Where were you glory days

[McMetal]

I was 11 in '96, I stayed up late to watch the triple OT game with my dad. It inspired me to put on skates and play. Been a lifelong hockey fan since.

I remember watching the game in '01 too, also with my dad.

 

[Nalens Oga]

They're temporarily in hibernation.

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

So I started playing in 1976 and was a Colorado Rockies and Montreal Canadiens fan (Barry Beck and Guy Lafleur are still my heroes). In November 1979 I switched my allegiances from the Habs to the Nordiques after seeing them play the Rangers on USA Network because I dug the Nordiques unis, and the Habs were getting old/boring after winning four straight Cups. This franchise has been the one I have supported since about a month after they entered the league in 1979. If you grew up playing hockey in Arvada in the 80s you most likely know me from my Nordiques practice jerseys (purchased from The Puck Hut on 80th and Sheridan, and Sportline in Arvada), and Starter jacket that I always wore (bought with paper route earnings). Here are my highlights:

September 1988: The Nordiques played Wayne Gretzky and the Kings in a pre-season game at McNichols arena, which was my first time seeing the team live. I believe it ended in a 3-3 tie. Gretzky missed on a BS penalty shot.

May 1995: I had graduated college in December of 1994 and was considering moving to California. Then one-day the front page of the Rocky Mountain News mentions the Nordiques are moving to Denver. Yeah, I wasn't moving.

July 1995: I was an Assistant Coach for a Squirt team in Arvada, and the new unnamed NHL team was having a Break the Ice Party at McNichols Arena, and people who were active in local hockey associations were given tickets to the event that was mostly attended by Corporate sponsors. I got to meet and converse with Joe Sakic and Adam Foote, as well as with Wendel Clark and Steven Finn, who were traded before the season started. I think I was the only person at the event who knew who these players were.

Opening night - what a game! 3-2 Avs. Valeri Kamensky was awesome. Walking in to the game I was stopped by a Rocky Mountain News reporter to ask what I thought of the new team (I was wearing my Nordiques jersey, Avs jerseys weren't being sold yet, so I assume I stood out), and my quote was in the article next day.

1996 playoffs - I was a season ticket holder first five-years until my tix tripled in price, so I was at all home games of that Cup run. Best sporting experience of my life, bar none, especially game 6 against Detroit. In game 4 against Fla I didn't start drinking at my buddy's houseuntil the 3rd period, because I didn't want to be bombed when we won. Nobody told me it would go 3-OTs. I was bombed when we won.

2001 Cup - One of my best buddies, and a fellow hockey player got married during game 7 against the Devils!!!! He should have known a year in advance we'd be playing game 7 on this date! He had a big screen brought in for the reception so we could watch the game. I don't think his wife has ever forgiven him for the distraction from their wedding festivities.

As a very long-time fan of this franchise I can tell you we have been in a worse situation than we are now (but not much), back in the late 80s. Things will start to come together again soon. Be more hopeful, and less negative. They'll get there.

PS - Oops, just realized I went WAYYYY beyond the initial theme with this book I've written. Whoops!

Great post! I don't post here because I'm a Sabres fan 1st and foremost but I gotta add my story.

Have played hockey my entire life. Used to attend Sabres games in the 70's. Big French Connection fan. Also followed Montreal and Chicago.

1992 - 95 I'm also coaching my kids hockey teams at Littleton. I hear about the decision to move the Nordiques to Denver. I head to McNichols to get in line for season tickets. Honestly, I am in the 1st 20 people who signed up. Later I learn that Nuggets and Grizzly ticket holders get preference. BY the time I receive my priority number I'm in the upper bowl at McNichols halfway up but on the blue facing the benches. $25 seats!! I could have afforded more but all the lower bowl's all taken already. How the Hell did that happen when I was one of the 1st guys in line. Grrrr....

I was on my way to the Break the Ice party party with my sons in our van when it broke down of Santa Fe heading into town. Missed the entire event but I was on the local news featured as the nameless jerk who bottled up traffic on Santa Fe during rush hour. Overhead video and all!

Remember that the as yet unnamed Avs wore these cheesy white jersey's with Colorado Hockey heat pressed on them. Wendell Clark was one of the stars mentioned and he never played a game for the Avs!

The Trade!! - December 1995 - Roy and Keane to Colorado for Thibault, Rucinsky and Kovalenko. The local hockey community went nuts!! So one sided! (Remember this when Duchene finally exits. I'm sure Sakic remembers it well.) Roy puts his kids in youth hockey at Littleton. My son is a squirt goalie and gets demoted to the B team! Roy goes to Incredible Universe.... nobody knows who he is.... and buys out the store!

1996 - Season Ticket holder - Agree that the series against Chicago and Detroit were better than the finals. McNichols inside and the parking lot after final Detroit game (where Lemieux smashes Draper's face and starts the whole rivalry) was the loudest I've ever heard. We just screamed our heads off it felt soooo good! I was going to a management boot camp back in Virginia during the SC playoffs. One TV in the whole facility. I watched so many OT games that ended at 12, 1 and almost to 2:00 am local time. So many Sakic game winners! Then up a 6:00 am for morning PT! Game 4 against Florida was yet another marathon! But I missed the parade being out of town. That was pretty epic too. 1st major sports championship for Denver. The BRonco's will never take that away from the Avs!

Skip to 2001 - **** I was there! The Cup was so polished I remember it reflecting the overhead lights and blinding you momentarily. Saw the Stanley Cup awarded to Joe who passed it to Ray. Good times.

I gave my seats up in 2005(? year following the lockout?). Until the lockout Avs tickets were the hottest item in town. After the lockout, I had a hard time selling the games I wasn't interested in. Now, I barely watch them on TV and you couldn't drag me into the arena to watch a game unless they are playing the Sabres. How times have changed!

 

[madman]

Great post! I don't post here because I'm a Sabres fan 1st and foremost but I gotta add my story.

Have played hockey my entire life. Used to attend Sabres games in the 70's. Big French Connection fan. Also followed Montreal and Chicago.

1992 - 95 I'm also coaching my kids hockey teams at Littleton. I hear about the decision to move the Nordiques to Denver. I head to McNichols to get in line for season tickets. Honestly, I am in the 1st 20 people who signed up. Later I learn that Nuggets and Grizzly ticket holders get preference. BY the time I receive my priority number I'm in the upper bowl at McNichols halfway up but on the blue facing the benches. $25 seats!! I could have afforded more but all the lower bowl's all taken already. How the Hell did that happen when I was one of the 1st guys in line. Grrrr....

I was on my way to the Break the Ice party party with my sons in our van when it broke down of Santa Fe heading into town. Missed the entire event but I was on the local news featured as the nameless jerk who bottled up traffic on Santa Fe during rush hour. Overhead video and all!

Remember that the as yet unnamed Avs wore these cheesy white jersey's with Colorado Hockey heat pressed on them. Wendell Clark was one of the stars mentioned and he never played a game for the Avs!

The Trade!! - December 1995 - Roy and Keane to Colorado for Thibault, Rucinsky and Kovalenko. The local hockey community went nuts!! So one sided! (Remember this when Duchene finally exits. I'm sure Sakic remembers it well.) Roy puts his kids in youth hockey at Littleton. My son is a squirt goalie and gets demoted to the B team! Roy goes to Incredible Universe.... nobody knows who he is.... and buys out the store!

1996 - Season Ticket holder - Agree that the series against Chicago and Detroit were better than the finals. McNichols inside and the parking lot after final Detroit game (where Lemieux smashes Draper's face and starts the whole rivalry) was the loudest I've ever heard. We just screamed our heads off it felt soooo good! I was going to a management boot camp back in Virginia during the SC playoffs. One TV in the whole facility. I watched so many OT games that ended at 12, 1 and almost to 2:00 am local time. So many Sakic game winners! Then up a 6:00 am for morning PT! Game 4 against Florida was yet another marathon! But I missed the parade being out of town. That was pretty epic too. 1st major sports championship for Denver. The BRonco's will never take that away from the Avs!

Skip to 2001 - **** I was there! The Cup was so polished I remember it reflecting the overhead lights and blinding you momentarily. Saw the Stanley Cup awarded to Joe who passed it to Ray. Good times.

I gave my seats up in 2005(? year following the lockout?). Until the lockout Avs tickets were the hottest item in town. After the lockout, I had a hard time selling the games I wasn't interested in. Now, I barely watch them on TV and you couldn't drag me into the arena to watch a game unless they are playing the Sabres. How times have changed!

Coach, this is a great post. Seriously, every season ticket rep/social media dope/fan engagement intern needs to read stories like this. I hope this team gives you a reason to come back someday. Do you still coach for the Hawks?

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

Coach, this is a great post. Seriously, every season ticket rep/social media dope/fan engagement intern needs to read stories like this. I hope this team gives you a reason to come back someday. Do you still coach for the Hawks?

I'm not coaching a team this season but I'm still on the active list. I coached the last 4 years at (stepping backwards) Midget Minor AA, Midget Minor A, Bantam B and Peewee A. Also Asst coached Chatfield HS Varsity 2 of those seasons.

 

[burgundynblue]

Only started following hockey with the 98/99 all-star game. Back then NHL was not televised in Latvia except you could have gotten to watch an ASG and playoff games where Latvian players were involved. Avs got my attention having Ozo on the roster. Biggest memory for the next two years was falling short twice to the Stars, those were some intense series.
00/01 playoffs I only had a chance to watch it starting with the series against the Devils and was closely following ever since. I was 16 back then, still at school.

 

[Xokkeu]

Grew up in Alaska but from Wyoming. The Canucks were weirdly banned from being broadcast in Alaska or America and there was no team anywhere close. I watched every hockey game on espn 2 as a kid didn't matter the game or opponents. Lots of red wings flyers and rangers games. Well when the Nordiques moved to Colorado I automatically had a team due to the family connection. I already was a Rockies fan. Just so happens that the Avs were freaking good and were on espn all the time so being a fan of them was incredibly easy. I even remember at 17 taking grandpas truck and busting my cousin out of school to drive down for a playoff game. My uncle wasn't even mad at us he just said "how'd you get tickets!?"

Could only watch like 15 or so regular season games a year on basic cable but damn if it wasn't appointment viewing. And I watched nhl2night with buccigross and melrose every night lol.

Thankfully moved abroad when the Avs went to **** and well before the advent of global broadband internet so wasn't force to suffer as much.

 

[The Kingslayer]

96' cup

So much fun. Have most of the run on vhs and downloaded a few games since. Sakic was on God mode all the playoffs but in particular against the Canucks...much like in 01.

Brawl in hockeytown

I just remembered how disappointed I was when Pepsi turtled. I heard it from Wings fans at school for a few months.

01 cup

Unlike the previous years where I wasn't confident we would win it all...in 2001 I was so sure that I recorded the entire run. Every televised game on CBC except game 1 vs the blues. I went ape when Roy coughed up the puck in game 4 I nearly cried and when Sykora scored the go ahead I turned it off. The greatest goaltending performance I seen was in game 6 period 1. The Devils did everything but score and Foote scores from the blue line lol

 

[NickTheToaster]

In 1996, my parents hadn't met, and in 2001, I wasn't born yet.

 

[UncleRisto]

In 1996, my parents hadn't met, and in 2001, I wasn't born yet.

This is my favorite post in the thread by a landslide just for how old it'll make the oldies feel.

 

[Pokecheque]

In 1996 I had just finished a fun, but ultimately useless freshman year in college. Because I was in Alamosa, Colorado for most of the season I really didn't get to see many games, but I was there to watch the playoffs and was over at a friend's house to see Game 4. It was an awesome moment. I was transitioning from my Bruins fandom, I always laughed when the random bandwagoner would yell at me for wearing a B's jersey in public. I was a B's fan mainly because of Ray Bourque BTW.

Anyhow, the downtown celebration was kinda nuts. Saw a guy snatch a girl's purse and run off, he was caught by a random guy maybe 30 yards away and on the ground when girl's boyfriend ran up and kicked him, another random guy then punched the boyfriend, sending him flying into a nearby car. My friends and I quickly removed ourselves from the situation after that. Thankfully that was the worst thing I witnessed. It was mostly people walking through the streets in jubilation.

Side note: One year removed from the Cup win and meathead football fans were calling into radio talk shows to proudly proclaim that this was a football town and the Broncos were gonna show everyone, including the Avs and their fans, what was up. The Broncos' opponents in the playoffs that year? The Jacksonville Jaguars. That stung me as hard as any other Broncos fan but I still get a small bit of satisfaction based on that. I've never quite understood that mentality to be honest.

Anyhow, saw the '01 Cup win at another friend's house. Can't remember what we did afterwards but it was awesome seeing my two favorite sports heroes of all time (Elway and Bourque) get their respective championships before time ran out. It really changed me as a fan...before I got WAY too involved and let it affect me too much. I was that kind of fan. But now I watch and yes, sometimes still yell/throw things at the screen, but if it gets too unsightly I just turn it off. I pretty much stopped watching hockey after December. It was just too much.

Since others are posting about their own playing exploits, I may as well weigh in. I started playing at North Jeffco Ice Arena for the AHA (black and gold are still to this day my fave color combo for uniforms) at the age of 5 (circa 1982) and played until 16 when a benign cyst in my spine and subsequent surgery forced me out. I was really bummed about it since I felt I was playing my best hockey at the time for the Midget B team. We only had 3 defensemen on the roster so I was logging a TON of minutes, and loved it.

Anyway, went into assistant coaching for about a season but stopped because some hockey parents are insufferable ****heads, and I just couldn't hang. Maybe someday I'll try again, but given that it sounds like sports parents have gotten even worse over time, I'm in no hurry. Also played some outdoor roller league when I was still in Colorado up in Boulder...good times.

 

[Xokkeu]

In 1996 I had just finished a fun, but ultimately useless freshman year in college. Because I was in Alamosa, Colorado for most of the season I really didn't get to see many games, but I was there to watch the playoffs and was over at a friend's house to see Game 4. It was an awesome moment. I was transitioning from my Bruins fandom, I always laughed when the random bandwagoner would yell at me for wearing a B's jersey in public. I was a B's fan mainly because of Ray Bourque BTW.

Anyhow, the downtown celebration was kinda nuts. Saw a guy snatch a girl's purse and run off, he was caught by a random guy maybe 30 yards away and on the ground when girl's boyfriend ran up and kicked him, another random guy then punched the boyfriend, sending him flying into a nearby car. My friends and I quickly removed ourselves from the situation after that. Thankfully that was the worst thing I witnessed. It was mostly people walking through the streets in jubilation.

Side note: One year removed from the Cup win and meathead football fans were calling into radio talk shows to proudly proclaim that this was a football town and the Broncos were gonna show everyone, including the Avs and their fans, what was up. The Broncos' opponents in the playoffs that year? The Jacksonville Jaguars. That stung me as hard as any other Broncos fan but I still get a small bit of satisfaction based on that. I've never quite understood that mentality to be honest.

Anyhow, saw the '01 Cup win at another friend's house. Can't remember what we did afterwards but it was awesome seeing my two favorite sports heroes of all time (Elway and Bourque) get their respective championships before time ran out. It really changed me as a fan...before I got WAY too involved and let it affect me too much. I was that kind of fan. But now I watch and yes, sometimes still yell/throw things at the screen, but if it gets too unsightly I just turn it off. I pretty much stopped watching hockey after December. It was just too much.

Since others are posting about their own playing exploits, I may as well weigh in. I started playing at North Jeffco Ice Arena for the AHA (black and gold are still to this day my fave color combo for uniforms) at the age of 5 (circa 1982) and played until 16 when a benign cyst in my spine and subsequent surgery forced me out. I was really bummed about it since I felt I was playing my best hockey at the time for the Midget B team. We only had 3 defensemen on the roster so I was logging a TON of minutes, and loved it.

Anyway, went into assistant coaching for about a season but stopped because some hockey parents are insufferable ****heads, and I just couldn't hang. Maybe someday I'll try again, but given that it sounds like sports parents have gotten even worse over time, I'm in no hurry. Also played some outdoor roller league when I was still in Colorado up in Boulder...good times.

I play with a bunch of the hockey parents Now in beer leagues and my god I don't know what it is that turns specifically hockey parents into monsters. I coached soccer at a multiple levels and the worst thing I encountered were parents who watched like one Manchester United game once, played FIFA and thought they were tactical experts.

Nobody slashes or hooks worse in pickup hockey than a guy who's kid plays for a travel team.

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

This is my favorite post in the thread by a landslide just for how old it'll make the oldies feel.

LoL!! The best part of your response is knowing that soon you too will get old and die. Just like everyone else. Enjoy life, treasure it, grab ever measure of thrill and excitement. When you end up looking back, you will have something you feel really good about!

And that's what matters in the end (That you mattered and made a difference!)

 

[Parker27]

This is my favorite post in the thread by a landslide just for how old it'll make the oldies feel.

Yes, but that is what makes this board so interesting to me. Trust me I am much more of a old school hockey guy then most on here but it still does not devalue everyone's opinion. I read all the other threads and get down because of all the in house fighting. It is awesome to read eveyones stories.

When my kids first started playing I took all my old gear out and my first son asked why there was so many holes and sowing on my old sweaters. Some of you will remember but growing up in Northern Montana we did not have many barns and I remember like yesterday when we would cross the boarder into Alberta they had glass on the boards. Our barn had chain link as the glass. trust me it did wonders on Jerseys. That makes me feel old not my age.

 

[Pokecheque]

I play with a bunch of the hockey parents Now in beer leagues and my god I don't know what it is that turns specifically hockey parents into monsters. I coached soccer at a multiple levels and the worst thing I encountered were parents who watched like one Manchester United game once, played FIFA and thought they were tactical experts.

Nobody slashes or hooks worse in pickup hockey than a guy who's kid plays for a travel team.

I was in charge of the defense. I had one kid who was reasonably talented and nice, but kind of a doofus (this was a Squirt BB team BTW, I was 16 or 17 at the time). Suddenly one game this kid starts running kids over after the whistle. I told him not to, he did it again. After lambasting him for playing like a moron (he was penalized both times) the message finally came through. Thankfully that never happened again but that kid never quite came around. After the season the father gives the head coach this nasty-as-all-hell letter (this was just a few years before email became a thing) and we learned he was telling his kid to start knocking people around. This is SQUIRT BB mind you, they're not supposed to start learning how to hit until Pee-Wee. Thankfully he was about the worst, but that doesn't exonerate the other dopes we had in the stands...so grateful that for the most part when I played my father and the parents of my teammates were really good, sensible people. My coaches had it easy.