What Sakic's Return mean to the Avalanche

On Wednesday at 1:15 P.M (Mountain Standard Time), the Colorado Avalanche announced the return of the only Captain they’ve ever known, Joe Sakic.

It’s reported that the 39 year old Sakic signed a one-year deal worth 6 million dollars.

That’s not a surprise since Sakic has only signed one-year deals in the past couple of seasons.

Sakic, who was pondering retirement this off-season, says he still has the itch to play in an attempt to win his third Stanley Cup.

“Ultimately it came down to the fact that I still enjoy playing and competing,” said Sakic. “I’m comfortable with my conditioning and my overall health. I’m ready to start camp and am looking forward to the upcoming season.”

His health has been the main concern, with him only playing 44 games last season due to injury. However, he has not been injury prone because in the last seven seasons, Sakic has played all 82 games four times and 81 games once.

But what does Sakic’s return mean to the team and the state of Hockey?

He has been the face of the Avalanche organization since the team was in Quebec and is going to have his number 19 in the rafters of the Pepsi Center in the near future.

He is also a great ambassador for the NHL, by showing young hockey players the right way to play the game. You don’t have to be a flashy player; you just need to lead by example.

That is why Sakic is an automatic Hall-of-Famer when he does decide to retire. However, his 1,363 career points, and 84 playoff goals also helps his case into the Hall-of-Fame.

Sakic’s leadership is incredible, especially when it comes to young players. Think of some of the players who have come into the NHL under Sakic’s guidance: Chris Drury, Alex Tanguay, Peter Forsberg, and now Paul Stastny, Wojtek Wolski and Marek Svatos.

That’s what makes him one of the best captains, if not thy best captain that the NHL has ever seen. That’s not a bad company to be in with the likes of Yzerman, Gretzky, and Lemieux.

With Sakic on the team, he makes every player better. He is one of those guys who passes first, shoots second, unless he’s given the opportunity to whip his wicked wrist shot top shelf.

He lets other players get the goals, unless the team is on a cold streak, then he will step up his game in an attempt to get Colorado the “W” every night.

Sakic’s achievements have been plentiful such as being captain of the Canadian Olympic team, winning a Gold Medal for the team in 2002, playing in 11 NHL All-Star Game, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1996, and the Hart Trophy in 2001.

However, his unselfishness is what he is most known for.

Such was the case in 2001 after the Avs won the Stanley Cup. He took the quick picture with Commissioner Bettman before lifting the cup and handing it over to Ray Bourque, an older player who played 22 seasons without feeling Lord Stanley’s smooth shine on his lips.

All levels of Avalanche fans know what Joe Sakic means to this team and to the city of Denver.

I think Avalanche Executive Vice President and General Manager Francois Giguere said it best though: “Having him return is great for our franchise and community, but also for the game of hockey.”

Important Colorado Avalanche Dates
September 20, Training Camp begins
September 22, Burgundy/White Game at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs
September 24, Preseason opener vs. Los Angeles
September 27, Preseason game vs. Los Angeles in Las Vegas
October 9, Season opener at home against Boston on Versus
December 15, @ Detroit (maybe we'll win one against them finally?)

Colorado Coach Dan Hawkins Addresses Outlook of the Team at Media Day

Dan Hawkins has always been one to throw down some crazy quotes. So on Thursday’s annual football media day, would coach Hawk give the media some more wacky quotes?

After his thirty-six minute press conference, it seemed that Hawkins’ only wacky quote was that the practices have moved from flag football to pads. However, he did answer many burning questions about the team.

The Schedule

The Buffs have one of the toughest schedules in the Big-12 facing teams like West Virginia, Florida State, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, and Texas A&M. According to Hawkins, he expects his team to be up to the challenge and be ready every day.

“I have said many times, I tell our guys ‘You know life asks to be your best every day, but our schedule demands it.’ I mean you better get after it and you better have you’re a game on every single day.”

Coach Hawkins also stated that his student athletes can’t take days off and need to be at their best. He continued to say that the team can’t celebrate or mourn to long, and needs to just move on and get better.

Darrell Scott

Speaking of celebrating, CU fans celebrated for months when the team landed freshman tailback, Darrell Scott. Everyone was wondering how Scott has been doing in camp and finally they would get a chance to find out.

“I think he is doing a really good job,” said Hawkins, “He is working with Coach Hagan to master the details. He’s fitting in well.”

Hawkins also stated that Scott, has amazing talent, but doesn’t want to rush him. Right now, they’re just making sure he knows “how to take a handoff.”

However, what’s amazed Hawkins the most about Scott is not his talent, but his character, even with all the expectations he’s facing.

“He’s a really good kid. He is a humble guy that has his feet on the ground. Everybody else has these feeling or aspirations about what he has to do, but all we are asking him to do is come in and embrace our culture, which is be a great person, graduate, and win a national championship.”

Who’s the new kicker?

In his two years in Boulder, Dan Hawkins has been gifted with amazing kickers in Mason Crosby and Kevin Eberhart. So what’s his reaction on who will follow in the footsteps of a few CU greats?

“We are not trying to put a whole lot of pressure on the place kickers. Once we get everyone together then we can chart them more accurately.”

Hawkins did say that they will eventually put the place kickers in “pressure packed situations” and see who emerges through those situations.

Cody Hawkins’ improvement

The Colorado coach didn’t say much about his sophomore quarterback, other than he has taken some major steps forward.

“I think he has a little more steam on the ball, and that will help him physically because you’re going to take some shots back there, and having a little bit more armor will help you. It helps your self-esteem either way.”

The CSU game

It seems like the Hawkins family will be focused when they play their first game of the season against Colorado State, but their in-state rival will cause the team from Boulder some problems.

“We don’t know what we’re going to see from them. It will be fun for you guys [the media] because there will be a whole lot of adjustments out there, kind of like a basketball game. They will have a lot of stuff on us, but we won’t have much on them. It will be a cat and mouse game.”

On Friday, it will mark 23 days until the season opener at Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver. Also on Friday, the team will return to practice and continue working in full pads

Broncos lose three players in a matter of 48 hours

This week hasn’t been the start that head coach Mike Shanahan was hoping for.

With the Broncos first preseason game just days away, Shanahan learned that his best wide receiver will be suspended, his veteran center will miss more time from knee surgery, and a rookie running back with high hopes in the organization, is injured.

Marshall suspended for at least two games

On Monday night, the NFL Network reported that Broncos wide receiver, Brandon Marshall, would be suspended for three games for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. On Tuesday, the league delivered the punishment.

At the moment, the third year wide out will be suspended for three games, but the sentence could be reduced to two games if Marshall goes to counseling and follows other conditions that NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, puts in place.

Marshall’s suspension was the cause of three arrests in a one year span since March 2007. However, the incident that caught commissioner Goodell’s eye was an arrest on domestic violence with his ex-girlfriend in Atlanta.

The Broncos wide receiver is expected in court next month for drunken driving, but the arrest had little effect on the commissioner’s decision.

Marshall’s playing time increased in his second year with the Broncos due to injuries to Rod Smith and Javon Walker. He led the team with 102 catches and 1,325 yards.

According to a statement made by Marshall on Wednesday, he is going to forget about the past and look ahead to the future.

“I am going to worry about the future and getting better on the field and in the community, and show my teammates that I am here every day, no matter what’s going on.”

Marshall’s suspension will cause him to miss divisional rivalry games against the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers, and maybe an NFC opponent in the New Orleans Saints.

His suspension won’t take effect until late August, meaning Marshall can still participate in all preseason practices and games.

5-time pro-bowler out for another 2 weeks

As Marshall was receiving his suspension on Tuesday, the Broncos got more bad news in their 15 year veteran center, Tom Nalen.

Nalen suffered from a torn bicep last season, causing him to miss 11 regular season games.

Though he has recovered from his bicep injury, Nalen had off-season surgery on his left knee, and has been recovering since. Denver was hoping he would get some time in training camp, but it now looks that he’ll be out for at least two more weeks and possibly until the season opener.

The 37-year old center’s recent MRI came back negative; giving Broncos fans a deep sigh of relief that Nalen won’t need more surgery for the time being.

Running back Torain out 6-8 weeks

The injury bug hit again on Wednesday as rookie running back, Ryan Torain, fractured his elbow during morning drills, causing him to miss at least 6 weeks.

Torain was the third running back on the depth chart, but Coach Shanahan had high hopes for him to compete with Selvin Young and Andre Hall.

“It’s a big loss,” Shanahan told reporters on Wednesday, “He’s one of the most gifted running back I’ve been around for a long time. He is very similar to Terrell Davis when he came in.”

The 5th round pick out of Arizona State also underwent an MRI on Wednesday to check for ligament damage.

Torain had 1,229 yards during his senior season in Tempe, but could have had more if he didn’t suffer from a fractured toe.

The Broncos first preseason game is Saturday against the Houston Texans at 8 P.M (EST).

Peter Forsberg: The Love/Hate Relationship

Every off-season, it seems that the Swedish born Peter Forsberg is recovering from an injury. The second half of his career has been plagued by injuries, mostly to his legs. But even when he is not 100% (which is often) he makes opposing players shake in their skates.

Last season it looked like Foppa wasn’t going to play a single NHL game, due to him rehabbing an injury. But a few days after the announcement of not playing, he pulled a Brett Favre, signing with his old team, the Colorado Avalanche, for a one year deal worth one million dollars.

For many, the deal seemed like a bad decision by the Avalanche, but Peter the Great proved them wrong in only nine regular season games. In those games he finished with 14 points, helping the Avs make the postseason for the eleventh time in team history. Though he only had one goal in those games, his presence energized not just the locker room, but also the city of Denver.

His nickname, Peter the Great, is just the tip of Forsberg’s greatness. When he is completely healthy, he is the best player in the NHL, no doubt about it. Forsberg gives 110% every game, even when he’s not 100% healthy. However, that has also become his downfall, falling to injuries way too often, and forcing opposing players to cheap shot him in order to slow him up.
He didn’t even play every possible game for the Avalanche last season, because of another injury he suffered after starting a few games.

Forsberg hasn’t played a full season since the 1995-96 season, and hasn’t played more than 60 games since the 2002-03 season.

In my mind, there are only two teams in the world that Forsberg should ever play for: MoDo in Sweden, and the Colorado Avalanche. But in the new NHL, where the salary cap limits the amount teams can spend on players, it has been increasingly difficult to keep Forsberg, with the knowledge that he’ll miss a good portion of the season, if not most of it.

In the pre-lockout days, the Avs had no problem signing players like Forsberg, Sakic, Foote, Blake, and Hejduk to big contracts, but now, they’re having trouble signing Sakic to a deal.
Forsberg isn’t expected to play until December, due to the rehab of his leg injury, meaning teams are staying away until they feel he is ready to do heavy skating again.

So Peter the Great probably won’t sign with a team until November or December, similar to last season, when he didn’t sign until February. He may want to be with a team before then, but NHL organizations will likely see how their season is going, before taking a chance on one of Sweden’s best players.

So what will the Avalanche do with Peter Forsberg?

Clearly the Avs are focused on getting Joe Sakic back into a Colorado sweater by training camp, then Peter Forsberg. However, they would love to have both centers during the regular season. At the moment, Sakic is the more important player, due to his leadership and his long time play with the Franchise.

There’s no doubt that Peter Forsberg can still play hockey at a high level, but he needs to realize that he’s 35 years old and has been injury prone since he last won the Stanley Cup in 2001. He should finish his career with the franchise he started with, but will need to take a lower salary, to help Colorado be under the salary cap. If the Avalanche can get five good months out of him, it would be a win for both sides, but Foppa’s history has shown us that five months has been hard to come by.

Ten Burning Questions Entering the Colorado Buffaloes Football Season

Last Season, the Colorado Buffaloes Football team came out on fire starting 4-2, and looked like they would contend for the Big 12 North. But the team soon faded, finishing 6-6 overall, before losing a nail biter to Alabama in the Independence Bowl. This season the Buffs have 14 returning starters and 40 returning lettermen’s. Expectations are high at Buffalo camp not just to contend for the Big 12 North, but also the Big 12 Championship. This leads to the 10 burning questions for the CU Football team entering the 2008 regular season.

10) Will the Buffs take Eastern Washington as seriously as they did Montana State in 2006?
The Dan Hawkins era got off to a rough start in 2006, losing to Division I-AA (now the FCS: Football Championship Subdivision) Montana State Bobcats in the opening game of the season. Luckily for Hawkins and the Buffs, Michigan’s loss to Appalachian State last season all but erased the loss to the Bobcats from the minds of college football experts. This year, CU takes on the Eastern Washington Eagles, one of the top teams in the FCS, in week two of the season. Will Coach Hawkins learn from his mistakes or will another FCS team take another one from the big dogs?

9) Can Colorado beat a rebuilding Colorado State team?
There’s no doubt that every year, Colorado is a better team than Colorado State. They always play a much tougher schedule due to the fact that they’re in a much tougher conference. Now I’m not saying the Mountain West is a bad conference, believe me, I have respect for the West, but the competition isn’t the same as in the Big 12. With that said, every season the Buffs have trouble against their foes from Fort Collins. Take last year as an example. The Buffs were clearly the much better team, but CU kept the Rams in the game forcing Buff place kicker Kevin Eberhart to make a very difficult field goal in overtime to squeak past rival Colorado State. For the first time in a long time, Colorado State will be without Sonny Lubick as head coach. Enter former Ram, Steve Fairchild, fresh off an assistant coaching gig in Buffalo, will take the job under the headset for CSU. Will this be the year that the Buffs will take advantage of the Rams, or will Rams find a way to mess up CU’s season opener?

8) Will CU be able to compete in the Big 12 North with the likes of Missouri and Kansas?
The big surprise last year in the Big 12 was Missouri and Kansas? Usually, the Big 12 North’s only competition is Colorado and Nebraska, but now it looks like there’s some new sheriffs in town in the Tigers and Jayhawks. Last season the Buffs went 1-5 against teams from the North, however if you’re going to win one, might as well be against your archrival from Lincoln. Other than the Buffs two blowout losses to Kansas State and Missouri, CU barely lost to a very good Kansas team, 14-19, and lost by dumb penalties in the last seconds against Iowa State. Will CU be able to reclaim the prestige they had in the north, or will they struggle again against their north rivals?

7) How will the team fare on a Thursday night primetime game?
Last season, the Buffs big primetime game was against Florida State in the second week of the season. This year, CU will play Florida State, but that won’t be the big one. The big one will be Week 4 against West Virginia. The game will be on Thursday night on ESPN, which means the nations focus will be on Folsom Field and the Buffs. Last season against the Seminoles, the game was declared a “Blackout” by students, meaning everyone attending the game was to wear black. This season, the primetime game looks to become another “Blackout,” with the Buffs hoping for a different result. Last year’s game didn’t go well for the Buffaloes, but luckily Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles didn’t play great either. The Buffs Defense kept the game close, but they ended up still losing, 6 to 16. This season, the Mountaineers of West Virginia are the hot pick by College Football experts, putting more pressure on Dan Hawkins’ squad. How will the team react to nationwide attention, a packed house, an excellent opponent, and a primetime game?

6) Will Dan Hawkins be able to use some more of his “Homecoming Magic” to beat Texas?
Before last year’s homecoming game, people thought Dan Hawkins was nuts. Why would you schedule your homecoming game (a game you’re supposed to win), against #3 Oklahoma? Well after the Buffs thrilling victory over the Sooners, Dan Hawkins went from a nut to a genius. This year he’ll have his hands full as the Texas Longhorns roll in to Boulder to make sure what happened last year to Oklahoma, doesn’t happen to them. Will coach Hawk have enough “Homecoming Magic” left in the bag, or will he have to rely on another bag to tricks to pull out a win against the Longhorns?

5) Will Colorado’s new recruits make a huge impact?
You may be wondering why this is only 5th on my list. Well this question just doesn’t involve Darrell Scott, but the whole recruiting class. Let’s get it out of the way first though. Darrell Scott, the 6 foot, 204 lbs running back out of St. Bonaventure High School in California, is supposed to be the savior of Colorado Football. But what will his impact be on the team? Odds are fairly good that he’ll start if not back-up, but if he doesn’t come out to play in fall practice, don’t be surprised if you don’t see him on the field for the first couple of games. Now, if he does come out and compete, he may be the next Maurice Clarett, and we’ll be talking about CU going to a BCS game in a few months. However, Scott isn’t the only recruit that we should be keeping our eyes on. CU has a great Linebacker class coming in and it begins with the 6-2, 220 lbs Lynn Katoa and Colorado’s own, Jon Major. Other big recruits will include a few big guys on the offensive line in Colorado native Bryce Givens, and guard Max Tuioti-Mariner. In Tuioti-Mariner’s case, he’s coming off an ACL tear that caused him to miss his entire senior season. Will Scott be the savior that Colorado fans are hoping he’ll become? Will Major and Katoa become star Linebackers in their first year, and will Tuioti-Mariner be rusty after missing an entire season?

4) How will the no-huddle offense work during the regular season?
Colorado is one of a few teams in the Big-12 Conference that instituted a no-huddle offense during the offseason. The new plan was the talk of spring practice, and at the spring game, the team executed the offense very well. But now that it’s been a few months since the game, and the regular season is beginning in a month, can the team execute the no-huddle offense in a regular season game? Especially when they play other Big-12 schools who have the same scheme and know how to defend it?

3) Will Cody Hawkins become a more efficient passer?
Cody took a lot of heat early on, with people wondering if he only got the job because he was the coach’s son. But that soon changed as he proved he could be the quarterback at a big time university. However, his size is a disadvantage with him only being 5-11 and 190 lbs. But he makes his size count when he gets out of the pocket and runs away from defenders. Last season he had 22 touchdown passes, with many of them coming out of the pocket. However, Baby Hawk also had 17 Interceptions to go along with his 22 TD’s. If this sophomore quarterback can be more of a scholar of the game, and use his size to his advantage, he can definitely have a better touchdown to interception ratio this season, and possibly become a Heisman candidate by his senior year.

2) What will the Buffs Defense be like now that Dizon and Wheatley are no longer there?
The 2008 NFL Draft proved that CU had a great defense last season with linebacker Jordan Dizon, and cornerback Terrence Wheatley getting drafted in the early rounds. With Dizon and Wheatley not walking through the Folsom Field locker room this season, the team will need others to stand up and take the torch. One of them will be senior defensive tackle George Hypolite, who had six sacks last season. The Buffs may have to rely on underclassman to make their defense be a force to be reckoned with again. Luckily, their first tough matchup isn’t until week 4 against West Virginia.

1) Who will replace Hugh Charles at running back?
Colorado in recent years has been a run first, pass second team. The school has had some amazing running backs in its day with Chris Brown, Bobby Purify, Heisman Trophy winner, Rashaan Salaam and most recently, Hugh Charles. Last season Charles rushed for 1,058 yards, not bad for a player who was injured and had to split time. So who will be this year’s Charles? Well the easy answer would be Darrell Scott, but it looks like Dan Hawkins will start with experience in Demetrius Sumler, the back who split time with Charles last fall. But if Sumler falters or gets injured, then get ready Boulder for the Darrell Scott revolution, and Scott may never relinquish the starting role once he gets it. A name you may not have heard about, and could get some playing time would be Ray Polk. Polk is a freshman tail back from Arizona who earned All-American honors and had over 2,500 yards in his last two seasons in Scottsdale. So who will start at tailback for the Buffs come August 30th? It looks like Sumler, but don’t worry Boulderites, you’ll get to see Darrell Scott do his thing soon enough.