Hockey is Back

Oh look, hockey is back. After months of negotiation the NHL and its players have reached an agreement. The lockout, which cost the league nearly half the season and billions of dollars—Molson-Coors even reported a drop in sales as well—was chiefly about salary caps and limits on contract lengths.

Luckily for us a tentative deal was made on January 6^th, and players returned to reacquaint themselves with their teams and the first week of games occurred last week.

This included the Avs, whose situation may be particularly harsh; they are attempting to refine their young captain, the talented Gabriel Landeskog. With a young captain and a young team, a short season means less time to find their groove.

This translated into their first game this Saturday against the Minnesota Wild, proving that they didn’t quite shake all the cobwebs off. The game started with an early point for the Avs, with Hejduk making a good pass up front and John Mitchell spinning around to put the puck in. Before the end of the first period the Avalanche received two power plays, which they didn’t capitalize on, but they managed to have momentum by the break.

However, the Avalanche came back on their first night back in the Pepsi center. Beating the defending champions, the LA Kings 3-1. If that is any indication for what is to come the Avs definitely have the potential to go very far this short season.