The beginning of spring brings us warm weather, Easter brunches, bottomless mimosas, and plenty of empty carbs. Spring also brings us the NBA Playoffs, The Masters, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and a Rockies team that is not yet mathematically eliminated. Unlike the Dallas Mavericks, I was interested in the final games of the NBA season this fine spring weekend. Unlike Bryson DeChambeau, I participated in all four rounds of The Masters. And unlike Jorge Masvidal, I finished the weekend on my feet, and ready for more – despite the bottomless mimosas. • Intrigue at The Masters usually begins... Read More

The final seconds were ticking down, the net was empty, and the Colorado Avalanche were just a puck-clear away from winning it all. Gabriel Landeskog was on the bench after crawling off the ice, Tampa Bay was on the attack with an extra skater, and Darcy Kuemper had been ridiculed all series for letting in soft goals. Moments like this are what sports are made of. Anxiety mixed with exhilaration plus torture. I couldn’t watch, and yet, I couldn’t look away. With sixteen seconds left, the Avs got a stop near the blue line as the puck slowly trickled down the ice. Cale Makar fought for the... Read More

The last time the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup – Britney was dating Justin, Beyonce was still a Destiny’s Child, and Joe Sakic wore skates to work each morning. Instead of a suit and tie. The year was 2001, and while society was busy dancing to songs downloaded off Napster, the current Avalanche squad was so young, that they were most likely going down for Nap Time. On Wednesday, the 2022 Colorado Avalanche will begin their quest to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup as they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 – but to describe how excruciatingly long the two-decade wait has been... Read More

Late in the third period, the outcome was obvious.  The Colorado Avalanche had just scored their seventh goal of the night and the Las Vegas Golden Knights had no answer.  The Avalanche faithful of more than 10,000 fans pounded on the glass and waved their white pom-poms.  The score was now 7-1 and the first game of the second round of the NHL playoffs was all but over.  The Knights had only one move left. Bring in the Goon Squad. The first line was pulled from the ice to make room for five Las Vegas mercenaries and their mission to make things ugly. The game finished with cheap shots, bloodied... Read More

After a year of isolation, I slowly entered the health club with a gym bag around my shoulder and a mask upon my face.  Regardless of the Peloton bike, exercise ball, and weight bench gathering dust in my living room, I was fully vaccinated, and it was time to get out. It felt like a Saturday, but in the aftermath of quarantine naming days, months, or even years remained a challenge.  The gym was quiet as I reintroduced myself to the various machines, worked out for about an hour, then headed to the jacuzzi to ease a few aches. The confusion began once exiting the locker room as a high school... Read More

As we take the empty champagne bottles to the recycling bin and begrudgingly grab our gym bags, deep inside we know the inevitable is just days, or weeks away.  The New Year’s Resolutions we have made to give up drinking, or finally get back in shape, just aren’t sustainable. The general problem is that we tend to make our goals too lofty.  We can renew our gym membership, but our five-days-a-week turns into much less than that, and by the time February comes around our New Year’s Resolution is just a faint memory.  Giving up alcohol seems plausible considering the new year generally begins... Read More

The story became obvious as I sat down to write.  The Colorado Avalanche would eliminate the top-seeded Calgary flames in five games, and my fingers began to type.  Thoughts of Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon, and Philipp Grubauer raced through my head.  Memories past were of Stanley Cups, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, and Ray Bourque.  I would be sure to throw in Patrick Roy’s legendary playoff quote once said in response to an opponent’s trash talk. “I didn’t hear him because my two Stanley Cup rings were stuffed in my ears.” It was undoubtedly the story, the headline, the news of... Read More

With a ferocious run at the end of the season, the Colorado Avalanche pulled off the impossible and grabbed the final spot in this year’s NHL playoffs.  I doubted them, I wrote them off, and in all honestly, I didn’t write about them at all.  The Nuggets battled Golden State for the top seed all season long, the Rockies filled LoDo with big money contracts and aspirations, and the Broncos, well, this is Bronco Country, which is always news.  But I’m not apologizing.  Instead, I’m embracing playoff hockey, still befuddled about that end-of-the-year finish while jumping on that bandwagon. ... Read More

One of the difficulties of trying to write a weekly Colorado sports article is focusing on the biggest story of the week, and timing it within the deadline provided.  Follow that up with the challenge of informing and entertaining the reader in 600 words or less, and the problem becomes compounded.  Within the last ten days the Colorado Rockies had a playoff series, the Denver Broncos played twice, the CU Buffs traveled to USC, the Colorado Avalanche were five games into the start of the hockey season, while the Denver Nuggets were just hours from their NBA opener. And that’s just Colorado! ... Read More

The excitement of the Avalanche players was contagious as the crowd erupted and the final horn sounded.  With a 5-2 victory over St. Louis in the last game of the regular season, Colorado secured the eighth and final playoff spot in what has been a remarkable turn-around season.  One could forgive the doubters for being skeptical as the Avalanche were coming off a last place, 48-point season in 2016-2017. But now that our Colorado boys have made the playoffs, is there room on that bandwagon for one more?  Even if I admit that Saturday night’s game was the only one I watched all season? It’s... Read More