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Wednesday, 7 October, 1998
Avs still force to fear
Stanley Cup champions in 1996, first-round losers last season ... on the surface, there is little to dispute this club is not going forward.
This summer's loss of defenceman Uwe Krupp adds to this avalanche of a talent drain that on most clubs would leave a virtual wasteland of talent.
But in Colorado, the foundation remains solid, if not spectacular.
Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Patrick Roy, Sandis Ozolinsh ... no team may have a better core.
But it's the shell to that core that has undergone drastic change and a close examination of the Avs shows perhaps this is a Colorado team just momentarily sidetracked on their way back to top of the mountain.
GM Pierre Lacroix is under intense pressure now, having forced the departure of coach Marc Crawford in favor of AHL coach Bob Hartley.
We'll learn this year just how much Crawford was responsible for the Avs problems.
Lacroix's defence has been his moves have resulted in a deep pool of young talent to perpetuate the success of this franchise.
But with the Avs moving into their new Arena, the Pepsi Centre, it may be too late for him to rely on hockey's version of the Cola War's Next Generation.
"I feel the same pressure," Lacroix said.
"Like I always said, when you're a professional, you want to do your best and you build your own pressure. There's nothing different this year."
The Avalanche finished the exhibition season 5-3-1, but the highlight was the performance of this Next Generation.
The Avs are carrying 24 players on the roster, including 18-year-old centre Alex Tanguay; and two 1995 draft choices who signed over the summer, centre Chris Drury and winger Milan Hejduk. All three scored five goals in the exhibition season, the team-high.
Drury and Hejduk were drafted three years ago and both have staked a claim to a spot on the opening day roster. But they represent just the tip of the young talent pool.
Lacroix's trades produced four first-round draft choices from this year, 18-year-olds Robyn Regehr, Martin Skoula and Tanguay and the fourth, rugged Scott Parker, 20.
The 5-ft. 11-in., 163-lb. Hejduk was on the gold-medal Czech Republic team in the Winter Olympics earlier this year.
Tanguay is the biggest surprise but when he finished the pre-season as the Avs leading scorer, he delayed, perhaps for good, his return to junior.
But it will be the veterans who will determine in large part how successful the Avs are in dethroning the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference.
Ozolinsh is still a holdout and a deal is nowhere in sight. The Avs, now without Krupp, desperately need him in the lineup.
And they need a rejuvenated Adam Deadmarsh, who went last year from one of the game's best power forwards to recognition as one of the game's over-rated players.
Deadmarsh reported to camp 10 lbs. lighter and determined to regain his form.
"I was starting to get some injuries last year," said Deadmarsh, who had 22 goals in 72 games for the Avs in 1997-98.
"I'd feel good some games and bad some games, and I figured if I could lose some of this fat, maybe I would feel better on a consistent basis. So that was my focus this summer."
But the big question is whether the coaching of Hartley can inspire a team that was widely regarded to have quit on Crawford.