get itself one hell of a team." That would prove to be an understatement.

The Colorado Avalanche was a juggernaut right away in the Mile High City. They (technically the Colorado Avalanche is an it, but this my book and I'm calling them a they from here on out, and wow, does that feel good) won the Stanley Cup their first season in town. They would go on to advance to the Western Conference Finals in five of the next six seasons, winning another Cup in 2001. They would win a division title in their first eight years in Denver and, combined with one in 1994 in Quebec, would establish a new NHL record.

The next 10 years didn't go as well. As of 2016 no Avs team had reached the conference finals in 14 years. The great players either retired or left because the team could no longer afford them. Despite several high first-round draft picks, the team missed the playoffs several times and saw steep drops in attendance after setting an NHL record with 487 straight sellouts.

The Avs are likely to have a stronghold on the people of Colorado for a long time, however. They were the first team to give the city and state a major pro sports championship. They had several Hall of Fame players, and there was rarely a hint of public scandal with anyone in the organization. They jump-started the passion for hockey in the state to the point that dozens of new youth leagues were formed and many new rinks built.

The following 99 chapters take a closer look at the people who made the Avalanche a special team, along with what made, and continues to make, the surrounding area a great place to live or visit. A lot of the book is written in the first person, which I hope you'll forgive me for doing. But I was there for it all, and I feel well qualified to tell their story in a more personal way.

I hope whoever tells the next 20 years of the Avs' story has as much fun as I did in the first 20.

CHAPTER 2

One Year, One Stanley Cup

The Quebec Nordiques played in the NHL for 23 years, without ever winning a Stanley Cup or even making it to a Cup Final. By the summer of 1996, the newly renamed Colorado Avalanche had played one season in Denver and won one Stanley Cup. Life isn't fair.

Quebec City is an astonishingly pretty place, founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain. Fortified walls, called ramparts, surround the city, remnants of the many battles it saw, including those from the American Revolution (the American Revolutionaries lost the battle, which is why the city stayed in the hands of British rule). The St. Lawrence River runs through it, and the city's name was derived from the Algonquin word Kebec, which means "Where the river narrows."

The sport of ice hockey was founded in nearby Montreal, with the first organized game being played in 1875. It quickly spread to Quebec City, where for more than a century a deep passion for the game was ingrained in most inhabitants.

By 1995, however, financially supporting an NHL team became a problem in Quebec City. There were plenty of people to fill the Colisee Pepsi arena but not enough fat-cat corporations to spend $100,000 a year or more on the newly created luxury boxes. So the Quebec Nordiques of 1994–95 became the Colorado Avalanche of 1995–96.

Pierre Lacroix, the general manager, remembered when he first stepped foot on Denver soil on June 1, 1995. The team still didn't have a new name, most everything from the Nordiques days was boxed up to the ceiling of the team's new workplace, McNichols Sports Arena, and players with children needed to be moved in by July because of new school registration deadlines.

Despite all the off-ice chaos that surrounds any franchise relocation, the Avalanche won a championship that first season. The team was already blessed with a solid roster, partially built through years of failure that resulted in high draft picks, and astute trades. One of the biggest and best, an incredible blockbuster that sent Eric Lindros to Philadelphia for several players and draft picks and $15 million in cash, would yield a Hall of Famer in a young Swede named Peter Forsberg.

Former Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut, a rotund, flamboyant throwback of a character, actually traded Lindros twice at the same time — once to the New York Rangers and once to the Flyers. An arbitrator named Larry Bertuzzi — the uncle of a kid named Todd who would later play a role in Avs history — had to sort out the mess, eventually deciding in favor of the Flyers.

The crippling economics of modern sport in a small market forced Aubut to sell the team for $75 million, with the final transaction coming in a San Francisco hotel conference room on May 24, 1995. Aubut's hand trembled as he signed the official deal, as he knew he would instantly be cast by many in his home city as as the villain who let the Nordiques leave town.

The Avs were...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Triumph Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1629371718
• ISBN 13: 9781629371719
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Triumph Books; https://www.triumphbooks.com; ; 814 North Franklin Street; CHICAGO; IL; 60610; USA
• Verantwortliche Person: eucomply OÜ; hello@eucompliancepartner.com; ; Pärnu mnt 139b-14; Tallinn; 11317; Estland