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More like a Snowflake
Where have the real Colorado Avalanche gone?
(LOS ANGELES, CA) -- One of the definitions of the word
avalanche is, "a sudden great or overwhelming rush or
accumulation of something."
It's the feeling the opposition used to feel when they
took the ice against the Colorado version of the word.
Today, hard by the Rockies in Denver, that sense no
longer prevails in the high altitude.
For those that are happy the salary cap brought the NHL
parity, it came with a high price. As the Avalanche
stepped on the ice at Staples Center last Saturday
night, there was no juice in the building. The fact that
the home standing Kings are swimming along in mediocrity
certainly was a contributing factor for no electricity
being in the arena that night, but that's not the
primary reason. |
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The fact that the home standing Kings are swimming along in
mediocrity certainly was a contributing factor for no
electricity being in the arena that night, but that's not the
primary reason.The Kings' fans actually had an excuse; they
were really confused this night because they can't boo Rob
Blake anymore (well, they can but for different reasons) and
when Ian Laperriere fought Sean Avery early in the game, most
of the house cheered for the former King.
If you recall, Avery made disparaging remarks about French
Canadian players a couple of years ago and Laperriere had been
trying to engage Avery in a scrap since that day with Avery
refusing every advance until this night. When Avery got run
from the match for not tying his jersey down, the fans that
remembered Laperriere's character during the time he toiled in
Los Angeles (the polar opposite of Avery's behavior), showed
their appreciation and the player noted it.
"I was here for nine years. It's always fun to come back and
see familiar faces in the stands. It was special for me and it
always will be. It feels like home and people treat me well,"
Laperriere admitted. And therein lies the rub.
It's just not fun to hate the Avs anymore.
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I
remember the Kings bitter seven game playoff loss to
the Avalanche in 2001. The verbal jousting between
then-head coaches Andy Murray and Bob Hartley was
great melodrama; sadly, that is ancient history.
Colorado head man Joel Quenneville was current Kings
bench boss Marc Crawford's assistant in Colorado and
the two are still good friends; they probably went out
for a brew at the Ritz Carlton afterwards.
I'm sure the fans feel the same way in Detroit, where
the Red Wings have to concern themselves with the
likes of Nashville, San Jose and Anaheim. The great
rivalry with Colorado is dead because the arrogance
that accompanied the Avs into arenas when they were at
the top of the hockey mountain has evaporated into the
thin Denver air. |
It was fun to razz future Hall of Famer Patrick Roy, sometimes
you got him, most of the time he got you. Claude Lemieux will
be most remembered for the night he drove Kris Draper's face
into the boards and rearranged his visage, not for being the
clutch performer that won three Stanley Cups. Adam Foote was
rock solid and could always be counted on to block a key shot
when Roy was out of position. Peter Forsberg could never be
taken off his feet, until there was five minutes left in the
third period and then flop went Foppa and you lost courtesy of
a power play goal.
You could always count on resident genius GM Pierre Lacroix to
find one youngster each year to make the team more lethal,
like the clutch Chris Drury or smooth Alex Tanguay.
And now they're gone.
Give credit to Lacroix for being a very smart man. He saw the
Avs demise coming with the advent of the salary cap, stepping
away from the GM job and remaining the team president. It
gives him the right to whack the current GM Francois Giguere
when he isn't able to buy players at the trade deadline like
Lucky Pierre did back in the day.
They're desperately trying to stay out of the basement of the
NHL's Northwest Division and their long streak of sellouts at
the Pepsi Center came to an end this year. If they're
fortunate enough to slither into eighth place for the final
playoff spot in April, they're likely to face their
vanquishers of last year's playoff season, the Anaheim Ducks.
The title of that story is Four and Out.
Sure, Joe Sakic is still there and he still has some magic
left in his stick, but he was always the classy Captain Joe,
the one Colorado player even the haters admired. Milan Hedjuk
is a shadow of his former self and will never threaten the
fifty goal mark again.
Colorado still has a French-Canadian goaltender, but Jose
Theodore's greatest claim to fame is that he was seen partying
with Paris Hilton one night. Wowee!
Does John-Michael Liles scare anybody? No need to answer that.
As a parallel, the NFL always has higher ratings when the
Dallas Cowboys are good because more people hate "America's
Team" when they're winning, no one cares when they're
downtrodden.
With names like Vaananen, Laaksonen and Wolski on the backs of
their jerseys, you can see why the Avalanche doesn't make
opposing fans blood boil anymore.
They've become the Columbus Blue Jackets.
And we're all worse for it.
Dennis
Bernstein, the man behind SCORE! Media, is a columnist for
TheFourthPeriod.com and the Los Angeles Correspondent for The
Fourth Period Magazine.
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