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Colorado Avalanche
Overall: 3
Northwest Division: 1
It
was hockey's version of the Gipper speech. During a melee in
the third period of an April 1 game in Detroit, Colorado
goaltender Patrick Roy dropped his gloves, skated down the
ice and commenced brawling with Red Wings goalie Chris
Osgood. Roy later
admitted that the rare fight between goalies was his desperate
attempt to shake the Avalanche from the lethargy that was
poisoning its season. Nice try. A month later Colorado
exited in the first round against Edmonton after blowing a
3-1 series lead.
"Sometimes there's a price to pay for a team that won the Stanley
Cup two years before," Roy says. "Guys aren't
hungry, and in this game you have to play with
passion."
Last season's failures led to a messy divorce between
Colorado G.M. Pierre Lacroix and coach Marc Crawford, who
left the team in May with a year remaining on his contract.
His replacement, Bob Hartley, has no previous NHL
experience as a coach or
player, but he worked for eight years in a paper mill, a
windshield plant and a car dealership before starting his
coaching career. He'll try to instill a blue-collar ethos
in the underachieving Avalanche. Says Hartley, "If we
get a reputation as the
hardest-working team in the NHL, we'll be
successful."
The Avalanche will continue to
run a fast-break style,
led by center
Peter
Forsberg, the best two-way player in the league. He'll need
more help from center Joe Sakic, who signed a mammoth
contract in
August 1997, then injured his left knee in the Olympics and
saw his scoring production drop for the second straight
year. The Avalanche is also counting on a rejuvenated Roy, who
comes off a poor performance in the
postseason, in which, he admits, he was fatigued. Motivated by
Colorado's playoff upset, Roy did serious weight training
for the first time in his career and
dropped 10 pounds over the summer. The three-time Vezina
Trophy winner should guide Colorado to another division
title, but to make a run at the Stanley Cup the Avalanche
must rediscover the chemistry of the '96 champs. "When
we lose this year, we can't
look around for excuses," Roy says. "Everybody on
this team needs to start looking in the
mirror."
—By Tim Crothers
Fast Fact
Last season Avalanche defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh scored
68.6% of his points on the power play, the highest
percentage by any NHL player who scored 40
or more
points.
Keys To Success
- Eric Messier or Wade Belak must step up to replace departed
defenseman Uwe Krupp, or general manager Pierre Lacroix will be
forced to make a deal.
- Goaltender Patrick Roy, who had a disappointing 1998
postseason, has to prove that at 33 his best years aren't behind him.
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